There are fishing stories, and then there are fishing stories. This one involves a fish so big it might just rewrite the East Coast record books, and it left the boat looking like it had been in a brawl.
Damon Sacco, a charter captain from Massachusetts, and his client Walter Chapman, a retiree who clearly isn't retiring from epic battles, recently hauled in a blue marlin that tipped the scales at a staggering 1,260 pounds. That's a quarter-ton of fish, nearly 12 feet long, caught off the U.S. East Coast. For context, it's only 142 pounds shy of the world record for an Atlantic blue marlin, a title held by a fish caught off Brazil in '92.
After a three-hour rod-and-reel showdown in the Atlantis Canyon, about 100 miles off Cape Cod, the behemoth was finally brought aboard. Sacco reported the marlin left literal "war marks" on his boat's transom with its bill. Because apparently, even fish are getting aggressive these days.
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Start Your News DetoxWalt Golet, director of the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab, called this catch "especially rare" for New England waters, which are typically too chilly for blue marlin most of the year. He's now got the fish's head heading his way, eager to determine its age, guessing it could be a seasoned veteran of the deep, somewhere between 25 and 30 years old.
Back on land in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the sight of the colossal creature drew a crowd. Onlooker Katie Curran aptly dubbed it a "catch of a lifetime." As for Chapman, he's sharing the spoils with about a dozen people, with plans for some truly legendary fish chowder. Because after battling a fish that leaves battle scars, you've earned a good meal.
