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Potential World Fishing Record: Biggest Atlantic Sailfish for Women’s 20-Pound Class

Lobito's Big Game Fishing Tournament in Angola racks up with pending big-time records.
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Photo Courtesy of Jose Baltazar Fonseca Photo Courtesy of Jose Baltazar Fonseca
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Photo Courtesy of Jose Baltazar Fonseca Photo Courtesy of Jose Baltazar Fonseca

Earlier this month some records are on the table for some of the biggest Atlantic sailfish.

These fatboy sails were caught during the 10th Logito Big Game Tournament off southern Angola. Ian Nicolson, Angola’s IGFA Representative, says it was only a matter of time before a potential record was taken.

With reports from Nicolson and Jack Vitek, the IGFA’s World Records Coordinator, one of the potential records could be the heaviest Atlantic sailfish ever caught by a woman as well as the fourth heaviest Atlantic sailfish ever recorded by the IGFA.

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Luisa Baptista caught a 136-pound sail on 20-pound test, but she’s no stranger to record breaking — she held the 20-pound class record 40 years ago.

Vitek says that the fastest the IGFA can approve international catches is 90 days from the catch date.

“If everything checks out, we would have it finalized around the middle of June,” Vitek says.

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It doesn’t stop at that record, the books keep opening up for this hot spot.

During the same tournament, a 142-pound sailfish was caught by Marco Couto. This fish could beat the 30-pound-class record and all-tackle record. The previous all-tackle was also caught in Angola in 1994.

Nicolson confirms that this tournament wrapped up with a record for itself — the most billfish caught** **in a tournament in Angola.513 sailfish and seven blue marlin, 99.3% of them were released and most with a Billfish Foundation tag._ _Nicolson belives that this could be the most successful billfish tournament held on the West Coast of Africa, if not the whole continent. The winner of the 10th Lobito Big Game Fishing Tournament was Tudo Fish Fishing Team.

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