WORLD RECORD CATCH
"Aboard the Sweet Jody!"
Gag Grouper, 50 lb. 8 oz.,
IFGA Line Class Division
~ Louis Williams~

 World record catch aboard the Sweet Jody-  It happened in October, but took about 5 months to get certified.  

Here's the story...

MY WORLD RECORD CATCH

My world record catch started with a call from my son, who plays for the Carolina Panthers, telling me that he wouldn’t be playing that Sunday, & that I should go fishing…So I did!

I got all my gear together the night before. I had Back Country Blue Ande on my Garcia Mitchell 406 spinning reel. Onto that, I spliced a 3’ leader of 60# Blue Ande and then snelled on a #11 Mustad hook. My rod is a 7’ Heavy Action Penn Slammer.

It was October 26^th, 2003 and I headed out of the Destin Harbor into the Gulf of Mexico with Captain Cliff Cox on the Sweet Jody for an 8 hour trip.

Fishing was going great that day! We were in 165’ of water when I pulled a nice vermillion snapper out of the live well. I whispered a few encouraging words to my bait as I hooked it on my spinning rod. I even gave it a kiss for luck before tossing it about 40’ behind the boat.

I stuck the rod in a holder, grabbed my bottom rig & dropped it down…That’s when it happened…

I looked up to see my spinning rod bent over! I crammed my bottom rig into another rod holder to free up my hands. Geeze, the pressure on the spinning rod was so strong, I couldn’t get it out of the holder. Finally, I pulled the rod back and managed enough slack to get it out of the holder and into my gutbucket without losing the fish!

That fish made three strong runs. I was wondering what I had hooked into. Would it be a tuna, or maybe a cobia? Could it be a big mackeral, or a wahoo? I was only hoping my line would hold so I could find out !

With the rod held high, I just kept reeling and reeling. When we finally caught sight of it our mouths dropped open!

The Mates were ready. Wade Fleshman held the other Fishermen back while John Gilbert gaffed my trophy. Wade looked at me & said ‘I have to tell Cliff that you just caught a Golly Whopper!’.

In Destin, the Fishing Rodeo lasts the whole month of October. We got back to the weigh in and my 50 lb 8 oz Gag Grouper took 2^nd place in the Party boat Division, behind a 52 lb that had also been caught on the Sweet Jody. My Grouper had to hold for 5 more days until the end of the Rodeo, which it did! At the award ceremony I was presented a trophy and a rod & Penn reel. Winning in the Rodeo was great and another advantage was having the necessary documentation to apply for the world record.

I’m thrilled that I have a new World Record with the IGFA, in the line class division.

You know, I don’t usually talk to or kiss my bait…well, I never used to!