By CAM Staff via Danny Ireland. Photo courtesy Ireland
A 30-year-old Florida blue runner state record has officially fallen! An incredible 10.1-pound blue runner came within just 1.1 pounds of the IGFA world record, making this an unforgettable catch and a true piece of Florida fishing history.
On Friday, April 17, my buddy Brandon and his wife, Bobbie, called me around 10:30 p.m. to see if I wanted to go fishing with their family the following morning. They knew the trip I had planned for the weekend had fallen through, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Every time we fish together, we seem to catch something crazy and make great memories. I had no idea that this last-minute fishing trip would turn into one of the biggest catches of my life — and a new Florida state record for blue runner.
A Last-Minute Trip Turns Into Something Special
Our first spot didn’t produce much, so we headed over to a reef and started chumming. Brandon quickly got yellowtail snapper fired up, and he was hooking fish one after another.
After trying my girlfriend’s rod for mangrove snapper without much luck, I decided to rig up my old faithful: an 8-foot Shimano Teramar paired with a Penn Slammer 4500 DX. I tied on approximately 20 feet of 20-pound leader and a 1/0 hook, then began freelining a small piece of threadfin herring.
I tossed the bait to the left of the school of yellowtail. A couple of fish broke away from the school and came toward my bait.
Then, almost instantly, the bait disappeared from the surface.
The fish took off, ripping line and pulling hard. All I could see was blue. At first, I thought I might have hooked a mahi-mahi, but the way the fish was taking drag made it clear that this was something different.
The fish took me around the back of the boat and became tangled in several lines. We ended up having to cut some of them to keep the fight going.
At that point, we thought I might have an amberjack.
I was cupping the spool and tightening the drag, honestly trying to get the fish under control so I could get back to catching snapper.
Then we finally got a good look at the fish.
Brandon immediately yelled, “THAT’S A RECORD BLUE RUNNER! GET IT IN THE BOAT!”
Landing the Record Blue Runner
There was just one problem: the net broke.
With no other option, I grabbed the fish by the tail, got a death grip on it and pulled it into the boat.
We took some photos, celebrated the catch and then got right back to fishing. The rest of the day continued to produce, but there was one question we couldn’t get out of our heads:
How big was that blue runner?
As soon as we got back into cell service, I started researching the existing Florida blue runner state record and the world record.
We knew it was going to be close.
When we arrived back at the dock, a shrimper happened to be there with a scale. His scale showed the fish at approximately 10.5 pounds.
That was encouraging, but I wanted an official weight.
After spending two days on ice, I finally got the fish to a certified scale at a local Marina in Sarasota.
The official weight was:
10.1 pounds
The previous Florida blue runner state record was 8.5 pounds, meaning this fish beat the old record by 1.6 pounds.
The IGFA world record was 11.2 pounds, putting this incredible Florida blue runner just 1.1 pounds shy of the world record.
What started as a last-minute invitation to go fishing had turned into a place in the Florida fishing record books.
From Record Fish to Replica
I wanted to preserve the memory of the catch, so I had my local Taxidermy in Naples create a mold from the original fish.
I was initially told the replica would take four to six months, but incredibly, the finished fish was completed in just three weeks.
The final result came out amazing and gives me a permanent reminder of one of the most unexpected fishing trips of my life.
I’ve been fishing my entire life, but I never imagined I would break a fishing record — especially not on a last-minute trip that almost didn’t happen.
Sometimes the best fishing memories are the ones you never planned for.
And this one will definitely be hard to top.
A 10.1-pound blue runner, a new Florida state record, and a fish that came within 1.1 pounds of the world record — that’s a catch for the history books.
