Bogus World Records?

[Phil Monahan]

Now that the IGFA has approved a new World-Record brown trout, we have two trout records that seem to deserve an asterisk. The NZ brown trout lived downstream from a salmon farm and effectively grew engorged on salmon pellets. The rainbow trout record fish is most likely an artificially created triploid that escaped from a hatchery.

I’m gonna do a story about this. Can anyone think of other fish species records that fall into this “iffy” category?

Thanks.

[Jason DeBacker]

Sounds like a great article.

Not sure of other world records in this category, but tons of state records. e.g. GA’s record rainbow trout at 17.5lbs (http://www.georgiawildlife.com/node/182) is from a creek that, without supplemental feeding, would be lucky to support a fish over 2 lbs.

There are really interesting questions here. While it certainly seems like pellet-fed fish need an asterisk, it gets less clear in cases like the NZ fish where the fish are downstream of the feed source and not directly fed. What about those near sewage outflows? What about largemouth or stripers who grow big off stocked trout? Trout who grow big off non-native mysis shrimp in an up-stream reservoir?

Not to mention that many (most?) freshwater fish records are from fish now living outside their native range.

Best,
Jason

[Buzz Bryson]

Phil,

Could be a great piece, or you could get frustrated going in circles. Quite a few years ago, there were several studies done, evaluating water quality, benthos, fish growth/size, etc., on streams below fish hatcheries/fish farms. Not unexpectedly, and all the more on freestone streams, the downstream areas had more bugs, more/larger/faster-growing fish, etc.

But then, where do you draw the line between “natural” and “artificial”. Are fish from man-made reservoirs or tailwaters “OK”.

Some years ago, I was at dinner with a bunch of friends, several of whom (Lefty Kreh was one) were involved in record keeping decades ago. And there were some amazing stories of the lengths people would go to to get their name in the record book.

Give it a go!!

Buzz

[Zach Matthews]

Buzz makes an interesting point. To my knowledge the last four brown trout world records were a sea-run fish from Argentina (non-native, anadromous), and then three fish from Arkansas’ White River system (40 lb. 4 oz. from the Little Red, 38 lb. something from the Norfork, and I think another before that) that were all getting huge eating tailwater sowbugs and stocked trout.

The fact that the world records came from the Norfork and Little Red tributaries rather than the White is interesting – both have hatcheries where pellets are dumped into the water en masse and the water is subsequently flushed out via pipes into the main streams. Big fish will stack up around those pipes, which essentially create a nutrient base for the entire river. Unsurprisingly, the sowbugs which are the primary forage for brown trout on the Little Red can be found in their highest concentrations right around the hatchery pipes. They can look like krill in there – after a big rain event they’ll literally drift up on the banks in flotsam lines that look like miniature shrimp.

For me the whole world record classification is kind of spurious. I would be very interested to know what the biggest trout in its native environment ever caught was. But there are so few native trout left. And what we know from less-precise historical records (like Lewis and Clark’s account of catching cutthroat as long and thick as their arms at the Great Falls of the Missouri) suggests that our records are hilariously puny compared to fish which once swam that were killed and eaten out of hand by early settlers.

Zach

[Mike J. Leung]

If you’re looking for records outside of fly fishing, have a look at the European carp fishing scene. The same handful of fish have been caught, re-caught, re-caught again and again and again and again, at weights only ounces heavier than before. The “Scar” fish from the Graviers fishery (in France) is a prime example. The fish named “Two tone” before its death in the Conningbrook lake fishery (in the UK) is another example – It was the largest fish in the UK at the time. The fish are stocked in small lakes and receive vast amounts of fish pellets and boilies (a common bait).

[Bernie Robidart]

A comment on state records – Alabama’s record is over 9 lb. for a rainbow. We do not have a native trout population. The state only stocks one stream and the record wasn’t caught in that stream. The previous record was not caught in the stocked stream either. So another question, though maybe not following the fish on steroid theme, where did these fish come from?

[Colin M.]

You could pick on all of PA’s record fish, nearly all of them are hatchery breeders that are introduced in the spring put and take section.

[Author]

Posts