IGFA World Records, Pending and Rejected

Four great catches await approval as new world records by the IGFA; four more great catches were rejected as records — read why.
  • Updated: August 14, 2014
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A Record That Wasn’t

That’s a huge lingcod! It was big enough to qualify as a world record — but it didn’t. Why? You’ll get the whole story as you go through this gallery of four great pending-world-record catches followed by four more great catches that, for various reasons (as you’ll see), couldn’t be counted by the IGFA as new records. (These pending and rejected records appear in the July/August issue of Sport Fishing_. All photos provided courtesy IGFA._)
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PENDING ALL-TACKLE RECORD EASTERN RED SCORPIONFISH

Striking hues adorn this aptly named eastern red scorpionfish, Scorpaena cardinalis, caught by Scott Tinsdale of Auckland near Stevenson Island, New Zealand. Known locally as red rock cod, the 6-pound, 5-ounce bottomfish hit a chunk of barracuda.
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PENDING 4-POUND RECORD ATLANTIC SALMON

Trolling bait off Denmark this past April produced this pending-record 24-pound, 11-ounce, Atlantic salmon. Using 4-pound line, angler Gary Carter of Duluth, Georgia, fought the fish for 2 ¼ hours before guide Jan Svenstrup could boat it.
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PENDING 2-POUND TIPPET RECORD MAKO SHARK

Landing an 85½-pound mako shark on wispy 2-pound tippet, David Kahlenberg of New Zealand can claim a better-than 40-to-1 (fish-weight-to-line-strength) catch. While fishing Whale Island near the Bay of Plenty, the angler hooked the mako on a custom fly and managed to land it in only 17 minutes. If approved, this handily beats the current 2-pound-tippet record of 15 pounds, 1 ounce from Southern California.
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PENDING ALL-TACKLE LENGTH RECORD KAWAKAWA

Casting a Chrome Slug, Cassandra Murphy of Victoria, Australia, caught this 28.4-inch kawakawa off Bribie Island, Australia, a new all-tackle-length record. It was measured by the boat and released alive. The all-tackle-weight record for the species is held by a 29-pounder caught off Mexico’s Clarion Island in 1986.
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REJECTED MEN’S 16-POUND RECORD KINGFISH

The current men’s 16-pound line-class record for king mackerel is 71 pounds, 4 ounces, so when the scales showed this beauty — caught off Brazil — to weigh 74 pounds, 13 ounces, it must have seemed like a shoo-in for a new world record. But the angler used 16-pound braided line; braids are notorious for breaking much higher than their rated strength, and indeed, when tested, it broke at well over 30 pounds. (That bumped it into the 30-pound class, where the fish wasn’t heavy enough to take over the current record.)
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REJECTED WOMEN’S 130-POUND-CLASS PACIFIC BLUEFIN TUNA

This magnificent Pacific bluefin tuna, caught in August of last year off New Zealand, certainly had enough weight — at 579 pounds, 12 ounces — to easily beat the current women’s 130-pound-class record of 469 pounds, 9 ounces. However, the angler’s best-laid plans went awry when the IGFA measured her leader at 35 feet: IGFA rules clearly say a leader may not exceed 30 feet (for line classes of 20-pound and up).
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REJECTED FEMALE SMALL-FRY RECORD LINGCOD

This Alaska lingcod, at 33 pounds, 4 ounces, would have smashed the existing female small-fry record of 14½ pounds had the application been received at IGFA HQ a bit earlier. It was caught in July last year, but IGFA didn’t receive the application from teh angler until this past January; IGFA rules require submission within 60 days of a domestic catch (90 days if outside the United States).
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REJECTED WOMEN’S 6-POUND LINE-CLASS PACIFIC BLUEFIN TUNA

The angler who landed this 17-pound, 11-ounce Pacific bluefin off San Diego on 6-pound line now knows to immediately cut and save her entire leader and double line when a catch might be entered for record consideration. Alas, she didn’t do so after landing this, but kept on fishing, and later that day lost it all when her line broke.
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