On June 2, six anglers chartered Captain Joey Maciasz’s 44-foot catamaran “Timbuktu” for a 36-hour long-range bottom fishing trip out of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. They hoped to catch some fish, but had no idea they would go on to potentially break multiple state records.
Port Fourchon is well-known as one of the Gulf of America’s premier fishing jump-off spots. It’s the southernmost port in Louisiana and is in the heart of the state’s offshore oil and gas drilling business. Thus, the waters off Port Fourchon are loaded with giant oil and gas rigs that create spectacular fish habitat because they act as artificial reefs. These rigs provide unparalleled fishing for myriad gamefish species.
“We ran out to 300 feet of water, about 180 miles southwest of Fourchon,” Maciasz tells Outdoor Life. “It’s not too long a run when we’re cruising in my boat with four Yamaha 350s pushing us along.”
Also on board was Capt. Noah Callais who works closely with Maciasz in his fishing business called Down the Bayou Charters.
“Noah and I have been trying to catch a record cubera snapper for a long time, and finally everything came together on that trip.”
Maciasz says they caught a wide variety of bottom species during the 36-hour offshore jaunt, including what would have been a state-record 25-pound black trevally that was released by charter angler Tyler Nelson because trevally are not noted as great table fare. They caught plenty of other fish, too, including some amberjacks that were released, a 75-pound cubera snapper, over a dozen queen snapper, and other grouper.
But during a two-hour fish catching frenzy at about dawn, the big fish came calling.
Using live hardtail baits, and 50-pound class Talica Shimano reels spooled with 80-pound test braided line and 250-pound test leaders, they battled big, deep fish.
While they lost some oversize ones that wrapped around oil rig supports, they also boated three pending state-record fish.
Jake Peterson caught a 109.5-pound black grouper that should top the previous 105-pound Louisiana record. Jason Diver’s 30.5-pound dog snapper could also eclipse the previous Louisiana record.
But Maciasz’s 131.2-pound cubera snapper was the heaviest fish caught, and arguably the most noteworthy. It’s a pending state-record cubera, and except for a rules technicality, it also could have been an IGFA all-tackle record Atlantic cubera snapper.
“All our fish were caught with only one angler on the rod, of course,” says Maciasz. “But we fought our fish with the rods in boat rod holders, not in fighting chair rod holders. That’s okay for state-record catches, but not for IGFA, which doesn’t allow a rod butt to be in a gunnel rod holder.”
At the time Maciasz was unaware of the IGFA rule about rods in boat gunnel holders. While he’s disappointed his catch will not be an IGFA all-tackle Atlantic cubera record (currently 124.75 pounds from 2007), he’s delighted the fish is the pending Louisiana record for the species.
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“We’ll never replicate it again — catching a state-record 131.2-pound cubera snapper, a 109.5-pound black grouper and a 30.5-pound dog snapper all in the same trip.”