Photo & Source Credit: Field & Stream
On July 28th charter captain Kieth Degraff, while fishing in 1,000 feet of water within Alaskas Prince William Sound, landed a huge shortraker rockfish that could've been the new IGFA world record. The giant rockfish unofficially outweighed the current IGFA world record, set by Angelo Sciubba in 2017 at 44.1 pounds, by 4 pounds weighing in at 48 pounds when weighed lodge where the angler was staying. Furthermore having bled the fish out, three days later the fish weighed in at 42.4. pounds on an IGFA certified scale.
Captain Degraff was fishing with his fiancee, Betsey Wilson, and some other friends on the day he landed the rockfish when he thought he'd hooked in to a halibut. For this reason captain Degraff says, "Because I thought it was a halibut, I didn’t want to fight it out of the rod holder" and "As soon as I threw it in the rod holder, that immediately disqualified it from setting a world record." I think most anglers would care less about the IGFA rules as this is still the catch and memory of a lifetime. Besides, once the paperwork is filed captain Degraff's rockfish is still likely to overtake the current Alaska state record set by Henry Liebmann at 39.1 pounds.
Congratulations Captain Degraff and tight lines!
No comments:
Post a Comment