What a beast.
Recently, a group of anglers aboard the Destin, Florida based Flat Dangerous Viking boat were fishing near an aggregating device 68 miles offshore when their day went from good to should be historic.
Captain George Gill and his crew had already caught a few fish for the day, albeit smaller ones, when suddenly the water surrounding the craft began boiling and they immediately began throwing out their last four baits of the day as a school of monster bluefins went on a feeding frenzy.
The immediately hooked a huge tuna, but broke it off and shortly after they broke off another. A third hookset slipped out, but on their final bait, after making some tackle adjustments, they got an absolute monster to take the bait, stay hooked, and the fight was on.
They battled it for over five hours and weren’t able to get it on board until around 7pm. It took another two hours for them to get it back to the Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House docks, where it was offloaded and weighed officially.
The bluefin tuna was 110 inches long (9’2″) weighed an astounding 888 pounds, beating the standing state record by 61.5 pounds.
But, there’s a technicality on this one that will prevent it from being officially entered in the record books.
Turns out that state records only count when one person and one person only reel the fish in and the group aboard the Flat Dangerous took turns reeling the beast in.
Despite a dumb rule preventing the group from getting their names written in history, the group was extraordinarily happy with how the day turned out, and how could you not be? Real fishing enthusiasts will certainly remember this catch if state and Gulf of Mexico records come up in conversation and it just goes to show that there’s dumb rules all over the place.
I mean serious, is the record about the fish or the fisherman? I get there has to be some regulations on how it was caught, but if the correct tackle and methods are being used, how does a fish not qualify as the biggest one caught because a few people helped reel it in?
The way I see it, the state record fish is about the size of the fish first and foremost and they should revamp the rules to allow this one to count.
Congrats to these guys on the insane catch.
