Tag: state record

Bowfisherman shoots record brown trout, sparking anger online

“Absolute waste of a trophy trout,” one critic wrote in response to the announcement by South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.

South Dakota last week recognized a new state bowfishing record for brown trout, stirring anger on social media.

“New state record alert!” South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks exclaimed via social media. “Ty Smith broke a record in the ‘bowfishing’ category with this 6lb, 12oz brown trout out of Lake Oahe. Congratulations, Ty!”

The issue some had was that brown trout are prized by most hook-and-line anglers (notably fly anglers) as a catch-and-release species. Trophy-size trout, they maintain, ought to be returned to the water.

“Absolute [waste] of a trophy trout, no records broken only a giant lost,” reads the top Facebook comment, which garnered more than 600 reactions.

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South Dakota keeps hook-and-line records in a separate category.

Bowfishing records are part of a larger category described as “unrestricted records.” Unrestricted methods include spearing, snagging, and bow-and-arrow.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBryjD9q17o/

 

“I didn’t know this was a thing, or even ethical or legal,” one follower chimed in, in reference to bowfishing.

While many were critical of Smith, lots of followers were supportive.

A sampling:

–“Awesome trophy and great eating! The great sport of bowfishing continues to be awesome!”

–“Probably cooked up just fine.”

–“Fly fishermen are liberals of the sport.”

For those wondering, the South Dakota hook-and-line record for brown trout stands at 24 pounds, 8 ounces, for a fish caught (and kept) at Canyon Lake in 1990.

The world record is listed as a 44-pound, 5-ounce brown trout caught in New Zealand in 2020.

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Texas angler’s record sucker is massive, could get much bigger

The behemoth smallmouth buffalo, landed in Austin, Texas, was less than 10 pounds shy of the 31-year-old world record.

A Texas angler has been awarded a state catch-and-release angling record nearly three months after landing a massive smallmouth buffalo at an Austin reservoir.

Texas Parks and Wildlife announced the record Friday via social media, stating: “Look what’s still swimming in Lady Bird Lake. At 71 lb, this Smallmouth Buffalo is a new state record and was released to grow some more.”

Austin Anderson reeled in the enormous fish, a member of the sucker family, on June 10.

For comparison, the state rod-and-reel record for smallmouth buffalo (not released) stands at 82.22 pounds for a fish caught in 1993 at Athens Lake. That catch, by Randy Collins, is also the current world record for the species.

Smallmouth buffalo are native to the Mississippi River and its major tributaries and surrounding waters.

From Texas Parks and Wildlife: “The species is also found in Gulf slope drainages from Alabama to the Rio Grande River drainage. In Texas, smallmouth buffalo are found in most large streams, rivers, and reservoirs exclusive of the Panhandle.”

They’re similar in appearance to bigmouth buffalo, except for a lighter coloration and “distinctive sucker-type mouth.”

Smallmouth buffalo, which can live 100-plus years, are sometimes misidentified as common carp.

Fishing captain ‘pulls rabbit out of his hat,’ resulting in a state record

Fishing was slow on Talking Trash Charters off Maryland until the skipper worked his magic.

Fishing was slow on Talking Trash Charters off Maryland until the skipper worked his magic.

“We had a long morning trolling with no bites,” London J. Anthony told the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “Later in the day, Captain Chris Little…pulled a rabbit out of his hat and put us all on a pile of tilefish.”

And one of them was a state record.

On what was a double hook-up on blueline tilefish, Anthony caught a 20.6-pounder that measured 37.25 inches; the other fish was 24 inches.

“I felt like I was reeling in three cinder blocks,” Anthony said.

The captain turned away from trolling and had his clients start deep-dropping a cut ballyhoo chunk bait using a hand-cranked conventional reel. The location was Poorman’s Canyon off Ocean City.

It turned out to be a good choice, as Anthony’s fish surpassed the old state record of 20.0 pounds caught by Robert Purcell in September 2012 at Norfolk Canyon.

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Anthony’s fish was weighed on a certified scale at Crabs to Go in Berlin.

Maryland Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission chair Scott Lenox and DNR recreational fisheries coordinator Erik Zlokovitz confirmed the species and the record.

More from the Maryland DNR:

The blueline tilefish is a bottom dweller found in water 240-780 feet deep from New Jersey to the Campeche Banks of Mexico. It is frequently found in the same habitat as groupers and snappers, preferring irregular bottoms with sand, mud, and shell hash. It has been found to burrow head-first in cone-shaped sand piles.

Photo courtesy of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. 

Angler adds to ‘world champ’ status with ‘monstrous’ white perch

No stranger to setting fishing world records, Hall of Fame angler Scott Smith set a state record with his latest catch from Lake St. Clair.

No stranger to setting world records, Hall of Fame fisherman Scott Smith set a state record with his latest catch from Lake St. Clair, Michigan—a 2-pound, 5.92-ounce white perch which he called “monstrous.”

The fish measured 16.25 inches and beat the previous state record of 2 pounds and 13.57 inches caught in 2015 by Cindy Cordo at Bear Lake in Muskegan County, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Smith made the catch on April 25 using a minnow. The record catch was verified by fisheries biologist Cleyo Harris.

Smith, who has been fishing close to 65 years, caught his first world-record fish in 1996.

“After setting his first world record from the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame for a rainbow trout in 1996, he was hooked,” the MDNR stated. “He now holds 53 world records – a mix of line-class and all-tackle awards – in fly fishing and has participated in fishing tournaments around the globe.”

The white perch was his first state-record fish.

“Sometimes you’re in the right spot at the right time, and sometimes you just get lucky,” Smith said.

Angler learns why his record fish was rescinded; it’s not good

A Kansas fisherman who had his state-record white crappie voided and “didn’t understand why,” now knows the reason. X-rays don’t lie.

A Kansas fisherman who had his state-record white crappie voided and “didn’t understand why,” now knows the reason his record fish was tossed out and the old record reinstated.

After an investigation prompted by a tip, officials from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks discovered weights inside the “record” catch, as reported by KSNT.

Bobby Parkhurst submitted for state-record consideration a crappie that weighed 4.07 pounds on a certified scale. It was confirmed by John Reinke, the KDWP assistant director of Fisheries, as previously reported.

Parkhurst had caught the fish last April from Pottawatomie State Fishing Lakes No. 2, and it was reported that it topped the 59-year-old record of 4.02 pounds caught by Frank Miller of Eureka in 1964.

That was before a witness called the KDWP with a tip, saying the weight of the crappie in question was initially 3.73 pounds.

“To preserve the integrity of KDWP’s state-record program, KDWP game wardens met with the angler who voluntarily presented his fish for re-examination,” KDWP spokeswoman Nadia Marji told KSNT. “When staff used a handheld metal detector to scan the fish, the device detected the presence of metal.”

The game wardens then took the fish to the Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center where an X-ray showed two steel ball bearings in the fish’s stomach.

When the KDWP rescinded the record, it did not mention weights in the fish, only saying that the “written application form was not ‘true and correct,’” pointing to the listed weight on the form.

Parkhurst had insisted he filled out the application properly, saying, “I don’t understand why they’re doing this to me.”

“I did it the whole way they wanted me to do it,” Parkhurst told KSNT. “I went through the procedures, I wrote down what I caught it on, I did everything they wanted me to do by the book. I did everything I was supposed to do. Their biologists looked at it more than once.”

The incident is reminiscent of when two anglers in Ohio were caught red-handed having put lead weights into walleye in an effort to win a big-money fishing tournament in September 2022. They eventually admitted guilt and were sentenced to 10 days in jail, lost fishing privileges for three years and forfeited their $100,000 boat.

In this case, the stakes were much smaller. Katie Garceran of the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office told KSNT that after an investigation, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the case concerning the creation of false information.

Photos courtesy of Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. 

Fisherman finagles record rainbow trout through tiny hole in ice

Ice fishing alone on a pond in Rhode Island, Zachary Taylor landed a huge trout and exclaimed, “I think I got the state record, baby!”

Ice fishing alone on a pond in Rhode Island, Zachary Taylor landed a 15-pound, 12-ounce rainbow trout, pulling it through a 6-inch hole in the ice and immediately exclaiming, “I think I got the state record baby!”

Taylor took the catch to Jerry’s Bait and Tackle in Milford where officials from the Fish and Wildlife Department at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management confirmed the fish as a state record, as reported by The Valley Breeze.

The catch at Peck Pond on Jan. 18 surpassed the old mark of 12 pounds, 9.12 ounces.

“I did not expect that or anticipate that, it was quite the surprise and extremely exciting,” Taylor told The Breeze.

Taylor was definitely excited, as his video holding up the fish will attest.

When he got the fish close to the opening, he reached down inside the tiny hole and grabbed the fish by its gills.

“Finally, with some finagling, it squeezed through,” he told The Breeze. “I was literally shaking with excitement and adrenaline.”


At the tackle shop, he said fish and wildlife officials were excited about the catch, too. “Everybody was coming down to look at the size of that thing.”

Photo courtesy of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Kansas rescinds state-record crappie, angler doesn’t know why

Fisherman seeks answers and wants his frozen catch returned after Kansas approved it as a record, then took it away after an investigation.

A fisherman who caught a huge white crappie that was approved as a state record by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks last April had his frozen trophy catch—and record—taken from him and he doesn’t know why.

Bobby Parkhurst caught a 4.07-pound white crappie from Pottawatomie State Fishing Lakes No. 2 that the KDWP recognized as topping a 59-year-old record.

A press release from April 4, 2023 stated, “After inspection and measurement by John Reinke, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, the lunker catch was put on a certified scale where it was recorded as weighing 4.07 pounds – the equivalent of six cans of soup.

“As fisheries biologists, we get the chance to see a lot of big fish but this one is certainly for the books,” said Reinke. “This crappie measured in at 18 inches long and 14 inches in girth, so it truly deserves a spot on the state record list.”

But seven months later, the KDWP changed its mind, and reinstated the old record of 4.02 by Frank Miller of Eureka in 1964.

Parkhurst told KSNT 27 News that game wardens came to his home with a search warrant and seized the frozen fish. According to KDWP spokeswoman Nadia Marji, the fish was seized in connection with a “formal investigation.”

Parkhurst attempted to get answers from the KDWP but has yet to get them. Nor has he gotten his fish back.

“They didn’t tell my anything,” Parkhurst told KSNT last week. “I don’t understand why they’re doing this to me.”

A tip received by KDWP after the record was announced prompted wildlife officials to launch an investigation into the record and the review process.

“There was not an error in the verification process,” Marji told KSNT. “Rather, information supplied to the department by the angler via his written application form was not ‘true and correct.’”

Pressed for further explanation, Marji told KSNT the issue came from the listed weight of the white crappie on the form.

“The fish appeared normal and healthy, and was accurately identified by staff,” Marji said. “However, had the application been filled out accurately by the angler, it would have not qualified as a state record.”

Parkhurst insists he filled out the application properly, and added that he wants his fish returned.

“I did it the whole way they wanted me to do it,” Parkhurst told KSNT. “I went through the procedures, I wrote down what I caught it on, I did everything they wanted me to do by the book. I did everything I was supposed to do. Their biologists looked at it more than once.”

Marji told KSNT that it’s still an active case, an apparent indication that there is more to the story.

The original press release announcing the record was updated in November, stating at the top of the release: “Upon further review by KDWP officials, the crappie caught by Parkhurst could not be confirmed; therefore, the previous record for Kansas’ largest crappie still stands (Miller, 1964).”

Photos courtesy of Bobby Parkhurst and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. 

Lake Michigan serves up record burbot for Indiana angler

Anthony Burke caught a 14-pound, 3.6-ounce burbot to shatter the previous record by nearly three pounds.

An Indiana angler has shattered a state record with his recent Lake Michigan catch of a 14-pound, 3.6-ounce burbot.

Anthony Burke’s catch on Jan. 6 eclipsed the previous record by nearly three pounds and marked the third time in 13 months that a new state burbot record had been established.

Burbot are native to Lake Michigan and spend most of their time in extremely deep water off Michigan and Illinois, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

They migrate into shallower Indiana waters during the fall and winter to feed and spawn.

Anthony Burke poses with record burbot. Photo: IDNR

“Unseasonably warm weather and light winds on Lake Michigan the last several winters have provided boaters with a longer open-water fishing season and more opportunities to catch fish that are usually not in our waters, like burbot,” Ben Dickinson, a biologist with the DNR, said in a news release.

Burbot are found in parts of Canada and the northern United States, and in parts of Europe. They spend most of their time at depths of nearly 700 feet.

They’re prized as table fare because their flesh cooks up firm and white.

The all-tackle world record for burbot stands at 25 pounds, 2 ounces. That fish was caught in March 2010 at Lake Diefenbaker in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Kayak angler lands record crappie while bass fishing

Eric Allee was targeting bass when he reeled in perhaps the largest crappie ever caught in the state.

A Colorado angler who landed perhaps the largest crappie ever caught in the state last November has been awarded a catch-and-release record.

Eric Allee was targeting bass from a kayak at McKay Lake on Nov. 12 when he spotted what he assumed were three large crappie on his forward-facing sonar unit.

Allee, a marketing director at Eagle Claw Tackle in Denver, hooked one of the fish with a 3.6-inch Berkley Flat Worm and soon realized that he might have a record crappie on his line.

On Friday, after being informed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife that his 18.25-inch black crappie had broken the previous catch-and-release length record, Allee told FTW Outdoors what went through his mind during the fight:

“It all happened so fast, but it felt like slow motion if that makes any sense. My heart was pounding, I was trying to remain tactful, and I was petrified at the same time.

“When she breached the surface, I would cringe every time her head would shake. Anyone who’s ever chased crappie knows they’re notorious for having paper-thin skin around the framework of their jaw; with a fish that heavy, if she was hooked in the thin-skinned parts of her mouth, it’s a recipe for disaster.

“After what seemed like forever, I felt instant relief when I scooped the net under her and lifted her out of the water.”

Eric Allee poses with 18.25-inch black crappie before releasing the fish. Photo: Eric Allee

Allee said the crappie weighed 3 pounds, 15 ounces on a scale he keeps on his kayak. He knew he could also shatter the Colorado weight record (3.48 pounds, set in 2017) if he killed the fish to have it weighed somewhere on a certified scale.

But Allee told FTW Outdoors that the fish was so large and magnificent-looking that he chose to toss it back after immortalizing the catch with a photograph.

“I didn’t want to kill the fish for the record,” he said. “It’s not that I’m against killing fish, I eat crappie often, but didn’t want to kill the fish just for the record.

“There’s more to it for me, too. I practice selective harvest and there’s something special about watching big fish go back.”

Colorado is not known for giant crappie, but any crappie topping three pounds is a giant.

For comparison, the all-tackle world-record black crappie in the weight category stands at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. That fish was caught at Richeison Pond in Tennessee in 2018.

The International Game Fish Assn. lists as the length (release) record a tie between five catches measuring 37 centimeters, or about 14.6 inches.

Allee said he did not consider applying to the IGFA for a possible length record and bemoaned the fact that he missed the 60-day limit for record submissions.

West Virginia blue catfish record falls again, keeping streak alive

Michael John Drake becomes the fourth West Virginia angler to establish a blue catfish state record in as many years.

A West Virginia angler has become the latest state-record holder for blue catfish.

Michael John Drake, of St. Albans, was fishing with cut shad at the R.C. Byrd Pool on the Ohio River earlier this month when the giant catfish struck.

The fish weighed 69.45 pounds and measured 50.51 inches. The weight eclipsed the record mark of 67.22 pounds set last year by Steven Price.

According to the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, this is the fourth consecutive year in which a new state record for blue catfish has been established.

For comparison, the all-tackle world record for blue catfish stands at 143 pounds, for a fish caught at Virginia’s Kerr Lake (Buggs Island Lake) in June 2011.