Big-game fishing must have been incredible but also challenging in the 1950s, when anglers were without such luxuries as sonar fish finders, high-tech reels, and GPS guidance systems.
It was a different era, to be sure, long before the concept of catch and release, when intrepid anglers braved rough seas in search of adventure and record-setting catches.
This week the International Game Fish Assn. marked the 66th anniversary of one of the most enduring and distinguished records in the IGFA’s 80-year history: “Lou Marron’s historic capture of the of the All-Tackle World Record swordfish.”
On May 7, 1953, Marron landed an 1,182-pound broadbill swordfish after a two-hour battle off Iquiqui, Chile.
In the decades that followed, despite the advent of technology designed to tilt big-game fishing in the favor of anglers, nobody has been able to catch a bigger swordfish under IGFA rules.
The IGFA, in its Facebook commemoration, also posted a copy of Marron’s record submission. Louis E. Marron was from Brielle, New Jersey, and a member of two big-game fishing clubs.
The record swordfish, hooked while trolling a live bonito from aboard the Flying Heart III, measured 14-plus feet and boasted a girth of 78 inches.
The line Marron used was tested with the cooperation of the American Museum of Natural History. Marron was notified of the record approval by IGFA founding member Francesca LaMonte on June 11, 1953.
–Images courtesy of the International Game Fish Assn.
