Three Anglers Shooting For Record Books

Three more catches are currently before the world records committee and could just make the next edition of the IGFA record book.

Using four-pound tippet in the James River in Richmond, Va., J. Parks Rountrey (Mechanicsville, Va.) landed a flathead catfish Aug. 27 weighing 29 pounds, 8 ounces. Rountrey used a streamer and needed 15 minutes to land the fish. He could tie the current IGFA record, established just a month earlier on the James River.

Dave Chermanski (Merritt Island, Fla.) could have knocked off a decade-old IGFA record after catching a redbreast sunfish on Florida’s Econlockhatchee River. He caught the 1-pound, 9-ounce sunfish on an eight-pound tippet and a DC Gilinator fly on Nov. 27. The current IGFA fly record is one pound, caught on Sept. 30, 1998 in Leechburg, Penn.

In Bay Long, La. on Dec. 2, Fred Barush (Colorado Springs, Colo.) caught a possible record red drum on a B3 fly and four-pound tippet. The fish weighed in at 29 pounds. The current IGFA men’s tippet record is 28 pounds, caught Dec. 11, 2006, off the Hopedale, La., coast.

Logo courtesy IGFA