Chasing Records: An Angler’s Quest

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For most anglers, catching a world-record fish is something they can only fantasize about. “Maybe,” the angler thinks, “I’ll get lucky.” But if the reason you fish is to catch world-record fish, then luck is only a very small part of it, as Robert Cunningham has learned in the course of a long quest during which he has caught fifty-seven world-record fish, as certified by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). Cunningham’s pursuit of record fish began on the remote and austere Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, which he reached flying his own seaplane, and where he chased and landed several world-record redfish. Cunningham then moved offshore, where he took record cobia and dolphin on both conventional tackle with a fly rod, and set an astonishing eleven world records in one year. Cunningham has caught record fish in the sloughs of the Mobile River Delta, the interior lakes of the Bahamas, and along tide rips more than one hundred miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. He has fought potential world-record fish for eight hours, only to lose them at boatside, and then gone back for more, and along the way, learned all manner of angling skills as well as the ability to shake off the (literal) bad breaks. His account of one angler’s obsession is full of humor, disappointment, and triumph.

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