81-Pound Dolphin Looks to be a new Florida Record

Pompano Beach · The biggest fish weighed on the scales of the Mercury/SeaVee Pompano Beach Saltwater Slam at Hillsboro Inlet Park on Saturday didn't even count, but it could be a state and IGFA line-class record.

Bob Vail of Lantana caught an 81-pound bull dolphin on 30-pound line fishing with Capt. Jed DuBois and his brother Capt. Rob DuBois on Crowd Pleaser, a charter boat out of Sands Harbor Marina.

The current state-record fish weighed 77 pounds, 12 ounces and was caught off Fort Pierce in April 1985. The IGFA record for 30-pound line is 79-5 and was caught in Senegal. The IGFA all-tackle record dolphin weighed 87 pounds and was caught in 1976 in Costa Rica.

"I've caught big fish before," Vail said, "but he was tough. He didn't quit."

Vail, who said his previous biggest dolphin was "25, maybe 30 pounds," was fishing with his longtime fishing buddy Bob Tubbs and three others in the Melrose Supply Tournament, an event for customers of the irrigation supply company. Just before the Slam weigh-in started, Rob DuBois weighed the fish on the tournament's state-certified scales.

Crowd Pleaser, a 45 Hatteras, was kite-fishing with live goggle-eyes on a color change in 200 feet off the steeple when a barracuda ate three of the four baits and got away.

"As we were letting out a new bait, the one bait we had out got eaten by this fish," Rob DuBois said. "We knew it was a dolphin. When it jumped, we thought it was a 30-, 35-pounder. It kept going up from there."

Vail hooked the fish at 11:04 a.m. He needed 45 minutes to land it using a Shimano TLD 25 reel spooled with 30-pound monofilament and an 8-foot, 80-pound leader.

"I don't know about Bob, but I was nervous [during the fight]," said DuBois, who gaffed the dolphin in the head. "It took all my strength to pull it in the boat."