Potential new 20-pound class record roosterfish
Jack Kautz of Lodi, California, may have shattered the 46-year-old International Game Fish Association 20-pound line-class record, which was set on June 15, 1966, according to a report today by Gary Graham, Baja editor on Bloodydecks.com. “Although unofficial until the line is tested and other catch details are verified, the 101-pound 2-ounce monster hooked at 9:30 am, Friday, June 22, 2012, could shatter the existing 85-pound, 13-ounce record caught by Willard Hanson in La Paz back in 1966,” Graham wrote. The all-tackle IGFA world record for roosterfish is 114 pounds.
Fishing aboard Ramon Almanza’s super panga, Los Amigos, Kautz caught his prize roughly 100 yards from the beach in front of the** Punta Arena lighthouse** along Baja’s East Cape on a trip that started out jigging for pargo with no luck, according to Graham. According to Kautz, who was trolling a live mullet with a Penn Power Stick and Penn Senator reel loaded with 20-pound monofilament line straight to the hook (no leader): “My live bait had only been in the water 30 seconds when the huge rooster inhaled it.” When the fish was landed approximately 40 minutes later, it was all the two men could do to hoist the rooster into the boat, according to Graham’s report.
