Late final month an expert videographer obsessive about striped bass went out with an East Tennessee fly-fishing information in hopes of touchdown his first striper on the fly. With cameras rolling, the pair of anglers did one higher, touchdown a large striper-white bass hybrid that stands to interrupt a number of IGFA world data. You may watch the entire 17-minute episode on YouTube, and it tells the abbreviated model of how Michael Kaas and Patrick Fulkrod caught a pending world-record whiterock bass — on accident.
Out of doors Life caught up with Fulkrod, who shared the total story behind the fish. That ending has but to be decided, because the International Game Fish Association remains to be contemplating the report utility. Both approach, Fulkrod says it’ll go down as one of many biggest fortunate breaks of his guiding profession.
“It was a complete fluke that we caught it, landed it, after which weighed it,” Fulkrod tells Out of doors Life. “After which there’s this curler coaster of feelings over the entire report factor … It’s a loopy story.”
Trout Fishing for Stripers
Fulkrod, who owns the South Holston River Company, has been a trout information within the Southeast for greater than 20 years. He says he began fishing with Kass a few yr in the past, when the aspiring YouTuber determined to take up fly fishing.
“He’s a diehard striper man, and he largely does standard deal with however is studying learn how to fly fish,” Fulkrod says. “So, we began the day making an attempt to catch a striper on a fly rod on a close-by lake the place they’re historically discovered.”
Their plan didn’t work out. After getting skunked that morning, the 2 packed up and tried to salvage the day by trout fishing on the close by South Holston River. Fulkrod gave Kass a 10-foot 4 weight and tied on a double nymph rig with a small white shad imitation and a pink squirmy worm. They began nailing rainbows instantly, however Kass couldn’t assist it. He nonetheless had bass on the mind.
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“He was simply asking me — and I believe it is perhaps on the video — ‘Do you ever catch a striper on a nymph rig like this,’ and I instructed him, ‘No, however I’m shocked it doesn’t occur extra.’”
The actual shock got here a couple of minutes later, when Kass’ bobber dipped and he set the hook on a heavy fish. An epic battle adopted as they have been utilizing six-pound check and needed to play the fish gingerly whereas they saved it away from the banks. Fulkrod figured it was a large brown trout for many of the battle, however after a couple of arduous runs that took Kass deep into his backing, they noticed the silver shimmer of a striped bass close to the floor.
When Fulkrod netted the massive fish, they realized it wasn’t really a striper however slightly a striper-white bass hybrid. These freshwater fish go by a couple of completely different names. Most folk in Tennessee name them wipers or simply “hybrids,” whereas the IGFA classifies them as “whiterock bass.”
Kaas instructed his information it was the most important hybrid he’d ever seen. They measured the fish at 26.38 inches lengthy with an astonishing 26-inch girth. (The fish’s stomach was packed stuffed with shad.) With the bass nonetheless within the web, they did some fast analysis within the IGFA report e book, the place Fulkrod noticed that the present catch-and-release world report was caught in 2022 from the identical stretch of river. They in contrast these measurements (23 inches lengthy) with the fish within the web and knew that they had a possible world report on their fingers.
Fulkrod, who’d by no means tried certifying a world-record fish earlier than, knew there could be some hoops to leap by way of. He figured they need to get a licensed weight of the fish simply in case.
“We really didn’t present this a part of it,” Fulkrod says, “as a result of I’m a trout information, and harvesting fish is a no-no. You retain a fish, and also you’ll get strung up on-line by the keyboard warriors.”
Technical Difficulties with the File Books
The 2 anglers rapidly discovered a approach round this dilemma. Fulkrod pulled as much as a consumer’s home on the river, the place they grabbed a big Rubbermaid container to make use of as a makeshift stay nicely. Then they ran right down to the closest boat ramp, which is positioned close to a submit workplace with a licensed scale.
“We bought the burden notarized at 16.1 kilos,” Fulkrod explains. “And once more, we didn’t know if we would have liked the burden or the size, so went proper again to the river, bought to the ramp, and launched the fish.”
Because it was roughly six inches over the standing catch-and-release size report, the 2 anglers figured that they had that report within the bag. They submitted their utility to the IGFA earlier this month and included the measuring tape they used.
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“Effectively, we heard from the IGFA a few week in the past and we have been instructed it’s disqualified [for the catch-and-release length category] as a result of it wasn’t measured on an IGFA-certified tape measure,” Fulkrod says. “However, the man additionally stated, ‘I don’t know if you recognize this or not, however the weight report you guys have destroys the present report.’”
That current record is a tippet class report, which suggests it’s the biggest fish caught with a fly on a sure line dimension. (The all-tackle world report for the species weighed greater than 27 kilos and was caught from a lake in Arkansas.) Fulkrod says they’re now ready to listen to again from the record-keeping group. Within the meantime, he says his cellphone retains ringing off the hook. Everybody needs to know when he can take them out to catch the subsequent world-record hybrid bass.
“That fish,” Fulkrod says, “is each a blessing and a curse.”