According to a report in Ohio’s Ironton Tribune, angler Steve Blair of Ironton, caught a likely world record Pacific cubera snapper in Costa Rica in October. But he had no way to properly weigh, measure and record the fish with IGFA for certification.
So, his catch won’t make the coveted fishing world record book.
That’s a shame, because Blair’s massive fish reportedly weighed over 100 pounds, and would have shattered the current IGFA All-Tackle record Pacific cubera weighing 78-pounds, 12-ounces, caught also in Costa Rica by Steven Paull in 1988.
Photos of Blair’s fish indeed show it to be a mammoth-size cubera, surely of IGFA world record proportions.
During his October Costa Rican trip, reported the Tribune, Blair left to go fishing about dawn, and at mid-morning had a strike. He then battled his tough quarry with an 8-foot rod he made, using 30-pound test braided line and an 80-pound fluorocarbon leader.
Tracy Blair (Steve’s wife) reported that because of the strict IGFA certification process, Steve needed witnesses and proper weigh scales and measuring devices to submit his record cubera catch. However, the small Pacific Coast fishing village where they live several months every year doesn’t have such items readily available.
For the last several years the Blairs have spent months annually in Esterillos, Costa Rica. There they enjoy a laid-back coastal home near the fish-filled Pacific Ocean beach. It’s located south of the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, and just northwest of the well-known fishing town of Quepos.
“Steve is just happy knowing that he caught this once in a lifetime catch,” Tracy Blair reported in an email to the Tribune. “He said there was no way he could have transported it to a marina, no cooler was large enough.”
With no way to document the massive cubera, photos were taken of Steve and the fish, then he cleaned it on the beach and gave the meat to area villagers.
