The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries recently certified a new state record for almaco jack, or Seriola rivoliana.
Henry Barksdale of Sutherland, Virginia, caught the 60-pound, 8-ounce fish Sept. 18 off Cape Hatteras. The previous state record was 56 pounds, 4.8 ounces, and was landed earlier this year in the same area.
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Barksdale was fishing with Capt. Shaun Dunn out of Teach’s Lair Marina in Hatteras Village. He landed the fish with a jig attached to an Okuma Cedros rod and Daiwa Saltist LD 50 reel with 80-pound braid.
Barksdale’s fish measured 46 inches fork length, or from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail, and had a 32-inch girth. The fish was weighed at Teach’s Lair Marina and confirmed by staff in the Marine Fisheries Division’s Manteo office.
Fisheries officials note that almaco jack can be easily mistaken for other amberjack species, such as the greater amberjack, aka Seriola dumerili, or lesser amberjack, aka Seriola fasciata.
The almaco jack can be distinguished by the tall and elongated second dorsal fin and anal fin, darker body color, gill raker count and alignment of the maxilla (upper lip) relative to the eye. Lesser amberjacks are also much smaller with the current International Game Fish Association’s world record weighing 12 pounds.
For more information on state record fish, go to the division’s State Saltwater Records webpage or contact the North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament staff at saltwater.citations@deq.nc.gov.
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