Three anglers recently completed a rare and perhaps unprecedented feat when each landed an opah on the same day aboard a San Diego-based boat fishing in Mexican waters. Opah, also referred to as moonfish, are rarely caught by sport fishermen, and for three people to catch one on the same vessel was considered extraordinary.
But lost amid the hype swirling in fishing circles when the photo of this opah trifecta surfaced on the Excel Sportfishing Facebook page was that one of the moonfish, a 181-pounder caught by Joe Ludlow, is 18 pounds heavier than the existing world record.
The International Game Fish Association lists as the all-tackle world record a 163-pound opah caught in October 1998 off San Luis Obispo in Central California.
That was an El Niño year and El Niño-like conditions (un usually warm water) are prevalent this summer off California. Opah catches tend to be associated with warm-water events.
Justin Fleck, captain of the Excel, said Ludlow was one of five anglers that hooked an opah at about the same time, soon after the boat had stopped over a school of yellowtail.
Read the rest of the story at Pete Thomas Outdoors; http://www.petethomasoutdoors.com/2014/08/joe-ludlows-181-pound-opah-could-be-a-world-record.html
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