Not only was it the catch of a lifetime, but Taylor Shenk’s 26-pound red snapper may land the Orange City middle school student in the world-record book. The 12-year-old angler was offshore fishing on July 25 with her father, Corey Shenk, her brother Kodey and his friend Kyler Lawrence, aboard the family’s 27-foot boat called In-Limbo Too, when she felt her line get bumped at 100 feet.
When she hooked the fish, the fight was on.
“I felt like it was going to drag me into the water,” Taylor said.
After a 15-minute battle, which Taylor said “felt like an hour,” the snapper was netted by her father. He immediately knew the fish could be an International Game Fish Association world record.
The current red snapper record, set eight years ago, for Junior Female (11 to 16 years old) is 24 pounds.
Corey Shenk signed the family up for IGFA membership about three months ago when he realized Taylor could set a world record after years of deep-sea fishing with his daughter.
“Fishing is the best sport I’ve ever done,” said Taylor, a 7th-grader who will begin classes at River Springs Middle School later this month. “I really love it. I wish we could go every weekend. We go a lot. I wish we could go more.”
Taylor, who was using a 6-inch croaker for bait, hooked the fish at around 11 a.m. at a spot southeast of Ponce Inlet.
“At first she couldn’t budge the fish, so much that she thought she might be caught on the bottom, but she kept the line tight and fought through the pain of pure heaviness,” Taylor’s father said.
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