A little more than a month ago young Elizabeth Arn got the attention of the big game fishing world by catching a monstrous blue marlin off the West Coast of West Africa.
Arn and her father, Jonathan Arn, had one goal when they left their home in Panama City Beach, Florida, in late May on Dacia, a 43-foot G&S skippered by charter boat captain Randy Baker of Destin, Florida: To catch a world-record fish.
The seventh-grader-to-be at Holy Nativity Episcopal School did just that, pending review, with a 624-pound, 115-inch long blue marlin she got to the boat May 31. It was the highlight of a five-day trip in which she caught four blue marlin – the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th of her big game fishing career.
Arn’s 26th blue marlin should result in an International Game Fish Association world record in the Female IGFA Junior Angler category. The current record is a 549-pounder caught in 2003 by Jordan McCullough, another Floridian, who was 19 years old when she became the youngest angler ever to complete the Royal Billfish Slam in 2008.
“We fished five days total. Two days we didn’t raise a fish … the other three days we raised 13 blue marlin,” Jonathan Arn told inthebite.com in a story posted June 27 about the Arns’ trip off Cape Verde, known as the Marlin Fishing Mecca.
His daughter did it by the books. Baker, 1st and 2nd mates Stephen Hall and Chase Travers, Capt. Scott Murie, who gaffed the monster, and the elder Arn could not touch the fishing rod without disqualifying her catch.
The girl’s father said the blue marlin bit an extra-large ballyhoo on a hook tied to 80-pound test line. She immediately pushed the drag to 25 pounds for a solid hookset, then backed off the drag and moved fishing rod and reel into the fighting chair.
After approximately 30 minutes, the billfish was in the boat.
“Elizabeth did an outstanding job pushing the drag up to 25 pounds to ensure the fish (was) hooked solid, then backing off the drag and taking the rod and transferring it to the fighting chair. This was one of the most challenging parts of catching the fish – no one could assist Elizabeth during the fight,” her father said in a story posted June 21 on outdoorlife.com.
He also said that was a “mediocre” outing by Cape Verde standards.
“If you really like fishing for blue marlin, you will eventually travel to the eastern Atlantic. It’s a journey to get there, but every time you leave the dock you have a chance to catch a fish exceeding 1,000 pounds,” he said.
The 38th annual Cypremort Invitational Fishing Association tournament got underway at 7 a.m. Saturday and ends at 7 p.m. Sept. 30.
CIFA’s format appeals to avid saltwater fishermen who love to fish in and around Vermilion Bay. There is a Speckled Trout Division and a Redfish Division. The five heaviest fish in each division win cash, including $500 for each No.1.
Dago’s Mobil & Grocery in Lydia serves as the weigh-in location.
The Speckled Trout Division’s biggest winner last year was Micah Bonin with a 5.33-pounder.
The 2021 Redfish Division’s first-place fish, a 35.54-pound bull red, was caught by Kevin Horton of Avery Island.
Horton fished hard during the recent 69th annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo with Christopher Prioux and Nathan Prioux, who finished first and second with 34- and 33-pound redfish, respectively, in the Inside Division. Horton looked wistfully at those bull reds in the wheelbarrow that afternoon, hopeful he can get his hands on one or more that size during the next three months.
Good luck to all the CIFA members. Deadline to pay membership dues was Friday.
To set the record straight, I incorrectly listed in in my column July 3 the order of lakes my brother, Bill Shoopman of Archie, Missouri, and I fished June 13-15.
After fishing central Missouri’s Truman Lake on Monday and starting at La Cygne Lake early Tuesday, as reported, we got off that 2018 Bassmaster Top 100 lake in eastern Kansas and traveled to finish the day of bass fishing at hydrilla-rich Pleasanton Lake also in eastern Kansas. On Wednesday we went to Critzer Lake in eastern Kansas, where we were scrutinized by a large owl early that morning at our first destination, then enjoyed our best day of bassin’.
DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.
