One of the world’s most impressive angling achievements occurred on August 10, 1995, when Leo Cloostermans set the men’s 4-pound-test line-class world record for Atlantic blue marlin with this 573-pound fish. Cloostermans was aboard Double Header, captained by Don Merten at the time, and fishing off the island of Faial in the Azores. He caught the fish on a double-hooked squid pitch bait and fought it for about 20 minutes. Cloostermans’ record was also the first catch exceeding the 100-to-1 weight-to-line-class ratio recorded by the IGFA.
