There's a picture of the fish on the Miami Herald website... But here's the writeup.
Digg it del.icio.us OUTDOORS | MERCURY/SEAVEE POMPANO BEACH SALTWATER SLAM
Big catch overshadows event
The seven-man crew aboard Makin' Time won the saltwater slam, but news that someone caught an 81-pound dolphin made the real waves.
BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@MiamiHerald.com
GREG GAWLIKOW / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
At 81 pounds, this dolphin would set a state record if it is certified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.The crew aboard the Pompano Beach charter boat Crowd Pleaser lived up to the boat's name Saturday, but they really should have entered the one-day Mercury/SeaVee Pompano Beach Saltwater Slam fishing tournament.
Captains Jed and Rob DuBois and angler Bob Vail of Lantana borrowed the tournament scale at Hillsboro Inlet Park to weigh a potential Florida state-record dolphin of 81 pounds, wowing the crowd gathered for the festivities. But because Crowd Pleaser wasn't registered in the contest, the crew missed out on $8,400.
''Wouldn't that have been sweet,'' Vail, 58, said.
If certified by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the dolphin would top the record of 77 pounds, 12 ounces, caught off Fort Pierce in 1985. Saturday's catch was less than four pounds off the IGFA all-tackle record of 87 pounds caught in Costa Rica in 1976. It could beat the 30-pound-test world record of 79 pounds, 5 ounces, caught off Senegal, Africa in 1986.
''You could put a saddle on it and ride it through the inlet,'' tournament official Rick Bunn said. ``Huge.''
Rob DuBois said the Crowd Pleaser was kite fishing with a goggle eye at about 11 a.m. in 200 feet of water off Fort Lauderdale in an area called the ''Steeple'' for a prominent landmark when the big fish struck. Vail grabbed the rod.
''The closer I got him to the boat, the bigger I knew he was,'' Vail said. ``But I had no idea it was 81 pounds. My biggest before that was 20-30 pounds.''
DuBois said the fight lasted about 45 minutes on a Shimano TLD 25 reel with 30-pound test, 80-pound monofilament leader and a 7/0 salmon hook. The crew took the fish to Gray Taxidermy in Pompano Beach to be frozen for official inspection and mounting.
''We were ecstatic,'' he said.
They would have been more ecstatic if they had won some tournament money for their remarkable catch. Instead, Saturday's big winners was the seven-man crew aboard Steve Fishman's Makin' Time, with four kingfish, one dolphin and a tuna totaling 122.5 pounds, good for $16,010.
Makin' Time edged runner-up Living Water -- co-skippered by Mark Miller and Don Danielson -- by four-tenths of a pound. Living Water had 122.1 pounds of kingfish, wahoo, tuna and dolphin worth $8,480.
The four-person crew on Tucker Out placed third with 120.4 pounds of fish, including the tournament's two largest (official) dolphin -- 39.8 and 39.5 pounds. They won $13,810.
A total of 119 boats competed.
