ILWACO — As the 50-pound fishing line stripped from a screaming Shimano reel, John Cooney knew a potential world-record tuna was on the other end.

A little over four months after that fateful September fishing trip, Cooney’s thoughts were confirmed last Friday when he was recognized by International Game Fish Association (IGFA) for catching the world’s longest albacore tuna, measuring 87 centimeters, or 34.25 inches, besting the previous record by about an inch.

“That means the current International Game Fish Association All Tackle [Length] World Record for albacore tuna was caught out of Ilwaco, Washington this past September,” Cooney summarized last week.

Hooked on tuna fishing

Cooney, 59, of Portland, has been a frequent tuna fishermen out of Ilwaco since 2007, after first getting hooked with Shake N’ Bake captain/owner Mike Colbach.

“Albacore tuna fishing will ruin you for any other kind of fishing,” said Cooney, who relishes the fight a determined tuna presents.

“My favorite fish to catch are tuna and, in particular, albacore. I like tuna because they are incredibly strong fighting fish and they taste great, too. Albacore are powerful swimmers — a 20-pound albacore tied tail-to-tail with a 40-pound salmon would drown the salmon,” he added.

Cooney credits Ilwaco’s live bait availability, sold by Columbia River Bait Company, for helping make the record catch possible.

“While albacore are caught all along the Pacific Coast from Northern California to the Gulf of Alaska, very few ports have access to live bait like Ilwaco,” Cooney said. “Albacore can be caught using variety of methods, but none match the excitement of hooking and landing an albacore using a live bait.”

Cooney was fishing for tuna roughly 40 miles off the Washington coast with skipper Houston Aho on Sept. 8 when he hooked the record-size tuna.

“I knew that I had a potential world record fish when I caught it but I was not sure until I measured it. We normally gaff our fish, but for the IGFA Length records you have to release the fish, so when I saw it was a big fish, I had Captain Aho grab the net so we could bring it onboard unharmed,” Cooney said.

He knew there was potential to break the record due to the larger albacore that the area has enjoyed the past couple of years. The world record at the beginning of the season was set in New Zealand waters in 2022, but was then broken by a fisherman in Mallorca, Spain in July, who nabbed an albacore with a length of 84 centimeters, or just over 33 inches.

That record would stand for just a couple of months.

“We fished on Sept. 8 and got into some large fish on a bait stop. I knew there was potential for a record, but I was not sure until I got the fish on the IGFA measuring mat to confirm it was a record fish,” Cooney said of his 87-centimeter catch.