If you’re ever in the town of Quepos, located on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, you’ll probably find Captain Ruddy Zapata on the water guiding his client fishermen. So, naturally, Zapata spent a recent day off snook fishing for fun on his small panga boat with buddies Will Hefley and Ronnie, both retired American anglers living in Costa Rica.
Zapata works for Steve Hoyland, owner of Steve Hoyland’s Adventures. Because of the difficulty speaking directly with anglers in distant Central America, Hoyland related the events of that day from his home in Texas.
Catching “The Fish of a Lifetime”
“On the morning of May 9, they were trolling a couple live sardine baits using 7/0 circle hooks at the mouth of the Parrita River in about 15 feet of water,” Hoyland told Wired2fish. “The river mouth is a great place for big snook. They catch lots of ‘em in the 40-pound class caught there — and Ruddy and Will were trolling for big ones that morning.”
The anglers caught a couple of smaller 15-pound Pacific black snook with Shimano plug tackle and 50-pound test braided line. But around 9 a.m., a huge fish took a trolled sardine — and Will hooked the fish of a lifetime.
“He battled the fish with heavy gear and tough Suffix line for about 30 minutes,” said Hoyland. “The fish fought deep and tough but never jumped.”
A Two-Man Snook
Hefley worked the giant fish close to their panga boat, and Zapata tried to get it into his net. But it wouldn’t fit completely into the mesh, so he grabbed it and hauled it aboard.
It was a massive snook that took two of them to lift — and also admire. Zapata has been around giant record size black snook and had to convince Hefley to keep the fish.
“Hefley wanted to release the fish, but Ruddy talked him into keeping and weighing it for a possible world record,” explained Hoyland. “They fished for another hour, caught a couple smaller snook. Then they headed back to Quepos to weigh the big fish on certified scales at Marina Pez Vela.”
Record Potential Looks Promising
On certified scales, the snook officially weighed 72.6 pounds, with a 48-inch length and 32-inch girth. This easily tops the current International Game Fish Association (IGFA) Pacific black snook record of 59.5 pounds, caught in 2014 by Ward Michaels. That catch also happened out of Quepos, Costa Rica. A look at the current record book also shows that of the eight different species of snook recognized by the IGFA, Hefley’s is the largest by over 10 pounds.
Hoyland says that all the IGFA paperwork for Hefley’s snook has been completed, and all documentation is being sent to the record-keeping agency in Florida.
Zapata showed Hefley’s potential world record snook all over the local area, then the fish was cleaned and eaten, according to Hoyland. He expects there will be a replica mount of the fish — perhaps even on display at Marina Pez Vela.
“It’s almost sure to be a new Pacific black snook world record,” says Hoyland. “There really is no place offering better giant snook fishing than the west coast of Costa Rica out of Quepos.”
