Mark Milici of Doylestown, PA has officially made his way onto the New Jersey state record fish list recently by landing a 23-pound, 4-ounce gray tilefish (blueline). Mark was fishing out at the Lindenkohl Canyon with his buddy aboard the Last Hooray on May 15th and used squid for bait.
Weighed later that day at Fisherman’s Headquarters in Ship Bottom, the big tilefish not only eclipsed the previous state record of 23 pounds, 1 ounce caught by Cheol Min Park in 2014, but may also be a pending IGFA world record. The current IGFA world record blueline record is held by Virginia angler David Cohn with his 20-pound, 8-ounce catch at the Norfolk Canyon in 2013. It’s not clear whether or not Cheol Min Park’s catch was ever submitted to IGFA for world record consideration.
Greg Cudnik from Fisherman’s Headqaurters reported that Milici and his buddies ended up with four golden tilefish and eight bluelines while bottomfishing at the Lindendkohl that day, while also scoring 40-pound class yellowfin on the troll while getting covered up in large skipjack for most of the day.
“Mark said that boats fishing the cold water were into lots of small bluefin tuna,” Cudnik added.
For more information about New Jersey’s record saltwater fish, visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/recfish-salt.htm at the NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife web site.
