Unofficial World Record Tambaqui (Pacu) Caught

[PlatinumHooks]

Dave Mercer Catches Unofficial World Record!

Orinoco River, Venezuela - during a recent trip to Saranda Resort in Venezuela; Dave Mercer, host of The Facts of Fishing achieved one of his life-long goals, which was catching a world record fish.

This trip started off as a routine Facts of Fishing shoot. Dave was fishing the world-famous Orinoco River for saber-toothed payara. After catching several huge payara, Dave hooked into something that almost spooled all of the line off his reel. He initially thought he had hooked into a record payara since he was fishing the exact area that all world record payara have been caught. Much to his surprise, he had hooked into a world record, but not a payara. After over ten minutes of fighting the record fish, Dave landed a new world record Tambaqui. The former world record was caught June 3rd, 2002 in Mexiano Island, Brazil and weighed 20lbs. 0oz. Dave's Tambaqui weighed 31lbs. 0oz. This fish was weighed, photographed and released and is in the process of applying to be approved as the official new world record Tambaqui by the IGFA.

The world record fish was caught using a Shimano Crucial 610 heavy action rod and a Shimano Calais reel spooled with 65lb Stren Super Braid and a Hot Tiger Rapala Super Shad Rap.