North Carolina Angler Lands Pending 877-Pound State-Record Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Retired Army General Scott Chambers of Townsend, Delaware, reeled in an 877-pound Atlantic bluefin tuna March 17 after fighting the fish for 2½ hours off Oregon Inlet. The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries has since confirmed the catch broke the former state record bluefin by 72 pounds, a fish also taken off Oregon Inlet, back in 2011.

Captain Dennis Endee, who runs A-Salt Weapon Sportfishing Charters out of Pirate's Cove Marina in Manteo, was trolling a spread of five rods tied to Sea Witches and Baitmaster Select ballyhoo more than 40 miles outside the inlet when he began marking fish around mid-morning of the 17th. Chambers told Fox News he was staying at his Outer Banks home when he and some friends boarded the A-Salt Weapon for the trip.

Realizing that Chambers' fish was a beast as it quickly dumped three-quarters of the 130-pound braided line on the spool, another member of the party took the fighting chair to catch and release the smaller tuna in about 30 minutes while Chambers handled his from the gunwale. "We never gained an inch of line until we were able to start backing up on him," said Endee. "But, after about a half hour or so we got him straight up and down." As they methodically bumped up the drag on the Shimano 130, they saw the fish pinwheeling below the boat.

"That day, we hooked into that absolute monster," Chambers said. "It's just a big blur," he added. "But, the thing I remember most is just the power of the fish pulling."

Mate J.T. Roehrs sunk the dart while Endee stuck a tail gaff and cinched the tail rope, but the fight wasn't over. It took another 90 minutes to load the fish that had dragged them 11 miles. After attaching the fish to a block and tackle, the windlass, and removing a rod holder, the eight-man crew inched the tuna through the tuna door.

The fish measured 113 inches curved fork length, tracing the contour of the body from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail, with a girth of 79 inches. Chambers caught it on trolled dead bait with 130-pound test line on a 130 Shimano rod and reel. Back at Pirate's Cove, a crane lifted the fish off the boat and onto a scale that confirmed the 877-pound weight. "Everyone was in disbelief," Chambers said. The bluefin was the biggest fish he'd ever caught, easily surpassing a blue marlin he had landed a few years earlier.

The 55-year-old was just as thrilled for Endee as for himself. "To see the level of excitement as captain of that boat I kept thinking: 'This is so cool for Dennis.'"

The category is also subject to sudden closures to limit overharvest, which happened later on the same day Chambers caught his trophy a reminder of how narrow the window can be for giant bluefin off the Outer Banks. The world all-tackle record bluefin tuna stands at 1,496 pounds, caught off Nova Scotia in 1979, leaving Chambers' fish as a benchmark that will be difficult to approach in North Carolina waters for a long time.