An eighth grader who stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 115 pounds made the catch of the day, possibly year recently.
Kaleb Richardson, 14, reeled in an 835-pound bluefin tuna while fishing out of Grand Isle, Louisiana.
“(Kaleb) is maybe 115 pounds, and I’ll put him up against any adult angler,” said his dad, Keith.
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Bluefin tuna are not a species you can target in the Gulf of Mexico, but there are typically one or two landed each year. To catch and keep a bluefin tuna, the boat must have a special fish permit, which, Keith Richardson said, “allows you a couple of months to harvest one bluefin in the Gulf of Mexico.
“For the first 10 minutes, the bluefin fought like a blue marlin,” Keith Richardson said. “It stayed on top, then, I guess, it figured out it was hooked and sounded.”
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Per PNJ.com:
The bluefin was 113 inches long, with a massive 86-inch girth, and a biologist estimated the big female was about 15 years old. This catch will certainly make its way into the record books and may be the fourth largest tuna ever caught in the state of Louisiana. The largest bluefin ever caught and recorded in the state of Louisiana weighed 1,152-pounds and was caught in 2003.
The Advocate added some perspective on the catch.
“We couldn’t pull the fish into the boat, and we were fortunate that JJ Tabor had a come-along on his boat. I have one on my boat but we couldn’t get to it,” the elder Richardson said. “JJ gave us his come-along and we used it to get the fish far enough into the boat to swing the tail in. It was exciting.”
If accepted by the State Top 10 Fish Records committee — four members of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association — Kaleb Richardson’s catch likely will move into fourth place on the state record list.
