The Virginia State Record for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna has been broken once again. The current standing record of a 708-pound bluefin tuna was caught on February 16, 3030, by Jake Hiles of Virginia Beach. This fish had broken the previous record of a 606-pound bluefin, which had been caught in April of 2007 by Jake’s friend Chase Robinson. Now the existing record has been dwarfed by an 832-pound monster of a tuna caught on January 10th by Mike Rogerson of Virginia Beach on the 58-foot sportfisher High Hopes, with Captain David Wright. After days of coming back to the dock at the Vigrina Beach Fishing Center empty-handed, the High Hopes finally had something take their ballyhoo.
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In only about 48ft of water, something blew up their bait right off the stern of the boat. This explosive start ended up turning into a 1.5-hour-long fight with a monster of a fish. Eventually, though, Mr Rogerson and Captain Wright managed to get the bluefin on the deck and were on their way back to the dock to get it weighed up. Calling ahead to their weighmaster to get a crane lined up to lift the behemoth out of the boat, it came out to 832.6 pounds, over 120 pounds heavier than the existing Virginia state record bluefin. This record fish had an overall length of 108 inches, a girth of 78 inches, and a fork length of 34 inches.
While this was the biggest bluefin caught out of Virginia Beach so far, this one isn’t the only record-breaking fish this month. Just a few days before, on the Just Right, angler Brandon Newsome had landed a 721-pound bluefin tuna. With the bluefins migrating through the area right now, the fish are there, just need a bit of luck to make it happen, according to the captain.
“Just lucky
, bite of a lifetime
” – Captain David Wright
Writer for AllOutdoor.com and OutdoorHub.com Lifelong angler that will fish for anything that swim, firearms enthusiast, and hunter. Instagram – mrfish49
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