New State Tarpon Record Set

MOREHEAD CITY – A Carteret County angler broke a state record when he reeled in a 193-pound, 5-ounce tarpon earlier this month.

By: News Release | WNCT
Published: September 30, 2008

MOREHEAD CITY – A Carteret County angler broke a state record when he reeled in a 193-pound, 5-ounce tarpon earlier this month.

Malcolm Condie of Newport caught the tarpon Sept. 17 at Sea View Pier in North Topsail Beach while fishing for king mackerel.

“It hit the king rig at 12:30 (p.m.) and I landed it within an hour,” Condie said.

The fish measured 80 inches fork length (tip of the nose to the fork in the tail) and had a girth of 42 inches.

Jesse Lockowitz held the previous state record with a 175-pound tarpon caught at Bogue Inlet Pier Sept. 7, 2005. The world record tarpon was 283 pounds, caught in Africa.

Condie said he caught the tarpon on a Tsunami rod and a Penn International 30TW reel, with 30-pound test monofilament line. The fish hit a 3-aught Daiichi hook baited with popeye mullet on a 60-pound test, 7-strand wire leader.

Condie weighed the fish at East Coast Sports in Hampstead, an official weigh station of the N.C. Saltwater Fishing Tournament.

Condie said he initially hoped to donate the fish to the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. Instead, researchers with the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences happened to be in the area, so he allowed them to remove the ear bones and other fish parts for DNA, and age tests.

“They’ve never had access to a (tarpon) of this size in North Carolina,” Condie said.

Condie will receive a certificate from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. For more information, contact Carole Willis, with the N.C. Saltwater Fishing Tournament, at (252) 808-8081.