Some records arrive with fanfare. Others surface quietly, in fog so thick, you can barely see past the bow. And every so often, a record comes together in a way no one could script, pairing decades of experience with beginner’s luck, and patience with raw endurance—all in a fishery still revealing just how much it has changed.
That was the case off Virginia Beach this January, when High Hopes, captained by Capt. David Wright, returned to Rudee Inlet towing an Atlantic bluefin tuna that would ultimately tip the scales at 832 pounds—a new Virginia state record.
At the other end of the rod was 23-year-old Mike Rogerson, a project engineer from Virginia Beach who had never fought a fish remotely close to that size—and nearly hadn’t been on the trip at all…