Veteran guide Mike Frenette was fishing out of Venice, Louisiana, with two out-of-state fishermen on Feb. 19. They’d gotten a late start that morning because of fog and the action was slow. By early afternoon, they still hadn’t caught anything.
“It was frustrating, and I told my anglers we were going to make a run and try a new spot,” Frenette tells Outdoor Life. “It was either gonna be a home run or nothing, I told them. But we weren’t catching fish anyways, so we took off.”
When they got to the new spot, a shallow channel that dropped off into the Gulf, they saw rippled water from schools of big mullet pushing in heavy current. Diving pelicans were working them over.
“I had to set up the boat just right for us to get into casting position,” he says. “And when I did, the first cast my angler Jason made got slammed by a big redfish.”
Jason Halfen, who was visiting from Boston, had cast out a large ¾-ounce Strike King Red Eyed Shad crankbait, and he was now tight to a huge redfish. His fishing partner, Mike Enloe from Kansas, had thrown a large soft plastic jig into the melee of boiling mullet and big reds, but couldn’t buy a strike.
“It was weird, because the reds were frenzy feeding, but wouldn’t hit Mike’s lure,” Frennete says. “After four or five casts with no strikes, Mike changed over to a red-eyed shad like Jason used and immediately hooked a big red.”
Halfen fought his red drum for at least 20 minutes. He was using heavy spinning tackle and 20-pound braid.
“Jason is a big guy and an experienced fisherman, and he was really putting the muscle to his redfish,” Frenette says. “But the red kept running and fighting, while Mike brought in his redfish, which was a 30-pounder. Then he cast again and hooked another one.”
Halfen kept battling his brute of a redfish, and he finally worked it near the boat, where Frenette got its head into his landing net.
“I got ahold of the fish and tried to lift it, but couldn’t,” says the 70-year-old veteran guide, who’s been fishing out of Venice for 40 years. “I can pick up a fifty pounder with no problem, but I couldn’t lift this fish into the boat without help.”
As soon as they boated the big red, Frenette put a flexible tape measure on it. The fish was massive, and it could have been a state record, but they were unable to legally keep it to get it legally weighed. New state regulations require all bull reds to be released unharmed, so they followed the law and put the fish back.
The fish taped out at 48.25 inches long with a 34-inch girth, according to Frenette, who owns the Redfish Lodge of Louisiana.
“I’ve never seen a big red with a girth that size. Most reds we catch weighing thirty to forty pounds have girths under thirty inches.”
Frenette says the fish must have weighed at least 60 pounds, and he guesses it was 65 or more. Using a basic weight formula for redfish based on length and girth, the fish’s estimated weight is closer to 69 pounds. This would have easily beat the current Louisiana redfish record, which weighed 61 pounds and was caught in 1992 by David Webber.
Frenette says they had no qualms about releasing the fish, though. That way it can spawn and benefit the local redfish population. Besides, they had plenty of big bull reds to catch and release that day.
“We fished for over three hours, and it was non-stop hook, fight, cast, hook, fight, cast,” Frenette says. “At times we saw 50 redfish working over the big baits at the surface.”
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Only one of the fish they caught that afternoon was under 40 inches long, and the only reason they quit is because the two anglers were whipped.
“It was a trip we’ll never forget. When we were leaving Jason said to me, ‘I’m glad to say we can’t make one more cast’.”
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