Rinna Her, his son Julian, and Julian’s uncle Ju Chong Her left with three cousins before dawn for a day of fishing. They headed to Tomales Bay, located on the central California coast north of San Francisco.
They started fishing from their boat at 5 a.m., first catching baitfish for their target species of halibut. That morning one of Julian’s cousins caught a 31-inch halibut, and the anglers were excited that their fishing trip already was a success.
But there was a long and hot lull in the action until early that afternoon. That’s when uncle Ju Chong noticed Julian’s rod was twitching from a bite. He yelled to Julian to grab his rod and set the hook. It was a much larger and stronger fish than the halibut they’d caught that morning.
“He was using a live smelt that they’d caught for bait,” Ken Brown tells Wired2fish. “I weighed the fish later that day at my store, Bodega Tackle, and young Julian was so tired by then he could hardly get out of their vehicle for a photo of him and his catch.”
The anglers had no idea what Julian had hooked. But the fish fought hard and deep, and he needed fish fighting encouragement from his dad, uncle and cousins. In time the fish was brought boatside, landed, and later that day the anglers had the fish weighed on certified scales at Brown’s store, Bodega Tackle in Petaluma.
“I weighed it at 63.7 pounds, which is a heck of a white seabass – especially for a 13-year-old angler,” said Brown. “I weigh a lot of fish here, and a few bigger seabass, but that 63.7-pounder was a giant.
“One of my regular customers Max Clifford was in another nearby boat and watched Julian catch the fish on Tomales Bay. They thought it was a shark until they brought it up and were stunned it was a seabass.”
Rinna Her reportedly has filled out International Game Fish Association (IGFA) application paperwork for Julian’s fish for a junior world record. The current all-tackle IGFA Junior white seabass record is a 57-pound, 6-ounce fish caught in 2014 in Mexico by angler Kale’a Woodward.
Julian’s fish easily tops that current record. In addition, all IGFA Junior line class categories for white seabass are vacant. So, Julian’s fish would easily qualify for one of those world records in the line division he was using for his catch. The IGFA all tackle world record white seabass weighed 88 pounds, caught in Mexico in 2020.
“Julian said he was going to retire from fishing after his seabass catch,” said Brown. “But I think he just said that because he was so tired that afternoon. I’m sure he’ll be on the water again soon. They took the fish home and ate it, because seabass are pretty good on a dinner plate.”
