A great story featured on the NC Sun Journal: A new state record fish was landed in North Carolina recently. According to news reports, Frank Dalli of Wake Forest, N.C. caught a 49-pound, 1.6-ounce crevalle jack on April 2 while fishing about 65 miles off Wrightsville Beach. Dalli’s catch has been certified as a record for that species by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.
The idea of maintaining a record of the largest fish caught goes back a long way, probably to the days when early man etched pictures of especially large prehistoric fish on cave walls. Whether those early anglers used “sporting methods,” of course, is open to debate. They almost certainly used whatever they could to get a fish out of the water, over a fire and into their bellies. But then the height of technology at that point in history was a sharp stick and a hefty rock.
By the time George Perry caught the world record largemouth bass in 1932, things were a little more advanced but his basic instincts were very similar to his primitive ancestors. Perry took his fish home and the family ate it. It was during the tough days of the Great Depression and a fresh fish dinner, especially if the main course weighed 22 pounds 4 ounces, was a real prize by itself. The Georgia fisherman did think to take his bass to a general store near Lake Montgomery where he caught it to have it weighed and certified by a notary public.
The reason George Perry bothered to have his fish weighed was that a friend mentioned to him that Field and Stream magazine sponsored a big fish contest and the bass might have a chance to win it. It did, of course, and Perry took his $75 winnings in the form of a new rod and reel, some outdoor clothes, shotgun shells and a Browning automatic shotgun. (My, how the economy has changed since those days.) Proving he was no flash-in-the-pan worm dunker, Perry won the Field and Stream contest again in 1934 with a 13-pound 14-ounce largemouth.
George Perry’s bass couldn’t be registered with Field and Stream if it were caught today. That publication relinquished its record-keeping duties in 1978. Before it did, however, the magazine implemented the concept of line class for determining world records, whereby the biggest fish of a species in a given line class achieves world record status. Under the system, Perry’s fish would be assigned to the “All Tackle Class” for the biggest of the species caught on any size line. The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) recognizes records in eleven line classes (from 2 lb. to 130 lb.).
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