Chris Phillips

News Journal Correspondent

Captain Chris Mowad, of Pensacola, was at the helm recently when his crew reeled in an 835-pound bluefin tuna while fishing out of Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Bluefin tuna are not a species you can target in the Gulf of Mexico, but there are typically one or two landed each year.

The 26-year-old Mowad moved to Pensacola when he was just eight months old, and nowadays, his life revolves around fishing. He spends more than 200 days a year on the water. Over the last few years, he has fished the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Australia and Cabo, in addition to the Gulf of Mexico.

On the rod was Kaleb Richardson, a 14-year-old eighth grader who is about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and tips the scales at 115 pounds. Richardson was the Billfish Foundation's top overall tagging angler, top tagging angler for white marlin and top tagging junior angler in 2016.

The youngster fishes with his father, Keith Richardson, aboard his boat the "Whoo Dat," a 58-foot Jarrett Bay. The "Whoo Dat" is well known on the billfish tournament scene across the Gulf Coast and spends a ton of time fishing the northern Gulf of Mexico every year.

Just this past winter, Keith and Kaleb Richardson, along with first mate Kevin Alexander, spent time fishing for bluefin tuna in Nova Scotia. The practice paid off because it took the younger Richardson just 45 minutes to crank in the beast using the Shimano Tiagra 80 wide reel with a 100-pound test line.

For Mowad, it was the first time he has seen a bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico. It also ranks second as his most memorable catch, only being outdone by a giant black marlin.

The crew was on a four-day fishing trip recently when they landed the bluefin and had already caught and released a 500-pound blue marlin in Green Canyon. The bite slowed up so they headed to the Neptune rig looking for some action and they surely found it.

Federal fishery regulations prohibit the targeting of bluefin tuna by both the commercial and recreational fisheries in the Gulf, but there is a limited "incidental" landing quota of the species. An incidental catch occurs when anglers target another species, marlin or other tunas, and have a bluefin tuna take the bait.

The bluefin was 113 inches long, with a massive 86-inch girth, and a biologist estimated the big female was about 15 years old. This catch will certainly make its way into the record books and may be the fourth largest tuna ever caught in the state of Louisiana. The largest bluefin ever caught and recorded in the state of Louisiana weighed 1,152-pounds and was caught in 2003.

ARCHIVED FISHING PHOTOS