Managing to hang on during the fight for over an hour really paid off for angler Audrey Ferrand, who may overtake the 91-pound giant trevally that holds the current 130-pound line-class record in the women's division. Audrey's beast tipped the scales at 105 pounds, 13 ounces, and was caught off the remote French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.SHARE
Hot off the press, here are some of the latest potential record catches pending approval from the International Gamefish Association. To kick it off, here’s junior angler Heather Michelle Harkavy of Coral Springs, Florida, with a 66-pound black drum she landed in the Indian River. This is not Harkavy’s first record entry, and she’s hoping this catch knocks off the current 63-pound, 6-ounce drum on the book in the female junior angler division. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.Fly fishing the South Bay in Texas last March, Bud Rowland hooked this black drum and fought it for about 20 minutes. With a weight of 59 pounds, 8 ounces, the catch stands to beat the current 57-pound, 8-ounce drum holding the lead in the men’s 12-pound fly tippet division. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.Managing to hang on during the fight for over an hour really paid off for angler Audrey Ferrand, who may overtake the 91-pound giant trevally that holds the current 130-pound line-class record in the women’s division. Audrey’s beast tipped the scales at 105 pounds, 13 ounces, and was caught off the remote French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.While fishing off Ft. Myers, Florida, angler Cheryl Legault of Ontario, Canada, landed this gray snapper, that weighed in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces. Legault was using a sardine on 20-pound line and bested the fish in three minutes. The current women’s IGFA line class record is 4 pounds, 11 ounces caught last year. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.Using a homemade lure on Donner Lake in California, young Kaitlyn Stout hooked into this lake trout last April. She fought for 15 minutes before boating the 30-pound laker. The current IGFA female smallfry record is 20 pounds, 10 ounces, set in July 2005 from Michigan’s Lake Superior. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.Now for something you don’t hear about everyday: the longface emperor. Japanese angler Satoshi Touchi landed this one in Amami-Oshima, Japan in March. The pending IGFA All-Tackle record fish weighed 22 pounds, 13 ounces, and took Touchi six minutes to beat. The current IGFA record is 20 pounds, 10 ounces, caught in the same waters two years ago. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.On another odd note, here Australian junior angler Jeremy Athan Siarakas holds a 2-pound, 15-ounce meagre he yanked from Sydney Harbor. The current IGFA male small fry record is vacant, so Jeremy is hoping to be the first to see his name listed for the species. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.Here’s an astonishing catch. With four-pound-test line, New Zealand angler Eryn Jacobsen managed to land this 209-pound, 6-ounce, striped marlin in March. For 40 minutes she finessed the billfish from the waters off the Three Kings Islands, the northernmost point of the North Island of New Zealand, where the South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet. The current women’s IGFA line class record is 142 pounds, 8 ounces oz caught in Panama’s Pinas Bay in 1991. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.Dr. Julie Ball took time on March 22, to wet a line off her hometown of Virginia Beach, landing a monster of a tautog – a.k.a. blackfish – that pinned the needle at 14 pounds, 13 ounces. Ball used a crab on 16-pound-test line to fool this big ‘tog. She may replace the IGFA women’s line class record for the species, which is currently 13 pounds, 11 ounces, caught in New York State in 1993. Courtesy of I.G.F.A.
Take a look at some recent catches currently pending record approval from the International Gamefish Association.
