IGFA Record Catches January 2011

Japanese angler Hideyuki Nemoto and guide Seiichiro Tashiro were jigging off Iki Island, when Nemoto hooked into this fish. After a grueling 40-minute fight, the angler and guide had successfully boated this new potential all-tackle and men’s 30-pound line class record greater amberjack. Nemoto’s AJ weighed in at a massive 156 pounds 13 ounces and was caught on a MC Works jig. The current IGFA record is 155 pounds 10 ounces.

Bluefin tuna
On July 11 of this past summer young small fry angler Jazmine Olivia Evans, of Melfa, Virginia, landed a 53-pound 6-ounce bluefin tuna. They were fishing out of Sams Hill, Virginia, trolling a Seawitch skirted ballyhoo when the bluefin hit her line. About 30 minutes later, Jazmine had the fish in the boat and a new potential female IGFA Smallfry record.

An enormous yellowfin tuna crashed the bait of young angler Keith Brandner of Tenafly, New Jersey, as he was fishing off Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, August 7. Guided by Hercules Marsella, Brander was free lining a live goggle eye when the 241-pound 4-ounce yellowfin hit. The youngster had a brutal 1 hour and 45 minute fight to boat the potential IGFA male Junior record fish.

Roundscale spearfish
Andres Fanjul of Palm Beach, Florida, landed a potential all-tackle roundscale spearfish on August 20, fishing the Baltimore Canyon, off Maryland. Captain Heaton II was trolling naked ballyhoo when the 70-pound spear came into the spread. Fanjul battled the fish to the boat 30 minutes later for a potential new IGFA all-tackle billfish record.

Junior angler Ted Carroll of Chatham, New Jersey, guided by Rick Carroll, landed a 60-pound 0 ounce striped bass on July 26, while fishing Fishers Island, Connecticut, USA. Carroll’s fish hit a live eel and it took him 10 minutes to land, qualifying Ted for the male junior record. The current IGFA record is 57 pounds 14 ounces made in 2008 from East Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada.

IGFA Representative Dr. Julie H. Ball of Virginia Beach, VA, has 11 world records to her credit and after a 100 minute fight on June 11, may have a 12th record after catching a 74-lb cobia. She made the local newspapers for her Chesapeake Bay, Virginia catch that qualifies her for the IGFA’s women’s 20-pound line class record. Guided by Rudy Levasseur, the cobia took a live eel that Julie was using for bait. The current IGFA record is 70 pounds 6 ounces from the Gulf of Mexico off Destin, Fla., in 1996.