If you live in Newport Beach California, and decided to take a vacation around the period of May 11- May 14, you might not want to read this.
An epic, three-day-long barracuda blitz between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach yielded an estimated 1,800 barracuda caught by 230 anglers. Of course any estimate is rough, but if anyone would know it would be JD at J.B.'s Big Game Tackle, a supplier based on Balboa Island, California.
And we're not talking about little barracuda here. Numerous pending world records were a result of the blitz. Six, to be exact.
Victoria Sabatino's 6-pound, 10-ounce cuda (pictured here) caught on 16-pound-test line is a pending world record. Her dad's 7-pound, 3-ounce fish caught on 4-pound-test line might be as well. One boat alone, the Disco Punk, hauled in four pending world record barracuda on the fly rod, using 8-, 12-, and 16-pound tippet. That's just two anglers, Captain Jimmy Decker and Pete Binaski.
Paul Hoofe's 7.77-pound barracuda on 2-pound-test is a pending world record as well. Apparently iron jigs in blue, white or chrome were all you needed for a shot at the record books.
We'll let you know as these records become official. But if ever there was a "shoulda-been-here" moment, this might be it.
-Rick Bach
This wasn't the biggest, but is this the meanest barracuda ever?
