Fish records are made to be broken ... sometimes: Outdoors column

I’m probably never going to catch a record fish.

I mean, if I do, great, but it will be a total accident, a one in a million shot, times about a hundred. I think most record fish come by chance, anyway. Not always, but usually.

Still, New York, like every other state, maintains a list of record fish, and it is nice to know what a very big fish of any species is supposed to weigh or look like.

There are 39 listings in New York’s record book, which is kind of funny because the state is home to more than 165 species of fish. Of course, no one is going to keep records for the largest alewife or dace or creek chub – or maybe they do, but just not officially.

I once caught a quillback, a fish I had never seen before or even heard of. It had a very distinctive scythe-like dorsal fin and weighed maybe two pounds.

Quillbacks are not among the record fish listed in New York, but I discovered what was the world record (in 2001) – a 26-inch fish that weighed 13 pounds, 10 ounces. I found another that went 12-5. I guess mine must have been a baby.

Anyway, I thought to look at the current records, which mostly concern game fish.

Many of the records are rather old – only 12 have been set in the last 10 years - which might tell us that it is unlikely they will be surpassed. Two of those are the marks for northern pike and muskellunge – Peter Dubuc’s 46-pound, 2-ounce northern from Great Sacandaga Lake in 1940, and Art Lawton’s 69-pound, 15-ounce muskie from the St. Lawrence River in 1957.

Both were once regarded as world records.

Dubuc’s monster was eclipsed by several European pike over the last 30 years, but it doesn’t seem likely anything bigger from New York will show up. I don’t believe anyone has come close in recent years, although 30-pounders and heavier from Lake Delta and the Barge Canal have been caught.

Lawton’s muskie was legendary, and then people went about attacking it, claiming he falsified its length and weight. His long-time rival Len Hartman claimed he and Lawton would pour sand into their muskies before weighing them, but Hartman is regarded as a very questionable source by some.

Eventually, the International Game Fish Association threw out Lawton’s record, but it is still recognized in New York. The biggest muskie I’ve heard of in recent years is the 53-incher that Derek Balmas caught in the St. Lawrence in 2022. It was thought to weigh about 60 pounds. That’s still a long way from 69-15.

Chain pickerel are common fish, but the state record has stood for a long time. That was John Bosland’s 8-pound, 1-pounder from Toronto Reservoir in Sullivan County.

I’m not sure the state largemouth bass record is approachable, either. It’s 11 pounds, 4 ounces, and was caught by John Higbie in 1987 at Buckhorn Lake in southern Otsego County. The smallmouth bass record of 8 pounds, 6 ounces is reachable. In fact, as noted in an earlier column, the guy who caught that fish last year in Cayuga Lake, Thomas Russell, believes he caught it again this year and it weighed a half pound more. He did not enter it for a record.

The record fish come from every corner of the state. There is one I find especially intriguing. Jason Bair’s 36-pound, 42¾-inch freshwater drum caught at Oneida Lake in 2017. We caught a lot of what we called sheephead in our youth, and we considered a 5-pounder a big one.

After zebra mussels invaded the Great Lakes system, the drum chowed down on them and grew bigger and bigger and still bigger. The record was broken several times, but Bair’s fish had six pounds on the previous mark.

Drum/sheephead are not pretty. Not to my way of thinking. And people will argue forever about their suitability as a food fish. One thing is for sure – they fight like the devil. I can’t imagine how difficult a time Bair had bringing in one of that size. Just amazing. I thought a drum couldn’t possibly get bigger than that, but then I read that the world record is a fish from Nickajack Lake in Tennessee that weighed 54 pounds, 8 ounces. Yikes. They also grow old. One was aged 72 years.

If you do catch what you think is a record fish, the current list and instructions on how to certify records or participate in New York’s Angler Achievement Awards Program at https://dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/freshwater-fishing/angler-achievement-awards-program#State .

Write to John Pitarresi at 60 Pearl Street, New Hartford, N.Y. 13413 or jcpitarresi41@gmail.com or call him at 315-724-5266.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Fish records are made to be broken ... sometimes: Outdoors column