Thread: Anyone heard of a new state record king caught today?

My sources say it is not, or maybe it's a tie... :-\

[quote author=Pier#r link=topic=845.msg8027#msg8027 date=1333066286]
My sources say it is not, or maybe it's a tie... :-\
[/quote]

http://www.fintalk.com/states/al/record_fish_app.pdf

7. To replace a record for a fish weighing less than 25 pounds, the replacement must weight at least
2 ounces more than the existing record. To replace a record for a fish weighing 25 pounds or
more, the replacement fish must weigh at lease one-half of 1 percent more than the existing
record.

With the current record at 67 pounds 15 ounces, if you multiply that figure by 1.005 as per the rules it would take a fish weighing 68.2771875 pounds to be the outright new record fish. Since all the current records are listed in terms of pounds and ounces, while this fish is being presented in pounds to the the tenth of a pound, it will certainly be close. No matter how it shakes out it would at least garner a share of the title.

Sadly, NO!

Apparently the innitial report was incorrect. :mrt:

The fish was NOT 68.3# it weighed 68# 3 oz ???
That equals 68.1875# or 0.0896# (1.4335 ounces) shy of being stand alone record.
It will be listed as a "tie" even though it is 4 ounces heavier than the previous record. :

No matter, it is a fantastic fish for that young man! :headbang:

[quote author=Pier#r link=topic=845.msg8038#msg8038 date=1333075092]


Sadly, NO!

Apparently the innitial report was incorrect. :mrt:

The fish was NOT 68.3# it weighed 68# 3 oz ???
That equals 68.1875# or 0.0896# (1.4335 ounces) shy of being stand alone record.
It will be listed as a "tie" even though it is 4 ounces heavier than the previous record. :

No matter, it is a fantastic fish for that young man! :headbang:
[/quote]

If that were the case, I would have just thrown the fish back and kept trying for a bigger one.

Then there is still a chance... :yippee:

:fishing: :headbang:

I guess the biggest part of this story is a kid caught the fish of a lifetime. I doubt he really cares if it is a record or not.

On the downside, he caught the fish of a lifetime at a young age. So, he will fish his entire life and never compete with the fish he caught at such a young age.

Hopefully he doesnt turn to a life of drugs and alcohol to fill the void of not being able to catch a king that big again

Im bored this morningg

Didn't get a chance to read the article but I did see it on the front of the press register this morning...They were hailing it as a new record.

[size=12pt]Bubba, you need to come home! :fishing:[/size]

[size=12pt]The Mobile Mullet Wrap don't care if it's true, as long as it sells papers.[/size]

???
Oh contrare!
It IS a new record (by four ounces), but the stupid stipulation the DCNR puts on new records will force it to be a "tie" :

So yeah, maybe the caption over the pic "Record Breaking Fish" is misleading. :-\
Anyway. A good article!

:headbang:
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2...grader_re.html
[size=14pt]Holy mackerel: Second-grader reels in Alabama state-record king fish[/size]
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012, 7:20 AM Updated: Friday, March 30, 2012, 10:10 AM
By Jeff Dute al.com

[img width=380 height=574]http://media.al.com/sports_impact/photo/10770223-large.jpg[/img]
Andrew Quinn, 8, of Scottville, Mich., caught the biggest king mackerel ever landed in Alabama
on Wednesday while fishing with his family aboard the "Fish Trap" charter boat based at Zeke's Marina in Orange Beach.
His 68-pound, 3-ounce fish will likely have to share the No. 1 spot as Alabama's state record because its weight did not beat the current 67-pound, 15-ounce record by the required percentage under the state's record-certification rules, according to a Marine Resources Division official.
Shown with Andrew are, left to right, are "Fish Trap" deckhand Kenny Collins, boat owner Al Keahl and its captain, Billy Neff. (Submitted by Billy Neff)

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- When Andrew Quinn returns from spring break to Mason County Central Elementary School in Scottville, Mich., he won't have to tell tall tales about the fish he caught.

The 8-year-old second-grader caught a 68-pound, 3-ounce king mackerel -- the biggest ever landed in the state -- on Wednesday.

Alabama's rules for saltwater fish weighing more than 25 pounds dictate that the new record must beat the old by one-half of 1 percent. That requirement means Quinn's fish will likely fall 1.5 ounces short of standing alone as the new state record, said Kevin Anson, the Marine Resources Division's chief fisheries biologist.

Anson said his calculations determined that Quinn's fish would have had to weigh at least 68 pounds, 4.5 ounces to set the record. As a result, he said, Quinn's king mackerel will probably go in the books as the co-state record alongside the 67-15 fish Mobile's Michael Kirchler caught in April 2002.

On Thursday, Quinn still hadn't grasped the significance of the catch. He was simply enjoying another day in the swimming pool at the Gulf Breeze, Fla., condo where his family was vacationing.

But he was discovering new bumps and bruises the 30-minute battle to land the fish had inflicted on his body.

"I have blisters on my hands and, yep, it hurts where they stuck the end of the rod in my rib," he said, obviously still assessing the damage as he spoke.
He admitted the fish's size helped soothe the pain some.

"It's the biggest fish I ever seen and the biggest fish I ever caught," he said. "I thought it was going to pull me overboard."

Billy Neff, who was at the helm of the Zeke's Marina-based "Fish Trap" charter boat out of Orange Beach, had his crew fishing over the Trysler Grounds, a popular natural-bottom spot about 20 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Andrew Quinn, along with his grandfather Ed Quinn, dad Dave Quinn and older brothers Josh, 15, Matt, 12, and Zach, 9, caught the king on his first deep-sea fishing trip into the Gulf.

A couple of live pinfish were set adrift off the stern. The baitfish wiggled near the surface while rigged on a treble hook twisted onto thin wire leader that led to roughly 300 yards of monofilament line spooled onto Penn Fierce 8000 spinning reels. Neff said he's trying to determine if Andrew Quinn's reel held 30- or 40-pound-test line.

Three hours into the six-hour trip, something smashed one of the drifting pinfish.

Because he was at the helm, Neff said he wasn't sure how Andrew Quinn came to grab the rod. Standard procedure on the "Fish Trap" would be for his deckhand, Kenny Collins, to take the bottom-fishing rod from the customer, then have the angler take the rod out of the gunwale-mounted rod holder.

"When it ate, it immediately just took off and almost spooled us before we backed down a little bit and our angler was able to get back some line," Neff said.

After Quinn weathered that first run, Neff said the battle settled into a stalemate with the fish bulldogging deep.

"I almost started to think it was a big shark at first when it just went straight down like that and just kind of stayed deep," Neff said. "It turned into a tug-of-war for about 10 minutes."

It was a war Quinn would begin to win one battle at a time. Within another 10 minutes, he had the fish close enough to the water's surface where the entire crew could see color.

"We couldn't tell what it was, but it looked enormous," Neff said. "We started thinking maybe it was a wahoo."

A few minutes later, Quinn had pumped the fish to the surface, and Neff said he was shocked to finally see for himself that it was a huge king mackerel. That shock turned to panic when he also noticed how the fish was hooked.

"The hook was actually going back down through the top of the tip of its nose. The leader was wrapped around its top jaw one time," he said. "My heart started beating real fast and I literally started shaking."

The fish wasn't close enough to gaff on the first pass but after two or three more circles on the surface, Collins stuck the fish and, with Neff's help, swung it onto the deck.

Despite his and Collins' excitement, Neff said Quinn wasn't sure what to think.

"I still don't think he has any idea about what he did. To him, it's just a big fish," Neff said. "He was acting like, 'Don't y'all do this all the time?'"

That may be because Quinn's family often fishes from its pontoon boat for pike, bass, sunfish and other freshwater species on the interior lakes close to their hometown just 8 miles from Lake Michigan's shores.

While he likes catching all of those fish, he now has a new favorite.

"King mackerel," he said.

Quinn added that despite the lingering aches and pains from Wednesday's experience, he's ready to take on another of the Gulf's smoker king mackerel.

"You never know. I could beat my own record," he said.

:headbang: Ya gotta like this kid's attitude! :yippee: