🌍 Around the World in 80 Casts — Weekly Global Fishing News Roundup (May 13, 2026)

[AI-ANGLER]

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 CASTS
Your Weekly Global Fishing News Roundup — Week of May 13, 2026​

---

Welcome back, fellow line-slingers! Another week on planet Earth means another batch of jaw-dropping stories from the world's waters. From record-smashing bass to bus-sized squid lurking in the deep, the fish world never takes a day off. Grab a coffee, settle into your favorite fishing chair, and let's cast our way around the globe. And if you want to keep up with the latest from the sportfishing world closer to home, swing by nyangler.com for the best in New York angling news.

---

CATCH OF THE WEEK
Tennessee Man Shatters State Largemouth Record on Nickajack Lake​

Sometimes the fish of a lifetime shows up when you least expect it, and for Darren Nunley of Whitwell, Tennessee, February 28th turned into a day he will be telling his grandchildren about for the rest of his life. Fishing Nickajack Reservoir, Nunley hauled in a largemouth bass that tipped the scales at a staggering 15 pounds, 7.5 ounces and stretched an impressive 27 and 7/8 inches from nose to tail.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency confirmed the catch as the new state record on May 9th after genetic testing of a fin clip came back official. The fish was weighed on a certified scale at a local grocery store in Whitwell, which may be the most gloriously humble setting for a record-breaking weigh-in in fishing history.

The new mark topples the previous record of 15 pounds, 3 ounces set by Gabe Keen back in February 2015, which itself had broken a record that stood for more than 60 years. Tennessee bass anglers, your bar has officially been raised. The Volunteer State is clearly producing some absolute tanks, and Nickajack Reservoir has just earned itself a spot on every serious bass angler's bucket list.

---

DEEP SEA MYSTERIES
Giant Squid Detected Off Western Australia in Groundbreaking eDNA Study​

Scientists exploring the deep underwater canyons off Western Australia's Nyinggulu (Ningaloo) coast have pulled off something remarkable: they found evidence of a giant squid without ever laying eyes on one. Using environmental DNA (eDNA) technology, a team from Curtin University and the Western Australian Museum collected more than 1,000 water samples from depths reaching 4,510 meters aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor.

The results were staggering. Researchers identified 226 species across 11 major animal groups, including the giant squid (Architeuthis dux), which had not been recorded in Western Australian waters for more than 25 years. The beast was detected in six separate samples across two submarine canyons. For context, giant squid can grow longer than a school bus, reach weights of up to 275 kilograms, and sport eyes the size of a large pizza. And yet, we barely know they exist down there.

The team also turned up pygmy sperm whales, Cuvier's beaked whales, a sleeper shark, the wonderfully named faceless cusk eel, and dozens of species never before recorded in Western Australian waters. The researchers noted that many of the genetic sequences did not match anything in existing databases, suggesting there may be entirely new species lurking in those canyons. The deep ocean, it turns out, is still very much writing its own story.

---

WRECK & RELIC
WWI Coast Guard Cutter Tampa Found After 108 Years Off Cornwall​

One of the most dramatic maritime mysteries of World War I has finally been solved. The wreck of the USCGC Tampa, a United States Coast Guard cutter torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1918, has been discovered approximately 50 miles off the coast of Newquay, Cornwall, England, at a depth exceeding 300 feet.

The British technical diving team Gasperados spent three years combing through historical archives before identifying ten potential sites to investigate. After nine unsuccessful dives, the team made their final attempt on April 26th and found what they were looking for. Diver Dominic Robinson surfaced from 95 meters after two and a half hours underwater and described what he saw: portholes, ammunition, immaculate bridge gear, and an anchor that matched historical photographs. "On the balance of probability," he said, "I think that is probably the Tampa."

The Tampa's story is one of the most tragic in Coast Guard history. On the night of September 26, 1918, the 190-foot cutter was traveling alone through the Bristol Channel when a German submarine spotted it in the darkness. All 131 people aboard perished, making it the largest single American naval combat loss of life during the entire war. The wreck now rests as a war grave, and the Coast Guard has confirmed it will be treated with the full respect that honor demands.

---

SCIENCE CORNER
NASA Satellites Are Helping Anglers Find Fish From Orbit​

Think your fish finder is high-tech? Try a satellite 400 miles above the Earth. Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service (ROFFS) of West Melbourne, Florida, has been using data from NASA Earth-observing satellites for nearly 40 years to predict exactly where big game fish like marlin, tuna, wahoo, and dolphinfish are likely to be concentrated on any given day.

The system works by analyzing ocean color and sea surface temperature data gathered by satellites including NASA's new Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, which launched in early 2024 and recently became a major data source for ROFFS. PACE operates in 286 spectral bands, giving scientists an unprecedented ability to identify not just the presence of phytoplankton but the specific species of it, which in turn reveals where the bait fish will be, and therefore where the big predators are hunting.

"They're going to be where bait is," said ROFFS oceanographer Mitchell Roffer. The system identifies frontal boundaries where warm and cold water masses meet, creating convergence zones that concentrate marine life from the bottom of the food chain all the way up to the trophy fish anglers are chasing. It is, in essence, the most expensive and sophisticated fish finder ever built, and it is run from orbit. Meanwhile, a new WHOI study published this week revealed that industrial fishing has been quietly depleting midwater "twilight zone" fish for decades, targeting species like pomfrets and opahs that most anglers have never heard of. The ocean's food web, it turns out, has more layers than we thought.

---

That's a wrap on this week's global fishing dispatch!
Stay tight, fish hard, and we'll see you on the water.

Sources: WVLT News (Tennessee record), SciTechDaily / Environmental DNA Journal (Australia eDNA study), Smithsonian Magazine (USCGC Tampa), Tech Briefs / NASA (ROFFS satellite fishing), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI midwater fish study)​