June Catches Up For World Records

A look at June catches that are up for International Game Fish Association record status and are currently before the world records committee:

• Dave Speer, of Lewisville, Texas, caught a smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus) using a 2-pound tippet. The 6-pound, 8-ounce fish was caught June 13 on a sucker punch fly along the Elm Fork Trinity River (Texas). The record is currently vacant.

• Stan Nabozny of The Woodlands, Texas, guided by Andrew Parsons, caught a ladyfish (Elops spp.) weighing 9 pounds, 12 ounces on June 3 during a trip to Africa. He used a clouser minnow on 16-pound tippet along the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique. The current men’s IGFA tippet record of 5 pounds, 12 ounces was caught last year at Port Isabel.

• Christine Perez, of Mims, Fla., guided by Capt Troy Perez, landed a 20-pound red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) on a 6-pound tippet. It struck on a clouser on June 11 and took Perez 30 minutes to land while fishing Buras, Louisiana. Perez is hoping to beat her current IGFA women’s six-pound tippet fly record of an 18-pounder caught on Mosquito Lagoon, Fla., 10 years ago.

Did you know the International Game Fish Association keeps world fly fishing records for everything from shark to bluegill catches?

The IGFA received more than 700 world record applications in 2007, granting 495 new records in the process.

Head to our records page for lists of other fly fishing records lists for popular game fish such as trout and bass.

Logo courtesy IGFA