The NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries recently certified a new state record for the Jolthead Porgy (Calamus bajonado).
Brock Davenport of Beaufort caught the 16-pound fish on Aug. 9, 2026. Davenport’s fish replaced the previous state record for Jolthead Porgy landed by Randy Brock in 2015 that weighed 14 pounds, 14 ounces.
Davenport was fishing out of Wrightsville Beach with his friend, Jeffery Thomas, using cigar minnows for bait when he landed the fish on 80-pound braid with a Penn Slammer rod and a Penn 750 reel. The fish measured 29.5 inches total length (from the tip of the nose to the stretched end of the tail) and had a girth of 24 inches. Davenport said it took about 10 minutes to reel in the fish.
Jolthead Porgy are commonly associated with hard-bottom and coral habitats and feed primarily on crabs, mollusks and sea urchins. Unlike many other reef fish, large adult Jolthead Porgy are generally solitary, rather than schooling. They can be identified by a long, rounded forehead, a blue line below the eyes and orange corners in their mouths. In the Atlantic waters off the southeastern United States, Jolthead Porgy are managed by the U.S. South Atlantic Fishery Management Council as part of the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan.
For regulation information, including requirements for a descending device for Jolthead Porgy and other snapper/grouper species, visit the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s regulations webpage.
For more information on records for state saltwater fish, go to the division’s State Saltwater Records webpage or contact the North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament staff at saltwater.citations@deq.nc.gov.
Download a photo of Davenport and his fish.