The recent Southern California catch of an enormous mako shark generated fierce criticism, much of it directed at Texas angler Jason Johnston for killing such a majestic creature for the sake of a possible world record.
This week, Temecula angler Ron Burgess is at the center of a different kind of story.
While fishing on Sunday out of La Paz, Mexico, he reeled in a roosterfish estimated by local captains to weigh at least 135 pounds.
That would shatter a world record--114 pounds--that has stood since 1960.
But Burgess said he did not care about records, so after posing for photos he released the roosterfish and watched it swim safely away.
He was fishing in the Sea of Cortez off Las Arenas, a remote Baja California region southeast of La Paz, utilized by Tailhunter International Sportfishing.
A 30-mile stretch of coastline from Las Arenas to the south has for years been referred to as the "Roosterfish Capital of the World."
These exotic-looking and extremely powerful members of the jack family, with their broad black stripes and comb-like dorsal fins, patrol coastal waters in search of sardines and mullet.
They're sometimes easy to find; but not always.
Burgess and his group, however, found a school of huge roosters Sunday, while fishing aboard several pangas. They had caught and released roosterfish in the 70-plus-pound range before the big one bit.
"I stupidly threw another bait in the water right after this and hooked another huge rooster and felt like crying," Burgess recalled. "I was already in pain. What was I thinking?"
Jonathan Roldan, who runs Tailhunter International, said this was by far the largest roosterfish he has seen in 20 years of operating in the region.
The fishery remains in good shape, mostly because roosterfish flesh is not considered good-eating. Recreational fishermen almost always let them go.
But perhaps not as many would releaae a potential world record. Burgess, to be sure, is to be commended.
--Pete Thomas
--Note: Jonathan Roldan was interviewed Tuesday about the catch by Phil Friedman Outdoors Radio. (Interview begins at 3:20 mark.)
--Photo showing Ron Burgess with his massive roosterfish is courtesy of Tailhunter International Sportfishing
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