This is a mighty big horse-eye jack Sharon Kartrude Pryel caught while fishing with Mystic Rose Charters and Capt. Mark Stoe out of Jupiter in June.
Sharon said the fish weighed 26 pounds, which would be good enough for a Florida state record if the paperwork submitted to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) passes muster. As far as we can tell, the largest Florida horse-eye jack on record weighed 25-pounds, 12-ounces. It was caught back in October of 1997 by David Leavitt, who was fishing out of Palm Beach.
The IGFA all-tackle world record weighed 32 pounds. It was caught in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas by Terry Lee Ramsey in September 2012.
Sharon said she caught the fish drifting a sardine on a 1-oz. weight over 130 feet of water. Horse-eyes aren’t really known as a great food fish, but they are edible, and like all jacks, they put up a heck of a fight when hooked. Sharon said Capt. Mark was impressed with her strength as she hauled the big fish up. She is a 6-foot-tall wallpaper hanger, which makes for a strong back. That jack didn’t stand a chance.
“It was awesome. I was so proud of myself,” Sharon said. “I seriously thought I had a shark. The rod was just bowed.”
Sharon is a native of West Palm Beach and a member of the online community www.meetup.com/NPBCFishingoutdoors. The group organizes charter trips each month, and she is excited about all that she is learning about fishing.