12.6 large mouth caught at Williamsport
 

Check out this HAWG.

wow! was that today?

No it was caught Friday. He caught it on a minnow....LOL. It was on the Williamsport facebook page. I don't know if he was fishing for crappie or what. It is really colored up nice.



Regards

need moe info .. <'TK><
 

Not that I know of......that's all the info they had on their website.



Regards

I hope it tasted good.

Pretty fish.

I bet there are quite a few of those hawgs swimming about small lakes/ponds across this state that get little pressure.

Yeah.......from the place the photo was taken I don't think it was released....but I don't know that. Maybe he put it in the live well in the boat behind him and drove it back down to the lake.....I hope.


Regards

Last time I was there the store didn't have a porch on it, bet it cleaned up real nice, maybe 4 big sammich's.

You are right.....I am not sure that is the store.


Regards

Bet it's his front porch. "Mamma get the grease hot I gotta gudun'.

I know this fish is perfectly legal, and at Williamsport TWRA Lakes the largemouth must be 20" to harvest. I just like to see big girls released so they can reproduce, so we can have more of their genes in the waters. Anymore you can get a replica made to look better than some skin mounts. Carry a camera with you and get a few good pics, carry a measuring device to get the length, cut a few pieces of fishing string to get the girth and a few other measurements. Then get that girl with all those eggs back in the water so she can produce more trophy fish.

I don't mind seeing fish harvested it's your right, but trophys, come on.

I'm not out there to catch sub 18" fish, I'm out there to catch the biggest, baddest thing swimming in the water get a few pictures and put her back in the water within yards of where she was caught so she can go back to her habitat I took her from.

Jeremy

I just posed the question to them if the fish was released. Also they just posted on the facebook page that Hank Parker signed the back of the photo. That's kind of strange....was Hank Parker fishing at Williamsport? I could not have kept it....and wish it was released.


Regards

I'm with you Randy. I have a set of Bogas that I have certified through the IGFA, and that's good enough for me, and a decent camera.

Jeremy

One of the things I like about kayak tournament fishing........is the way fish are photographed and released. I never posted about it but this past summer while fishing some Gill beds at Pickwick from the bank I thought there had been a fish kill. Then it occurred to me that it was only largemouth floating.....around 30 of them in the 2 to 3 pound range.....and I only walked about 40 yards of the bank. Then it hit me...I was fishing at the spot they did tournament weigh ins and release...and this was a Monday and they had a tournament that Sunday. Made me sick. Those fish had been in hot live wells all day and maybe they were alive when released but they were in no shape to make it. As everyone knows I panfish a lot. But if I get that 12 inch Gill...or 17 inch plus crappie...it is going back. Those fish probably have the genes that helped them to get that size and they need to be allowed to have thousands of off spring to give the lake some real trophies....same with bass and all fish. I know this can be a hot button issue but practicing catch and release on trophy sized fish just benefits us all. The IGFA has started a good thing...IMHO. It is the all tackle length record for fish. Send in the photo and that is all there is to it. I have looked at the records.....I have caught many fish much longer than what there so far records are.....of course not many are aware of this I don't think. The only caveat is you must purchase their measuring device...about 50 bucks I think. Sure beats killing the fish.


Regards

They just started doing the IGFA length records about 3 years ago. You do have to buy their measuring device which is around the $50 price tag along with the IGFA membership. There are a lot of records still easily attainable by length.

I've done some reading about delayed mortality and the percentage is pretty high I think in the 35% range. Some of the weekend warriors rigs are not equipped to handle hauling fish around for 6+hrs in 90deg temps. There are special additives, and many other things that help, and the Elite Pros have the best of the best equipment and see the lowest mortality rate. BUT what happens when they are fishing beds and take the fish from the bed it's unprotected and easily accessable to predators. Then the fish is released after the weigh in miles usually from where the bed she was on, or even buck bass for that matter that are protecting the beds.

Anyone can tell me "hey I don't fish beds, well I call BS". Just because you can't see a bed dosen't mean that fish didn't come off one. Sometimes water clairity is less than 3', some fish bed in water up to 10-12' deep like some smallmouth.

I try not to keep the fish out of the water for more than a minute to one minute and a half max.

A little reading on delayed mortality.
http://www.sdafs.org/tcafs/meetings/96meet/gillilan.htm

Jeremy