The Villacoa River, in Venezuela, was the site of William F. Craig’s catch of a blackstriped peacock, (Cichla intermedia) on January 4, 2008. The Wellington, Fla., USA, angler caught the fish which weighed 3.86 kg (8 lb 8 oz) on 10 kg (20 lb) class line using a Smithwick lure. The current IGFA record is 4 lb 6 oz caught 10 years ago on the Caura River in Venezuela.

Capt. Jay Wright Jr., of Hollywood, Fla., USA, who is being honored with an IGFA Lifetime Achievement Award with 200 records as a guide and angler, took the role of an angler while fishing La Zona, Uruguay River, in Argentina when he landed a dorado (Salminus maxillosus) on January 16. He was guided by local Capt. Enzo Rico, for the fish that weighed 15.42 kg (34 lb 0 oz) and pulled in on 4 kg (8 lb) class line using a Strom Swim lure as bait. The current IGFA line class record is 24 lb caught on the Rio Tarija in Bolivia in 2005.

Fly-fishing the Florida Keys USA, Martin Arostegui, Coral Gables, Fla., guided by Capt. Chris Morrison, landed a cero mackerel (Scomberomorus regalis) January 30 using 3 kg (6 lb) class tippet. Caught off Marathon, Fla. with his own hand-tied Arostegui Pilchard fly, the fish weighed 3.15 kg (6 lb 15 oz).  Arostegui is hoping to add to his 200 plus IGFA world records with the men’s fly record of the catch which currently stands at 6 lb 8 oz.

It took 25 minutes for Jorge de Aguiar, of Manaus Amazonas, Brazil, fly-fishing the country’s Rio Tumbira, to land an arawana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) he caught on November 8. The fish weighed 5.43 kg (11 lb 15 oz) and was caught on 8 kg (16 lb) class tippet.  The current IGFA line class tippet record is a 4 lb arawana recorded in 2004 on the Urabaxi River in Brazil. 

Russell Jensen, of Bronx, N.Y., USA used cut bait while fishing Travessoa, Brazil, to entice a jundia (Leiarius marmoratus) on January 23. He’s submitted the 11.68 kg (25 lb 12 oz) for an IGFA All-Tackle class record.  The current IGFA record set in 2004 on the Teres Pires River in Brazil is 20 lb.

Singapore angler Bruno Binet, guided by Jean-Francois Helias (who is being honored with an IGFA Lifetime Achievement Award), landed a brownbanded bamboo shark (Shiloscyllium punctatum) on February 10, weighing 2.89 kg (6 lb 5 oz). They were fishing Kut Island, Gulf of Siam, Thailand, using squid for bait for the All-Tackle class record which presently stands in the IGFA record books at 4 lb 10 oz from the same area.

The following day Bruno Binet, Singapore, again guided by Jean-Francois Helias, landed a duskytail grouper (Epinephelus bleekeri), weighing .95 kg (2 lb 1 oz) for an IGFA All-Tackle class submission. Binet used a squid for bait while fishing the Gulf of Siam’s Kut Island in Thailand. The weight of the fish could tie the current IGFA record also caught on Kut Island last year.

Jean-Francois Helias also guided still another angler to a possible IGFA world record earlier on January 30, in Ratchaburi, Thailand, when French fly-fisherman Frabrice Chassaing of St Brevin Les Pins, France, hooked a sorubim (Pseudoplatystoma spp.).The fish, caught with a blue floating streamer on 6 kg (12 lb) class tippet, weighed 5.52 kg (12 lb 2 oz).  If approved it would be the first record in the currently vacant tippet class.

Four times the strength of her 4 kg (8 lb) class tippet was the net weight result for Dr. Randee Ward, of Coppell, Texas, USA, who was fly fishing and landed a 14.51 kg (32 lb 0 oz) red drum, (Sciaenops ocellatus). Guided by Gregg Arnold, while fishing Hopedale, Louisiana USA. on January 13, it took her 62 minutes to land the fish which is up for an IGFA women’s tippet record that currently stands at 25 lb recorded two years ago on the Indian River in Florida.

Brazilian angler Gilberto Fernandes, guided by Edson Alexandre, landed a redtail catfish, (pirarara) (Phractocephalus hemioliopterus) on February 15, weighing 32 kg (70 lb 8 oz). Using 8 kg (16 lb) class line with cut fish for bait it took Fernandes in 45 minutes to wrestle the fish from Brazil’s Rio Amazona.  He’s hoping to break his own line class record of 43 lb 10 oz caught two years ago on the same river.