Though it hasn’t been licensed by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Fee, the chunky yellow perch that Chuck Important caught on Monday might be a brand new state report. On the very least, it ought to tie the present state report, a 3-pound fish caught in 2021.
Important, of Ellwood Metropolis, was fishing off Presque Isle on Lake Erie when the perch hit his jig, based on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Important shortly landed the fish and took his catch to Reddi Bait in Bridgewater to have it weighed on licensed scales. Fisheries personnel with the PFBC had been there to witness the official weight studying of three.02 kilos.
This led Tim Reddinger, the proprietor of Reddi Bait, to declare the fish a possible state report in a video he posted to Facebook. However whereas Important’s perch is technically the heaviest ever caught and weighed on a licensed scale in Pennsylvania, it would solely rank as a tie due to the state’s protocols round fishing data. PFBC guidelines require new state-record fish to outweigh the present report by no less than two ounces, and official weights are sometimes rounded to the closest ounce.
That is exactly what occurred in April 2021, when Kirk Rudzinski caught his state-record yellow perch from Lake Erie. Rudzinski’s fish formally weighed 2.98 kilos on a licensed scale, however that weight of 47.68 ounces was rounded as much as 48 ounces (or 3 kilos) and licensed as such within the report books.
If fisheries officers take the identical strategy with Important’s fish and spherical off its weight of 48.32 ounces to 48 ounces even, it is going to be sufficient to tie however not change Rudzinski’s report. (And even when they don’t spherical down, Important’s fish nonetheless wouldn’t qualify as a report as a result of it solely outweighs Rudzinski’s perch by .64 ounces, which is in need of the 2 ounces required to interrupt a report.)
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It might be a number of weeks earlier than officers resolve on the report standing of Important’s perch. PFBC didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark, and neither did the angler.
Both means, Important’s catch proves that Lake Erie remains to be producing loads of whopper yellow perch. Along with Rudzinski’s Pennsylvania report, each the Ohio and New York data had been caught there. Ohio’s report perch weighed 2 kilos 12 ounces and was caught in 1984, whereas the New York report weighed 3 kilos 8 ounces and was caught in 1982. The IGFA lists the all-tackle yellow perch record as a 4-pound 3-ounce big that was caught in New Jersey in 1865.
