The folks at Chasin Tails Outdoors Bait & Tackle in Atlantic Beach, NC weighed in a bigscale pomfret that could become the new world record. It is about 6 pounds heavier than the current world record, a 20-pound, 10-ounce bigscale pomfret caught in 2004 out of St. Augustine, FL.
North Carolina anglers Jeremiah Elliot, Trever Burns, Chandler Butler and Zack Elliot were fishing outside of Beaufort Inlet when they called Chasin Tails on the evening of Friday, April 21, 2023. The men wanted to make sure the store’s weigh scales were open and in order.
With cell phone reception cutting in and out, the folks at Chasin Tails couldn’t hear the call well enough to know what kind of fish they were bringing in.
“We really had no idea what they had, as it was hard to hear them over the phone,” they said.
The fish tipped the scales at 26.71 pounds. The species has a closely-related cousin, the Atlantic pomfret, and a fisheries biologist positively identified this catch as a bigscale on Monday, April 24.
Because it’s not a fish commonly caught in North Carolina waters, the state does not currently list the bigscale pomfret in its record books. Chasin Tails is assisting the anglers in having this fish certified as North Carolina’s first state record for the species, and having it certified as the new world record.