What to do if you think you have a record fish

[thebassman30]

Great post Peter!

Feel free to bask in my glow....lol....I love it!

[ON3 3Y3D WILLI3]

If you have a record fish that you want recognized as such, you would contact the International Game Fish Association (I.G.F.A.) and follow their rules and regulations for record certification.

All regulations for line class, tippet, hooks, tagging, catch and release, scale certification, etc. can be found on their website. www.igfa.org They have all-tackle records down to state tippet-class records and most anything in between. The regulations are stringent and would likely surpass any State Record Requirements and Regulations making your catch that more noteworthy. If the IGFA accepts your catch your state would be kind of stupid not to also (think "Record Fishery" marketing scheme.) As an example, if they would have weighed that musky using a scale certified by the IGFA (not waited for a KDFWR scale), documented the catching, weighing, and/or releasing (if applicable) with video or photos, filled out the application, and sent it in, that fish would have been released in 3 minutes flat and if the app was in order, recognized as a record. The IGFA does not have a line-class for Musky in our state, but certification by that organization as a record catch based on your line-class alone should justify any State backing a record catch. California wants more than anything for one of those Bass Hunters to legally pull that 25lb+ LMB out of one of those reservoirs (again, think "World Record Fishery" marketing plan.) But if the IGFA says, sorry, that fish wasn't caught by following the rules, it could be 30 lbs and it just isn't going to be recognized. Mac Weakly pulled the 25lber out of Dixon a while back and thought for sure he had his 1 Million Dollar Fish. I don' think he even submitted it to the IGFA because he knew he had foul hooked it and they wouldn't accept it. And if they didn't accept it and the State didn't accept it, there's no Million, and there's no record. In those rarer cases it's the State waiting for the verdict of the IGFA before making the catch an official record.

Anyhow, point is, rather than fiddling with the KDFWR and trying to find out where one of those officers are while your freaking out because the worlds largest smallmouth is bendning your net to the breaking point, follow the IGFA guidelines and if you do happen to have that world record fish in your net you're a lot more likely to have it made official and you may be able to release your awesome catch.

[riverrat12]

On a side note most all reputable veterinaries have certified scales capable of weighing really big fish...Mine does...Chuck