Record – Page 49 – Syndication Server

Angler’s tiny catch breaks 27-year-old record

A Missouri angler had to convince friends that his recent catch of a longear sunfish broke a 27-year-old state record, simply because the fish was so small.

A Missouri angler had to convince friends that his recent catch of a longear sunfish broke a 27-year-old state record – simply because the fish was so small.

But at 4 ounces the sunfish caught by Robert Audrain III earlier this month shattered the previous record, set in 1993, by a full ounce.

“It’s funny because most of my friends thought it was a joke,” Audrain told the Missouri Department of Conservation, which announced the record last Thursday via social media. “Because of the fish’s size, they really didn’t think that it was a record.”

Audrain caught the sunfish via throwline, or handline, July 3 from a dock on his father-in-law’s private pond in Franklin County. He had been fishing with his 12-year-old son.

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Because it was not caught with a rod and reel it falls into Missouri’s “alternative method” category. The rod and reel record is an 11-ounce longear sunfish caught from a private pond in 2007.

For the sake of comparison, the all-tackle world record is a 1-pound, 12-ounce longear sunfish caught in New Mexico’s Elephant Butte Lake in 1985.

Audrain, whose hands dwarfed his sunfish as he posed for a photo, plans to put his prized catch on prominent display at home:

“My buddy’s father is a taxidermist, and I think I’m going to have him mount it,” he said.

–Image courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Richard Glasper (1976-78)

Richard Glasper was a great guard on a very mediocre Florida squad in the mid-to-late 70s known for his elite vertical leap and quick hands.

Richard Glasper (1976-78) – Guard

Richard Glasper was a great guard on a very mediocre Florida squad in the mid-to-late 70s known for his elite vertical leap and quick hands.

Perhaps one of the greatest JUCO transfers in program history, he played in Gainesville for two seasons averaging double digits in points both years while setting a still-standing school career record for steals per game (1.83). He earned All-SEC honors in 1978 when he led the team in both steals and assists and his career average of 4.26 assists a game still stands as second-best in school history.

During the 1976-77 season, Glasper averaged 11.9 points per game making 53.5 percent of his shots, along with 2.1 rebounds; the following year, he averaged 13 points on 48.5 percent shooting from the field, along with 3.1 rebounds.

Despite Glasper’s innate athletic ability, his 6-foot frame limited his prospects in the professional ranks and he went undrafted after leaving school, never playing in the NBA.

With time to kill, angler smashes 62-year-old lake trout record

A Maine angler “with a couple of hours to kill” caught a lake trout that’s likely to shatter a state record that has stood for 62 years.

A Maine angler “with a couple of hours to kill” last Thursday caught a lake trout that’s likely to shatter the 62-year-old state record.

The lake trout caught by Erik Poland at Lower Richardson Lake weighed 39.2 pounds. The state record is a 31.5-pound lake trout caught by Hollis Grindle at Beech Hill Pond in 1958.

Poland told For The Win Outdoors that he has provided catch details and a document signed by the Maine Warden Service to The Maine Sportsman, which maintains fishing records, and expects his record to be approved soon.

“I don’t see any obstacles in that process,” he said.

Poland, 34, of Andover, told the Bangor Daily News that he went fishing mainly to pass time. “I had a couple of hours to kill [so] I thought I’d fish for salmon for awhile, go for a swim, then head home.”

When he failed to locate salmon on his sonar device, Poland dropped a DB Smelt lure 94 feet to the bottom, where he saw markings that indicated the presence of lake trout.

His first strike was by what is now the pending state-record fish, which he fought for more than an hour before realizing his net was too small.

“I walked it up to the back of the boat, looked at my 18- to 20-inch net and quickly kicked that to the side,” he told the Bangor Daily News. “It was half the size it needed to be. So I just grabbed [the fish] by the gill plate and hauled it up over the stern of the boat.”

Poland used lead-core line and a two-inch lure tied to a fluorocarbon leader with a breaking strength of only eight pounds, making the catch even more remarkable. “I can’t even dare to guess how many times it ran line out on me, and then I’d reel it back in,” he said.

He described the catch as bittersweet because going for a record meant killing the fish.

“There was a fleeting moment where I really wanted to put it back,” he said. “But ultimately, I would have been the biggest liar in the world if I had. Then it really would have just been a fish tale.”

Lake trout are found throughout most of Canada, into Alaska, and in parts of the U.S., where they were introduced. In the southern regions the fish tend to remain in cooler water at extreme depths.

The International Game Fish Assn. list as the all-tackle world record a 72-pound lake trout caught in Great Bear Lake in Canada’s Northern Territories in 1995.

–Images courtesy of Erik Poland

Enormous largemouth bass a dream catch for 13-year-old

With a video camera strapped to his chest, and unbridled enthusiasm, a 13-year-old recently made Alabama bass-fishing history.

With a video camera strapped to his chest, and unbridled enthusiasm, a 13-year-old boy recently made Alabama bass-fishing history.

While the 15.4-pound largemouth bass caught by Emory Carver on June 26 did not establish a new record, it became the eighth heaviest bass ever caught in the state, according to Alabama Outdoor News.

Moreover, the fish Carver reeled from a private lake in Henry County, if the weight was accurate, was shy of the 23-year-old Alabama record (16.5 pounds) by only a little more than a pound.

Carver, who is from Vestavia Hills, joins a relatively small group of anglers who have landed largemouth bass weighing 15-plus pounds. (The world record is a tie involving 22-pound, 4-ounce fish caught in 1932 and 2009.)

“I set the hook and it was hard to reel in,” Carver told AON. “It jumped about a foot in the air, and I thought it was 10 pounds. I didn’t know what a 15-pound bass looked like.”

The young angler who long dreamed of cracking the 10-pound barrier recorded his catch and edited some of the footage into a 21-minute video (posted above) showing some his other exploits on the lake.

The giant bass is featured briefly at the start of the video, and from 4:50 to 8:40. “Ten pounder! Ten pounder!” Carver exclaims, while reeling from the shore. “Got to get it in!”

The fish was not released quickly, and at one point it was dropped onto the grass, but it was revived and set free.

“I never thought about keeping it,” Carver said. “I wanted to throw it back so someone else could catch it when it weighed maybe 16 pounds. I’m hoping someone can make me a mount from the picture.”

Carver said he was visiting a grandparent near Dothan “and a 60-year-old man I know down there took me fishing at this private lake.”

The bass was hooked on a Texas-rigged Senko bait tied to 14-pound-test line. Carver’s heaviest bass prior to this catch weighed five pounds.

–Image courtesy of Emory Carver

112-pound blue catfish truly a landmark catch

Wade Kaminski on Friday reeled from the Mississippi River “the fish of a lifetime,” a 5-foot-long blue catfish that weighed 112 pounds.

“This is the one I’ve been chasing my whole life,” Kaminski, who is from St. Charles, Mo., told NBC affiliate KSDK.

He joins a small number of anglers to have landed blue catfish topping 100 pounds. (The Missouri state record is 130 pounds; the world record is a 143-pound blue catfish caught in Virginia’s Kerr Lake in 2011.)

Kaminski told For The Win Outdoors that a longtime goal has been to surpass the 100-pound mark. “Prior to Friday my biggest blue cat was 90 pounds and I knew right away that this fish was much larger,” he said.

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The images, with the 630-foot St. Louis Gateway Arch in the background, certainly show a fish with substantial girth.

Kaminski and Jake Derhake were drift-fishing with skipjack herring as bait when the giant catfish struck at a depth of 30 feet. The battle, on 80-pound-test braided line, lasted about eight minutes.

Their scale topped out at 100 pounds so Kaminski and Derhake motored to a St. Louis guide who was fishing near the Arch and used his scale to obtain an official weight.

The catfish was kept in an aerated live well during transit and released after it was immortalized in photos.

“We want these fish to be around for the next generations or maybe in a couple years to catch this fish again and get the same enjoyment we got today,” Kaminski told KSDK.

–Images courtesy of Wade Kaminski

Wife is ‘real’ angler, but husband lands record paddlefish

An Oklahoma man who said his wife is the “real fisherwoman” set a state record Sunday by landing a 146-pound, 11-ounce paddlefish.

An Oklahoma man who said his wife is the “real fisherwoman” of the family set a state record Sunday by landing a 146-pound, 11-ounce paddlefish.

James Lukehart’s catch also eclipsed the unofficial rod-and-reel world record – a 144-pound paddlefish pulled from a Kansas pond in 2018 – by nearly three pounds.

(Paddlefish, which eat plankton, are caught with snagging techniques and world records are kept mostly by scientists.)

Lukehart was fishing with his wife, Caitlin, on Keystone Lake, site of several recent impressive paddlefish catches. In fact, the Lukeharts’ guide, Jeremiah Mefford, held the previous state record.

Mefford, who runs Reel Good Time Guide Service, told For The Win Outdoors that watching Lukehart beat the record he set in May “was the best feeling ever,” and added: “I would watch it 100 times again.”

Both paddlefish were carefully released with the assistance of a state biologist. (Paddlefish are fragile and regulations are strict. Anglers must use barbless hooks and can harvest only two paddlefish per year.)

Lukehart, who is from Edmond, told The Oklahoman that he likes to hunt and that his wife is the “real fisherwoman.” The couple had hoped merely to catch a paddlefish they could cook in the smoker.

Caitlin caught an 82-pound paddlefish that “we thought was enormous,” Lukehart said. He later hooked the true giant, measuring 70.5 inches and boasting a 45-inch girth.

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“We got out there in the morning and kind of joked around about catching a state record,” Lukehart recalled. “I had no idea that there was even a world-record fish out there. And let alone did I know I was fishing with the guy who had the state record. Until I caught it, I had no idea.”

The fish made several long runs before it could be handled safely alongside the boat.

According to the Tulsa World, Lukehart waded with the paddlefish to keep water moving through its gills until Jason Schooley, senior fisheries biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, arrived to collect a weight and measurements.

Schooley stayed with the fish until he felt it could swim off on its own. The swimming pattern was then monitored from the boat via sonar equipment, and the fish seemed to be OK.

–Images showing James Lukehart and his record paddlefish are courtesy of Reel Good Time Guide Service

Angler lands record trout, but reaction is mixed

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game last week announced that a 31.25-inch rainbow trout caught by a visiting angler is a new state record.

The hefty trout, caught in late May by Wyoming’s Brett Jones at American Falls Reservoir, replaced the catch-and-release record of 30.5 inches, set in 2018.

But IDFG’s Facebook announcement generated mixed reactions. It seems that not everybody is a fan of catch-and-release records because they require only a measurement and don’t include the weight of the fish.

“Catch-and-release records are a joke,” one commenter wrote.

“They don’t mean jack,” another chimed in.

It’s worth noting that some comments were congratulatory – “Wow!” and “Awesome!” are two examples – and that catch-and-release record programs are designed to encourage conservation.

Because the fish must be released, they can be caught again at even larger sizes.

In Jones’ case, he had to provide a photo of the ruler or tape showing the measurement of his trout from its snout to the end of its tail. He also had to include a photo of himself with the fish, and the name of at least one witness to the measurement and release.

One of the Facebook detractors claimed to have caught “at least three bigger than that.”

Perhaps. But Idaho has common rainbow trout – the type caught by Jones – and a faster-growing Gerrard strain of rainbow trout.

The certified weight record for Gerrard rainbow trout is 37 pounds. That fish was caught at Pend Oreille Lake in 1947. The Idaho catch-and-release record for Gerrard rainbow trout, also set at Pend Oreille Lake, is 36.5 inches.

The common rainbow trout certified weight record is 20 pounds. That fish, caught on the Snake River in 2009, measured 34.25 inches.

So it might not have been significantly heavier than the 31.25-inch trout released by Jones.

–Image showing Brett Jones and his record rainbow trout is courtesy of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game

Alabama to finish 2020 CFB season with 11-1 record according to CFN

Alabama finished 2019 with a final record of 11-2, College Football News predicts that Alabama drops one game in 2020 with an 11-1 record.

Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide football team ended their 2019 campaign with a final regular-season record of 10-2, with losses to the eventual National Champions, LSU at home and in-state rival, Auburn, at Jordan Hare.

This record, paired with a win over Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, would bring joy to most programs across the country. However, this record led to Alabama missing the College Football Playoffs for the first time since its creation, which did not sit well with members of the team and fans.

College Football News predicted the records of the entire SEC and believes Alabama will end their 2020 season with a final record of 11-1. The lone loss is to come from Alabama’s contest against LSU in Baton Rouge, LA.

The loss to the Tigers seems interesting seeing that they lost most of their team, especially their Heisman-winning quarterback Joe Burrow; and members of their coaching staff, more specifically Joe Brady, the teams former passing game coordinator.

All together, Alabama would be set to face off against Georgia, in the SEC Championship, as LSU suffered three total losses in their prediction, leaving the Crimson Tide to be the SEC West’s representative.

Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on all things Alabama football as we get closer to the start of the 2020 college football season!

Teen lands 583-pound grouper on second deep-sea fishing trip

A 16-year-old girl on her second deep-sea fishing trip reeled up an estimated 583-pound goliath grouper off Florida.

A 16-year-old girl who went deep-sea fishing recently for only her second time, reeled up an estimated 583-pound goliath grouper, which dwarfs the women’s world record for the species.

“I was, like, in shock pretty much,” Reegan Werner told the TwinCities Pioneer Press on Saturday. “My biggest fish before that was a salmon.”

Werner, who is from Farmington, Minn., was fishing May 31 near Marco Island off Florida with her brother, mother, and stepfather.

Werner’s brother, Owen, hooked a hammerhead shark before the enormous grouper devoured Werner’s bait. Her catch, after a fierce but short battle of 15 minutes, became the highlight of the family excursion.

“These things have amazing power,” Paul Hartman, Werner’s stepfather, told the Pioneer Press. “A 115-pound girl catching a fish like that is beyond explanation just with the laws of physics.”

Goliath grouper have been protected off Florida since 1990, so the estimated weight was obtained using a time-tested measurement formula. The fish, which measured 83 inches with a 75-inch girth, was released immediately after the measurement process and a quick photo.

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According to the International Game Fish Assn., the heaviest goliath grouper caught by a woman weighed 366 pounds. That fish, caught by Betsy Walker off Panama in 1965, is the women’s world record for 80-pound-test line.

The overall world record is a 680-pound goliath grouper caught by Lynn Joyner off Fernandina Beach, Fla., in 1961. Joyner’s fish also holds the men’s record for 80-pound-test line.

Thanks to the longstanding harvesting ban, the population is growing and larger fish are again being encountered by scuba divers and catch-and-release anglers.

According to Hartman, who fishes often in the Gulf of Mexico, the grouper caught by Werner has been caught before and is nicknamed “My Lord.”

He explained that it’s because “each time it showed up, all anyone could say is, ‘My Lord, look at that!’ ”

–Image showing Reegan Werner and the giant goliath grouper is courtesy of Paul Hartman

Angler lands record catfish, creatively spares its life

A Nebraska angler has shattered the state record for flathead catfish with the catch of an 89-pound behemoth he fought for 45 minutes.

A Nebraska angler has shattered the state record for flathead catfish with the catch last Saturday of an 89-pound behemoth he fought for 45 minutes.

But perhaps as noteworthy are the steps Richard Hagen took to ensure that the fish, reeled from the Missouri River late at night, was not killed.

They included storing the massive flathead in an unplugged deep freezer filled with aerated water and – after Hagen failed to find an aquarium interested in housing the fish – trucking the freezer back to the river so he could release his prized catch back into the river.

“He got me wet when he took off,” Hagen, 61, told the York News-Times. “I said, ‘Goodbye and lead a happy life.’ ’’

Two days passed between the time Hagen caught the flathead he named Brutus, while fishing with his brother near Brownsville, and the time he let it go.

During that period Hagen weighed Brutus on his home scale (88 pounds), found a certified scale at a local business (89 pounds), and contacted the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission so the fish could be inspected. He kept the water-filled freezer in the back of his truck.

On Monday, Daryl Bauer, fisheries outreach program manager for the Game and Parks Commission, blogged that he was skeptical about a potential new record … until he inspected the enormous flathead.

“Looks like our rod & reel state record flathead will now stand at 89 pounds!” Bauer wrote.

As of Friday morning, the record still stood at 80 pounds, for a flathead catfish pulled from Loup Power Canal in 1988. Bauer, however, wrote that he needed time to complete paperwork before making Hagen’s record official.

Bauer told the News-Times that he commended Hagen for releasing the fish after obtaining a weight and capturing images.

“That fuels everyone’s imagination,” Bauer said. “There’s a state record flathead catfish [still] swimming around in there.”

Hagen, who lives in Swanton, used a bluegill as bait and fought the flathead on 50-pound-test monofilament.

Said Matt Seitz, conservation officer for Game and Parks: “That’s the biggest freshwater fish I’ve ever seen up close.”

–Image courtesy of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission