Mangrove snapper world record

Many anglers dream about having a big fish accepted as a saltwater world record by the International Game Fish Association, headquartered in Dania Beach, Florida. Luckily, it happens regularly in the wide world of angling. IGFA has just released its latest listing of fortunate folks who have caught fish suitable to be recognized for their skills by the organization.

Mangrove (Gray) Snapper

Captain Ed Walker set another IGFA record for boating a heavyweight mangrove (gray) snapper that qualified as the longest in the All-Tackle Length Fly Records category for the species. The oversize fish measured 20.87 inches extended and was caught on February 22, 2022 off Tarpon Springs, Florida, which is where Walker guides from in his boat “Long Gone.”

Walker caught his snapper on a hand-tied “Murder Bunny” streamer fly, using a Sage fly rod and Abel reel with Cortland line. The fish was released unharmed, after creature officially measured and photographed when placed against a special IGFA measuring device.

Such devices are required by IGFA for fish to be recognized by the corporation for the comparatively new “length” world record division, says Zach Bellapigna, Angler Recognition Coor

Snapper Fishing Records (World and USA)

Snapper Fish World Records (All Tackle)

World records for some of the Snapper Species. Six of these were caught in the state of Florida and hold the state records for those fish.

Atlantic Cubera – The biggest of the species has a world record size of 56.59 kg (124 lb. 12 oz.) and was caught off Garden Bank, Louisiana on June 23, 2007 by Angler, Marion Rose.

Blackfin Snapper – The biggest Blackfin Snapper in the world was 3.86 kg (8 lb. 8 oz.) and caught off the last island in the Florida Keys, Key West, Florida on June 14th, 2011. The lucky Blackfin angler was Martini Arostegui.

Dog Snapper – The biggest Dog Snapper ever caught on record is the world record catch weighing 10.90 kg (24 lb. 0 oz.). This big fishcame from an area known as the Hole in the Wall, Abaco, Bahamas. The world record holder is Captain Wayne Barder who caught the fish on May 28, 1994.

Lane Snapper – The world record Lane Snapper was caught almost twenty years ago on August 25, 2001 by Stephen Wilson off the town of Horseshoe Rigs, Mississippi. The big fish was 3.72 kg (8 lb. 3 oz.).

Mangrove (Gray) Snapper – The world’s biggest Mangrove Snapper was

World Record Saltwater Fish (Complete Chart)

Abig thank you to the folks over at International Game Fish Association for compiling the data that helped build our World Record Saltwater Fish and World Record Freshwater Fish chart. If you are a fan of fishing, then you already love the challenge of finding fish, targeting them, and then vying to catch them.

The untold story of this article is very much the thrill of battling a monster fish only to find out it is the biggest fish of its kind ever caught, and it’s on the end of your rod. What has not been said is that any angler with a line in the water can break any of these saltwater fish records or freshwater fish records. So, if you are interested in adding your name to the list of record holders, you’d better get to fishing.

It’s a week since Tim Champagne said was his best-ever day on the water, and the 47-year-old from Lafayette still has a tough time believing it.

It was the day before the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo began, and while hundreds of boats were readying for the rodeo, Champagne was taking the only option he had, heading out with a group of his buddies to fish with veteran charter skipper André Boudreaux.

He knew it was then or never. Work in the oil field is like that. Take your best shot when you have the chance.

And the offshore trip out of Cocodrie started with the boat pulling up to a platform in Ship Shoal Block 222.

“We were in about 70 feet of water, a place where André knew we had a chance to load up on mangroves (snapper), and we were free-lining (live) croakers,” Champagne said. “We caught fish, then I cast near the (platform’s) boat bumper and a mangrove hit.

“He gave me a pretty good fight.”

Champagne didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary. Mangroves are brutes, strike hard and can strain tackle and fishermen to the max. Even the small ones can lead an angler to believe he’s battling a fish twice its size.

“I didn’t see the fish at the boat,” Champagne sai

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries recently certified two state record fish, one establishing a state record for a gray snapper and the other breaking the record for a gag grouper.

Mark Davis of Lexington, S.C. caught the gray snapper (also called mangrove snapper) June 14 off Ocean Isle Beach. This fish weighed 12 pounds, 5 ounces.

There was no previous state record for gray snapper. To establish a state record, an internal division board determines that a fish was exceptionally large for North Carolina waters and within a reasonable range of the world record.

The International Game Fish Association all tackle world record for gray snapper was 18 pounds, 10 ounces, caught in Louisiana in 2015.

The fish measured 28.94 inches total length (tip of the nose to the tip of the tail) and had an 18.9-inch girth. Davis caught the fish using live menhaden on 65-pound braid line test with a Penn Carnage International 12 VSX rod and reel.

Download a photograph of Davis’ fish here.

Louis Guzman of Clayton caught the gag grouper May 24 off Morehead City. It weighed 48 pounds, breaking the previous state record of 47.4 pounds, caught off of Carolina Beach in 2017.

The International

World Record Fish Weights Chart
Type	Weight	Caught by	Location	Date
African Pompano	50lbs 8oz	Tom Sargent	Daytona Beach, FL	21-Apr-90
Albacore	88lbs 2oz	Siegfried Dickemann	Gran Canaries, Canary Islands	19-Nov-77
Almaco (Pacific) Jack	132lbs	Howard H. Hahn	La Paz, Baja Calif., Mexico	21-Jul-64
American Eel	9lbs 4oz	Jeff Pennick	Cape May, NJ	9-Nov-95