An 877-pound bluefin tuna was caught off Oregon Inlet, N.C. on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries recently certified it as a new state record.
Retired Army Gen. Scott Chambers of Townsend, Delaware, reeled in the huge fish while fishing aboard Capt. Dennis Endee’s A-Salt Weapon out of Pirates Cove Marina in Manteo, N.C. Chambers battled the fish for 2 ½ hours on 130-pound test line with a Shimano 130 rod and reel. The fish measured nearly 9 ½ feet curved fork length (tracing the contour of the body from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail), and it had a girth of 79 inches.
Regulations dictate that trophy bluefin tuna longer than 73 inches must be released in the Atlantic south of Great Egg Inlet, N.J. after 11:30 p.m. on March 17, 2018. Chambers was hours from having to release his state record catch when it ate a trolled dead bait.
Coming in just under the wire, Chambers’ fish crushed the previous recreational state record by 72 pounds. That 805-pound fish was caught in 2011. The all-tackle world record was caught off Nova Scotia in 1979. It weighed 1,496 pounds.
Bluefin tuna much larger than this new state record are known to come from North Carolina waters. According to The Outer Banks Voice, a bluefin heavier than 1,000 pounds was caught this winter, but it was sold to a dealer and was not eligible for the record.