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<\/p>\nVeteran guide Mike Frenette was fishing out of Venice, Louisiana, with two out-of-state fishermen on Feb. 19. They\u2019d gotten a late start that morning because of fog and the action was slow. By early afternoon, they still hadn\u2019t caught anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was frustrating, and I told my anglers we were going to make a run and try a new spot,\u201d Frenette tells Outdoor Life. \u201cIt was either gonna be a home run or nothing, I told them. But we weren\u2019t catching fish anyways, so we took off.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they got to the new spot, a shallow channel that dropped off into the Gulf, they saw rippled water from schools of big mullet pushing in heavy current. Diving pelicans were working them over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to set up the boat just right for us to get into casting position,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when I did, the first cast my angler Jason made got slammed by a big redfish.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Veteran guide Mike Frenette with another one of the big bull reds they caught that day. Photo courtesy Mike Frenette<\/p>\n
Jason Halfen, who was visiting from Boston, had cast out a large \u00be-ounce Strike King Red Eyed Shad crankbait<\/a>, and he was now tight to a huge redfish. His fishing partner, Mike Enloe from Kansas, had thrown a large soft plastic jig into the melee of boiling mullet and big reds, but couldn\u2019t buy a strike.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird, because the reds were frenzy feeding, but wouldn\u2019t hit Mike\u2019s lure,\u201d Frennete says. \u201cAfter four or five casts with no strikes, Mike changed over to a red-eyed shad like Jason used and immediately hooked a big red.\u201d<\/p>\n Halfen fought his red drum for at least 20 minutes. He was using heavy spinning tackle and 20-pound braid.<\/p>\n \u201cJason is a big guy and an experienced fisherman, and he was really putting the muscle to his redfish,\u201d Frenette says. \u201cBut the red kept running and fighting, while Mike brought in his redfish, which was a 30-pounder. Then he cast again and hooked another one.\u201d<\/p>\n Halfen kept battling his brute of a redfish, and he finally worked it near the boat, where Frenette got its head into his landing net.<\/p>\n \u201cI got ahold of the fish and tried to lift it, but couldn\u2019t,\u201d says the 70-year-old veteran guide, who\u2019s been fishing out of Venice for 40 years. \u201cI can pick up a fifty pounder with no problem, but I couldn\u2019t lift this fish into the boat without help.\u201d<\/p>\n As soon as they boated the big red, Frenette put a flexible tape measure on it. The fish was massive, and it could have been a state record, but they were unable to legally keep it to get it legally weighed. New state regulations<\/a> require all bull reds to be released unharmed, so they followed the law and put the fish back.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Mike Frenette<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Mike Frenette<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Mike Frenette<\/p>\n The fish taped out at 48.25 inches long with a 34-inch girth, according to Frenette, who owns the Redfish Lodge of Louisiana<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a big red with a girth that size. Most reds we catch weighing thirty to forty pounds have girths under thirty inches.\u201d<\/p>\n Frenette says the fish must have weighed at least 60 pounds, and he guesses it was 65 or more. Using a basic weight formula<\/a> for redfish based on length and girth, the fish\u2019s estimated weight is closer to 69 pounds. This would have easily beat the current Louisiana redfish record<\/a>, which weighed 61 pounds and was caught in 1992 by David Webber.<\/p>\n Frenette says they had no qualms about releasing the fish, though. That way it can spawn and benefit the local redfish population. Besides, they had plenty of big bull reds to catch and release that day.<\/p>\n \u201cWe fished for over three hours, and it was non-stop hook, fight, cast, hook, fight, cast,\u201d Frenette says. \u201cAt times we saw 50 redfish working over the big baits at the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/993895b021d3c1817b377ce627afe8a7.jpeg\"\/)
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