Unrecorded Records

[Tennessee Boy]

Ever wonder how many record fish are never recorded? 

 

I was wading a creek as a teenager in the late 1970s when I caught an enormous redeye bass.  I had caught countless redeye bass the size of my hand but this thing was easily three times bigger than the biggest I had ever caught.  I weighted it on my trusty Chatillion scales and it weighted 1 lb 11 oz.   It never crossed my mind that it might be a record until many years later when I checked and found that the current Tennessee state record is 1  lb 15 oz caught in 1991.   I don't know what the record was before that and I don't know how accurate my scales were at the time but I was close and I had no idea. 

 

In the early 90s I was fishing a tournament in North Alabama when my partner hooked a huge freshwater drum on a rattle trap.  It was the biggest freshwater fish I have ever seen.  It took him half an hour to land the it.  He quickly unhooked it and apologized for taking so much tournament time to land the thing.  After he released it he ask me how much I thought it weighted.  I said 60 lbs.  He said he was thinking 55 lbs.  Neither of us knew the world record was 54 lbs.  Now I have no confidence in my ability to guess the weight of a large drum but it might have been close to a world record and it never cross our minds at the time. 

 

 

[Mike L]

It wouldn’t surprise me at all that at some point every record for every species have been caught. 
 

it’s unfortunate that we’ll never know. 
 

 

Mike

[Michigander]

Records go to those that are prepared and willing to do the paperwork. For the rest of us, we just get a memory and a story.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve almost got the world record skipjack herring several times hahaha! What an honor that would be.......

 

I bet catfishermen use the world record skipjack for cut bait once a month!

[Tennessee Boy]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’ve almost got the world record skipjack herring several times hahaha! What an honor that would be.......

 

I bet catfishermen use the world record skipjack for cut bait once a month!

I would proudly accept any world record.  I would change my signature here to World Record Holder and leave off the skipjack part.

[roadwarrior]

Your only legitimate shot at a World Record is probably a line record.

Get your required record keeping in order, it's a process, but can be

done.

 

[Tennessee Boy]

3 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

Your only legitimate shot at a World Record is probably a line record.

Get your required record keeping in order, it's a process, but can be

done.

It would be cool to have a record but I'm not gonna change the way I fish to try to get one.   No way I'm gonna throw a frog on 2# test trying to break a world record. ?

 

I try to know what the state records are for any fish I might catch and also the lake records if they exist.  That's as far as I'm willing to go.

[galyonj]

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

Your only legitimate shot at a World Record is probably a line record.

Get your required record keeping in order, it's a process, but can be

done.

 

 

I remember seeing a video a while back in which Matt Allen went into detail on the line class record fish he and his wife caught in Alaska.

 

The story was good but it sure seems like something that doesn't happen barring a lot of specific planning.

[Michigander]

Nowadays, at least you have a great chance to get a picture of/with your trophy fish. We probably don't have much/any evidence for record catches from the olden times. I remember when I was a kid, I kept one of those waterproof disposable "fun saver" cameras in my tackle box for documenting my big ones. 

[Bluebasser86]

I caught a world record brown bullhead when I was a teenager fishing for flathead. Had no idea what it was, thought it was a channel cat/flathead hybrid or something because of the rounded tail and round head plus the mottled coloration. Caught it on a live sunfish. It was over 8 pounds. I didn't even take a picture of it because that's a tiny flathead and I was honestly mad that it had eaten one of the best baits I'd put out on a night when bait was tough to get. A couple years later I got a book all about catfish and saw a picture of a brown bullhead and knew right then that I'd turned a world record loose.

[TheBasslayer]

On 12/1/2020 at 11:49 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

I caught a world record brown bullhead when I was a teenager fishing for flathead.

And I can't even catch a catfish...

[Bluebasser86]

3 hours ago, TheBasslayer said:

And I can't even catch a catfish...

Come to Kansas, you'll catch them without even trying.

[TheBasslayer]

57 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Come to Kansas, you'll catch them without even trying.

Bet. Next time I visit my aunt grandma(Great aunt) in Lawrence, i'll probably catch one.

[Bluebasser86]

1 hour ago, TheBasslayer said:

Bet. Next time I visit my aunt grandma(Great aunt) in Lawrence, i'll probably catch one.

15 minutes from me. Hit up Clinton lake or Lonestar, bunch of them in either. 

[bulldog1935]

22" endemic Guadalupe bass hen - 15" in our fast hill country limestone is a lunker - we call these Texas brook trout.  I caught her at a bat cave vent, and she got this big eating baby bats that fell in.  

This is the only bass species that can retreat into the aquifer to survive our droughts.  

There were no C&R records in 2005, and submitting a record for this species then would require killing her for a liver biopsy due to genetic dilution by introduced smallmouth.  However, her blue sheen (v. copper) is pretty good indication she's all Guad.  I released her and told her to go breed.  

 

for comparison, this pup is from one of two remaining A-strains of endemic bass, protected from smallmouth genetics by an aquifer recharge barrier (the creek disappears underground).  

 

here's where they live

 

this one is clearly a smallie hybrid

[TheBasslayer]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

15 minutes from me. Hit up Clinton lake or Lonestar, bunch of them in either. 

Thanks!