It’s been a great year for records in Connecticut. You may remember that the state record cobia was landed in August, and by the way, that 43-pound visitor from the south has since been accepted as the standing record—when we first reported the catch the record was still pending. Any year where one record is broken is an exceptional year, but as of this writing we’ve seen seven records fall in Connecticut! In addition to the cobia and the two highlighted here we saw a new tilefish record, and catch and release records for bluefish, chub mackerel and clearnose skate.
Back in early October, 10 year old Colton Johnson was chunking bunker with his dad, Peter, when a sizeable striped bass engulfed his bait. Colton seized the moment and set the hook on a 43.5-pound, 48-inch cow striped bass. His dad said, “He set the hook and fought the fish all by himself! The fish made some great runs and Colton played her perfectly. When we finally saw the fish we got excited for him. We netted her and Colton was shaking with adrenaline. A memory we won’t soon forget!” Certainly, it will be a memory that Colton carries with him for the rest of his life! The 43.5-pounder sets a new Catch and Release record for the youth category in Connecticut. And judging by his smile, there was no one happier on Long Island Sound than young Colton that day!
Then on October 13, a group of friends and family boarded the 36-foot BHM downeaster, Tuna’s Dream II and left Long Island Sound with a course set for Hudson Canyon. The plan was to chunk for yellowfin tuna which turned out to be a successful venture, but the fish gods had another surprise in store. Angler Aaron Kolodziej said, “The chunk bite had really turned on in the morning, we were throwing whole butters when three rods went off with tuna and then mine went off too. My fish instantly came to the surface and we initially wanted to break it off so we could land the three yellows without a billfish to deal with, that is until a nearby boat radioed and said it was a really big white marlin. We called out over the radio if anyone knew the state record for Connecticut, someone called back and said ‘over 100 pounds would be a trophy,’ we knew we had that so we kept the fish.”
And they were right, Aaron’s 110.5-pound white marlin, which was confirmed on two certified scales, now stands as the pending new state record for Connecticut. The previous record was landed in 1988 at Block Canyon by angler, Frederick Iasiello. So if you’ve ever wanted to try and land yourself in a record book, you may want to fish in Connecticut before 2022 comes to a close.
