PORTLAND, Maine – Damon Sacco, a seasoned charter fishing captain from Massachusetts, recently encountered an extraordinary catch that left him and his fellow anglers in awe. While fishing off the coast of Massachusetts, they battled a fish that looked like a “glimmering blue spaceship” as it surfaced from the depths of the ocean.
Sacco initially thought he was dealing with a massive shark when he saw the giant fin breach the water. However, as the fish drew closer, he realized it was something much more remarkable. “Then I got a better look at it and thought, dang, that thing’s pointed,” he said. “But that’s too big for a marlin.” To his surprise, Sacco and his client, Walter Chapman, landed what many believe to be the largest Atlantic blue marlin ever caught off the U.S. East Coast. Measuring over 11 feet (335 cm) in length and weighing an astonishing 1,260 pounds (571.5 kilograms), this catch was truly a milestone in fishing history.
This enormous marlin, only 142 pounds (64.4 kilograms) short of the world record for the species, was caught in the Atlantic, an area where such large fish are rarely seen. The world record for an Atlantic blue marlin was set in Brazil in 1992, as documented by the International Game Fish Association.
According to Walt Golet, director of the University of Maine Pelagic Fisheries Lab, the occurrence of such a large blue marlin in New England waters is exceptional. “The water is too cold for them in the Northeast most of the year, making the window to catch a big one very narrow,” Golet explained. The head of the marlin is now on its way to the UMaine lab for age determination, and experts believe it could be between 25 to 30 years old.
On the day of the catch, Sacco’s charter boat, Castafari, was fishing in Atlantis Canyon, a well-known underwater canyon located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off Cape Cod. This area is a seasonal hotspot for migratory blue marlin, as noted by Golet.
The battle with the marlin took approximately three hours, with Chapman using rod and reel to subdue the massive fish. Sacco humorously described his role during the fight: “drive the bus around and yell at people.” The marlin even left some “war marks” on the boat’s transom, which Sacco now proudly considers part of the adventure.
After the catch, Chapman, a retiree and lifelong fishing enthusiast from Plymouth, decided to share the spoils of his incredible catch with friends and family. He is currently searching for recipes to utilize the marlin meat, joking that he “wasn’t going to eat a 1,200-pound fish all by myself.” Some of the meat is likely destined for fish chowder.
When the Castafari returned to the docks, a crowd eagerly awaited to witness the weighing of the fish, creating a moment of excitement and celebration. Local onlooker Katie Curran expressed the sentiment of many, stating, “People fish their entire lives and never come close to a catch like this. Hats off to Captain Damon Sacco and the crew on the catch of a lifetime.”
