A blue marlin weighing 648 pounds was hooked and landed about 40 miles off the San Diego coast this week, and it took nearly everyone aboard the sportfishing boat Pegasus to haul the massive fish out of the water. The catch, reeled in Monday, September 14, now stands as the largest fish ever weighed at Fisherman's Landing.
Captain Alec Stockfeldt, a 32-year-old fishing captain, was aboard the Pegasus when the marlin struck, according to KTLA. The 65-foot sportfishing boat operates out of Fisherman's Landing in San Diego, as reported by edhat.com. Reports on the vessel's exact width differ, with one listing describing it as 22 feet wide and another putting it at 20 feet.
Stockfeldt estimated that the open-party sport fishing boat's previous biggest-fish record stood at about 598 pounds, per KTLA, making the new marlin a significant jump for the landing's books. He said the size of the fish left everyone aboard in awe, and some anglers grew reluctant to even take hold of the rod once they saw what they were dealing with.
Nearly the Whole Boat Pitched In
The fish was so large that almost all aboard the boat had to haul it from the water, according to the same account from edhat.com. Anglers reeled in the marlin as a group effort rather than a single angler working the rod alone, KTLA reported.
Blue marlin are among the ocean's largest gamefish, capable of growing up to 14 feet long and weighing as much as a ton, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, as cited by edhat.com. Even at 648 pounds, the San Diego catch falls well short of that theoretical ceiling, but it was still enough to eclipse every fish previously weighed at the landing.
How It Stacks Up Against Other Big Catches
The Pegasus marlin is notable, but it doesn't come close to California's reported state record. That mark belongs to a 692-pound blue marlin caught by Alfonse Hamann on August 13, 1931, and weighed at the Balboa Angling Club on Balboa Island, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
It also trails a 662.2-pound blue marlin landed nine miles off Point Loma on September 23, 2015, by Matt Santora and Captain Andy Vo aboard the boat Finbomb, as detailed by Marlin Magazine. That 2015 catch was described as the second-largest blue marlin ever recorded in California and was, at the time, the heaviest fish ever weighed at the San Diego Marlin Club, the Union-Tribune reported. The Pegasus fish remains lighter than both the 2015 marlin and the 1931 state record.
A Busy Season for the Pegasus
The record marlin capped off a productive year for the Pegasus, which had completed 49 trips carrying 831 anglers as of the report, with 3,517 fish caught this season, per edhat.com. Bluefin tuna accounted for the largest share of the boat's reported catch this year at 1,173 fish, followed by dolphinfish with 809 and California yellowtail with 565, the outlet noted.
A 2019 report from Men's Journal said some Southern California waters had run 5 to 8 degrees above normal, with temperatures near 80 degrees recorded in certain areas. For now, the Pegasus crew is left with a new landing record and a story about the fish that made even seasoned anglers hesitant to grab the rod.
