state record fish and record hunting fishermen

Ive never come remotely close to a state record. Growing up I had a very good friend who was nuts about fishing. I ran into him about 20 years after high school. He had caught the biggest registered Muskie in Wisconsin that year and won a boat and trailer if I remember correctly. It was the last day of the contest and weather was miserable. That’s always impressed me as the people who excel. They don’t let weather, a bad cold, bugs, or other distractions stop them, they just get out there and do it. 

Dave 

I held the Minnesota state record for golden redhorse from 2007-2014.  This was also the all-tackle World Record during that time with the FFHOF.  It was a heck of a lot of fun.  Since my reign ended the record has been broken numerous times, almost yearly.  Here is a snippet from a newspaper about it - http://roughfish.com/content/article-local-paper

I believe I still hold the 6 lb test line class world record. 

I held the Wisconsin state record golden shiner for nine days (an article in the Milwaukee journal sentinel may or may not have set off a chain reaction of more anglers hunting for more obscure records), I registered the inaugural wi state record golden redhorse (which lasted about a month), and I registered the first world record fixed line longnose gar ( which I don't know whether or not I still hold). There are other fish I could have registered but I didn't bother going through the paper work

My son FishingPals4Life holds the current MN shortnose gar state record.  We were fishing for them for his scrapbook of MN species.  When he caught it we were super excited because it was the first and remains the only one we'd ever seen.  Took it to shore to measure and weigh it before a release and realized after a quick internet check it was the new state record, we sat on shore with it in a net still in the water so she could breathe because he wasn't sure if he wanted to kill her to verify a state record.  I convinced him it was a once in a lifetimer and then the chaos of verification started.  He received a cool plaque from the state, a bunch of publicity, and I had her mounted (one of only two skin mounts in the house) we both prefer replicas and live release.  He's very proud of it, but I can tell sometimes when he looks at her he wishes she was still alive.

Every now and then, I pull what would be a state record shorthead redhorse from the WI river. Got a 10 in. silver chub full of eggs once too.  Never went through the process of registering a fish though. One o' these days....

I’ve caught 3 fish that would have been state records but turned in none of them as I didn’t want the fish to die. Shortnose gar, Spotted gar, and flier sunfish. I didn’t turn in the flier (which I think I could have gotten weighed and back safely) out of respect for the guy who shared the spot to catch them at with me (he doesn’t want them to die either). There’s no state record for many individual species such as any of the redhorses, just a “sucker” record (which I believe is a river redhorse). “Buffalo” is listed as a record but not any specific species etc.......Indiana really needs to get with it on polishing up the record book and developing some kind of master angler program.

Yeah, PA has a "suckers" record, too. The only fish I've ever caught that could've been state record class was a giant fallfish, but we don't even have a record for them...

I've had 3 fish that would possibly be records. A couple years back, I caught a creek chub that was 14" and easily over a pound. Just a few days ago, I had a friend tell me that the world record for creek chub was vacant (IA doesn't have a record category for creek chub). Last summer I caught a 9" pumpkinseed that would qualify for the IA state record as well. I also landed a 22" shorthead while wading a creek. I knew I probably could've submitted that one, but since I was a 2 mile wade from my car and didn't want to risk killing the fish, I just released him.

To me I'd rather have the knowledge of knowing that I'm able to catch state records, but still, if the opportunity presented itself for me to be able to get a record without killing the fish, I'd be glad to submit it.

I held my state's yellow bullhead record for a bit less than a year. Bullheads aren't too highly regarded in Montana and I realized most anglers didn't bother to differentiate yellows from the more common black bullheads. One year I stumbled upon a lake that held good-sized yellows that were more or less left alone, so I packed a cooler and planned to catch a record. On my second night fishing, I caught two record class fish (for good measure) and put them on ice. Unfortunately, I was on a work trip and ended up busy for the next day and a half. By the time I got the fish to a certified scale they were smelling pretty rank, but despite a fair amount of dehydration, the bigger fish was still a couple tenths of a pound over the existing record. The state sent me a neatly-embossed certificate with a Joseph Tomelleri yellow bullhead print on it. 

The very next year, I saw my record had been broken, but I was particularly peeved to see from a press release that the registered fish was a black bullhead (baring his black chin barbels for all to see). Apparently not even our state agency could tell these fish apart. I thought about kicking up a fuss, but eventually decided it wouldn't have any bearing on my own enjoyment of bullhead fishing. I was also kind of glad to see my lake fall back into anonymity. 

Since then the record's changed hands a couple more times and fortunately an actual yellow bullhead is again holding the spot.