It is official: Matthew Florio is a new record holder.
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The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife announced this week that his 78-pound albacore is the new measuring stick. It broke a 38-year-old record that had stood since 1984. Florio made his catch in October and submitted it for record consideration.
“Angler Matthew Florio caught the new record albacore tuna in October, breaking the previous 1984 record by 3.4 ounces,” the agency posted. “Matthew was chunking off the boat Luna Sea at the east elbow of Hudson Canyon when he reeled in the fish.
“The new record albacore tuna measured 48 and 3/8 inches in length and had a girth of 37 inches. The fish weighed 78 pounds, 2.4 ounces. Matthew was using a Kevin Bogan 30 Stand Up rod and Penn 30 reel with 60-pound monofilament when he landed the fish. A butter fish served as the bait. Congratulations, Matthew!”
Congratulations indeed!
The filing shows that Florio was fishing near the eastern end of the Hudson Canyon. As the post indicates, he was using a butter fish as bait. His albacore beat the precious record by 3.4 ounces.
The current world record for albacore is 88 pounds, 2 ounces. That catch was made by Siegfried Dickemann in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. That was also back in November of 1977.
Comparatively, for tuna, the albacore is among the smaller species. The largest yellowfin tuna ever caught was over 400 pounds. The world record bluefin tuna is over 1000 pounds!
