PHILADELPHIA – The first time Frank Hubert Jr. caught the New Jersey state record bowfin he figured he’d have to kill the beloved, air-breathing fish to prove it, so he took a nice picture and released his catch back into the swamps.
That behemoth bowfin weighed 13 pounds, 12 ounces by Hubert’s scale, easily besting the 2017 record of 11 pounds and 8.5 ounces, owned by an 8-year-old fishing with live bait on Mantua Creek, a large, tidal tributary of the Delaware River in Gloucester County.
Hubert, a Wilmington native, may catch more bowfin than any other fishermen in the Mid-Atlantic, by choice…