Brand New IGFA
World Record Amberjack

By Steve Carson 

 
A potential IGFA line-class world record Amberjack that weighed 97.9 pounds after spending all day in the hot sun was the high point of last weeks' Owner Hooks Fishing School group trip to Baja California..

The Amberjack species caught in Baja's East Cape region are technically known as Pacific Almaco Jack. The record fish was caught by TV fishing show host Ronnie Kovach of "Fishing Ventures" on FOX Sports West on 20-pound test Berkley Big Game Hi-Test mono, loaded on an Abu-Garcia 7000iHSN reel and a Fenwick Inshore PlugH7.75 rod. The beast fought for over 30 minutes after hitting on a 5-inch Power Bait Swimshad rigged on a 2 ½ ounce red leadhead.

 The IGFA all-tackle record for the species was caught just to the north off La Paz way back in 1964, and went 132 pounds. The current record for 130-pound line [105 pounds] was caught in virtually the same spot as Kovach's fish off Cabo Frailes in 2001. Ronnie's big amber shatters the current 20 and 30-pound line-class records by more than 40 pounds! 

 The record fish was the high point of excellent overall fishing for the Owner Hooks students, who landed over 20 different species of fish during the three-day session. The anglers scored striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish, two kinds of pompano, three kinds of pargo, jack crevalle, triggerfish and many more.

 A large school of yellowfin tuna in the 10 to 40-pound class moved in about 4 miles off Cabo Frailes. The hotel fleet hit them hard, with limit catches coming in on successive days. The tuna readily hit on trolled blue/white TC100 Micro Tuna Clones, or live sardinas fished plunker-style with a 1-ounce sinker.

 Those choosing to go offshore found good action on 100-pound class striped marlin, along with a few sailfish about 10 miles off Cabo Frailes. Several of the Owner Hooks students caught their first-ever billfish, including Dan Holcomb of Modesto, Nick Mooney of Norwalk, and Curt Reynolds of Westminster, while Tanya Pilcher of Stockton caught a 60-pound wahoo.

 The yo-yo bite in 150-feet of water off Cabo Pulmo yielded several other amberjack in the 10 to 40 pound range, along with pargo Colorado from 5 to 15 pounds, yellowfin and black skipjack tuna from 10 to 30 pounds, and even a 15-pound Mexican sheephead. Best lures were blue/silver 5-ounce Williamson Abyss Speed-Jigs and 4-ounce Crippled Herring jigs.

 Roosterfish action had been good leading up to the group's arrival. However, the pez gallo developed lockjaw for a couple of days, with only a few scattered sightings until the final day.   

 The morning of departure found myself and a few other anglers standing in knee-deep surf just a few hundred yards north of the hotel amidst a feeding frenzy of mixed ladyfish, needlefish, croaker, pompano, sierra and even a few small roosterfish.

 The torrid bite lasted for over 45 minutes, with dozens of boils visible simultaneously. I got a hookup on almost every cast using 10-pound spinning tackle and a mackerel-color Rapala XR10 X-Rap, but the only roosterfish was landed by a flycaster tossing a small Clouser minnow.