Capt. Jim Bowman has been running his 54-foot custom Carolina offshore boat “Marlin Mania” out of the Hatteras Inlet in North Carolina for 40 years. He knows the big water well, and on June 7, his crew of six charter anglers had a good day catching blackfin tuna and dolphin. He never thought his boat would haul in a new state record almaco jack, aka longfin yellowtail.
Anglers aboard his boat that day wanted to catch some amberjacks. So, on their way back to Hatteras Inlet that early afternoon Capt. Bowman stopped at a deep rocky area called “The Rocks” off famed “Diamond Shoals” in 400-feet of water.
“It’s a deep spot, but the current wasn’t running hard, and I knew the guys could drop heavy jigs down and catch plenty of jacks,” Bowman told Wired2fish. “One of the anglers wanted an amberjack to have a mount made of it, and that spot is jammed with jacks: tough-fighting amberjacks and almaco jacks.”
The Catch
The anglers got into jacks right away, and Warren Poirier of Charles City, Virginia, hooked one on a Zest Japanese-style jig while working the lure off bottom. It was bigger and tougher than the other jacks his pals were hauling up from the deep, and he was using comparatively light spinning gear.
“His buddies were teasing him because he was fighting his jack for so long,” said Bowman, 75. “Warren was working hard on that fish, trying to get it topside with a Shimano Trevala rod and a Saltist 5000 spinning reel spooled with 80-pound test braided line.”
The fish nearly “dumped” Poirier’s whole reel of line, but he battled on, and worked the fish doggedly for over half an hour. Finally, he boated it, and all aboard were elated that Poirier had caught a huge almaco jack, larger than anyone had seen.
Bringing In a New Record Almaco Jack
When they arrived back on Hatteras, other anglers and boat captains were stunned at the size of Poirier’s fish. They checked the North Carolina records, and Poiner’s jack crushed the existing record almaco.
On certified scales at Teach’s Lair Marina, Poirier’s jack weighed 56 pounds, 4.8 ounces with a 46-inch fork length and a 31-inch girth. It topped the old state record of 33 pounds, 12.6 ounces, which was caught in 2024.
Poirier wanted a jack to mount by a taxidermist, and his official state record almaco fulfilled his fishing wish.
“I’m going to have a replica mount made of my record jack by Gray’s Taxidermy,” Poiner said.
