Capt. Chris Mowad, angler Scooter Anderson and the crew of the “Best Trait” out of Orange Beach hauled in a blue marlin that, once certified, will shatter the current state record and set a new Gulf of Mexico record, as well.
According to the MONGO Offshore Challenge, a fishing tournament which wrapped about three weeks ago and of which Best Trait was a participant, the men were “fun fishing” aboard the 55-foot Viking when Anderson landed the fish. It took the Houston, Texas, resident about two hours to reel in the marlin, which died during the fight.
The fish was so large, Mowad had to enlist the aid of some friends fishing near by to get the huge fish to shore.
The crew brought the marlin to the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club Thursday to be weighed and measured. After a struggle to get the massive fish raised on the scale, captured on video and posted to YouTube by Ken Cooper, it weighed in at an almost unbelievable 1,145.6 pounds -- nearly 300 pounds more than the current Alabama state record of 851.9, set by Ginger Myers in 2020.
It is also poised to set a new Gulf of Mexico record. The current record is 1,054 pounds.
Two men lay beside a 1,145.6 pound blue marlin to illustrate its massive size after it was weighed Thursday morning. Once certified, the fish will be a new Alabama and Gulf of Mexico record.
“This is the fish we all dream of, the one we all knew are out there,” MONGO Offshore Challenge posted to the group’s Facebook page.
“It feels pretty amazing to be able to encounter a fish like that,” Mowad told WKRG. “They don’t come very often.”