world record striper CT 2011 Exclusive Photos: New Pending World Record Striped Bass!

[bluesdude71]

After reading the comments from the internet idiots out there, I felt that putting up these pics would show some of the doubting sallies the real size of the fish. I got this article and pics from Field and Stream, Dark hope it was ok to post it all. I posted links at the top.




Exclusive Photos: New Pending World Record Striped Bass!

Photo Gallery by Steven Hill. Uploaded on August 05, 2011
http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos...d-striped-bass

In September of 1982, Albert McReynolds weighed a 78.8-pound striped bass at a tackle shop near Atlantic City, New Jersey. He caught the fish the night prior, standing on the wave-pounded Ventnor Avenue jetty casting a Rebel plug. The catch, which claimed the spot of all-tackle world record, immediately turned McReynolds’ world upside down, earning him nationwide attention, tackle company endorsements, and lots of money. Of course, with such a catch come accusations. Though everything from lead-stuffing to finding the fish dead on the sand was rumored in an effort to disqualify the catch, it remained in place for nearly 30 years. But it may have fallen today.

Though the catch has not yet been certified by the IGFA, angler Greg Myerson brought in a bass that supposedly pinned the needle of a Westbrook, CT, tackle shop scale at 81.8-pounds. Immediately Internet rumors began to fly, some claiming the catch was a hoax, but many claiming to be eye witnesses to striper-fishing history. Pictures began flooding online forums. Arguments over whether the fish was caught on an eel or live porgy buzzed on blogs. So we tracked down Myerson less than 24 hours after he boated his bass to get the real story...one which may trump McReynolds’ tale and secure Myerson the most coveted saltwater all-tackle record of all time – Joe Cermele
















world record striper CT 2011
Exclusive Photos: New Pending World Record Striped Bass!
http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos...d-striped-bass

[bluesdude71]

Myerson was following his regular routine when he drifted his boat over a submerged boulder near Outer Southwest Reef off the coast of Westbrook, Connecticut, around 8 p.m. on August 4, trailing a live eel a few feet off the bottom.

“There’s often big fish behind the boulder, and I always hit it on my way out to Six Mile Reef to fish for the night,” Myerson says. The first drift yielded a hard strike, but no fish. On the second drift, he set the hook against another hard strike and watched as a striper started to pull his boat against the tide before settling heavily on the bottom.

[bluesdude71]

“I couldn’t budge him at first,” says Myerson, who uses a heavy duty 6-½ foot St. Croix tuna rod and a Quantum Cabo reel spooled with 50-lb. Berkley Gorilla Braid to handle big stripers. “Then he took off on a real good run, and I had to tighten the drag because he was burning line fast. He stripped about 60 yards of line against the current.”

[bluesdude71]

“I noticed the line rising, and I told my buddy, ‘Watch this, the fish is going to break the surface.’ He porpoised out of the water and I got my first look at him. Oh, man, I knew I had something special then. It’s only the big stripers that will jump like that. I was just hoping the hook was stuck good.”



The fight only lasted 20 minutes, but “seemed like eternity,” Myerson says. “He kinda lost some steam and started coming back toward the boat and I was able to gain a lot of line. Then the net got stuck on the boat’s swimming platform and wouldn’t come off. The fish was ready to be netted and we were in a little bit of a panic mode for a minute. We finally freed the net and got the fish in the boat.”

Another look revealed how close someone else had come to setting the new world record: the striper had a hook and about 6 ft. of leader in its mouth, evidence of a recent hookup that had broken off.

[bluesdude71]

Lots of folks would have headed straight for the nearest scale: Myerson headed to Six Mile Reef to fish out the tide. Using his standard night bait of live eels (“I use the giant eels nobody else uses; if something’s gonna grab it, I know it’s big”) for the next 2 ½ hours he pulled a dozen more stripers out of the sea, all the time running back to the fish hold to peer at his prize catch. “I kept saying, ‘Is that fish really that big? Yep, it is.’”

[bluesdude71]

With no certified scale available at that hour, Myerson didn’t officially weigh his catch until 8:30 the next morning, nearly 12 hours after he caught it. The 54-inch striper spent the night packed in ice in a cooler. The crowd gathered at the dock soon morphed into a big party, and Myerson re

ports, “This morning I was home in bed smelling like fish and with a major headache.”


And with a pending world record in his back pocket.





Another big crowd was on hand when Myerson showed up to weigh the fish at Jack’s Shoreline Bait and Tackle in Westbrook. Many—including Myerson himself—were shocked when the scale topped 80 pounds.

Owner Jack Katzenbach says there’s one thing that’s no surprise: “If anyone was going to catch a world record, it was going to be Myerson,” he says. “He’s a regular in here and in the last year alone he’s had three fish over 60 pounds.”

One, a 68.75-lb. striper caught this time last year on the same reef, was until now the biggest striper Katzenbach had ever seen.

[bluesdude71]

The madhouse scene of flashing cameras and shouted questions was all too much for Myerson. “I’m a private person, and I wasn’t exactly feeling my best this morning,” he says. “I told Jack, ‘I’ve had enough. I’m out of here,’ and I left.”

Rumors started buzzing around the Internet that Myerson had a panic attack and drove himself to the hospital. “That’s not true at all. I don’t know where the hell that came from. It just proves how asinine some people can be when a big fish is involved. It’s crazy.”





Measuring the length of the fish.

[bluesdude71]

There’s another rumor he can put to rest: Reports that Myerson won’t enter the fish as a world record? Bunk, he says.

“I’d be an *** if I didn’t, wouldn’t I?” Yet at the same time, he says, “I don’t care about the world record. I broke my all-time record, and that’s what really matters to me.”










Lots of people say that when they set a world record. But Myerson seems to genuinely mean it.

“I just like to fish. I’ve been doing it most of my life,” he says. “I’ve fly-fished all over the world. I have a trout stream in my front yard, and I bought my house for that reason. I have trout that I feed pellets every morning while I’m having my coffee.”

[bluesdude71]

He started at 12, from a wooden Brockway Skiff outfitted with an 8-horsepower motor.

“My parents wouldn’t let me go past the town dock, but I’d always sneak out to the reefs to fish for bass. No instruments, no nothing.”

The top fish in this photo is a mount of a 55-lb. striper he caught on one of those sneakaways. “Ever since then it’s been a love,” he says.

[bluesdude71]

Last year he won the Angler of the Year in On the Water magazine’s Striper Cup competition and was presented a mount of his 68.75-lb. striper, the lower wall-mounted fish in the photo. But that striper wasn’t the biggest he’d caught.

Several years ago he boated a 71-pounder in his favorite spot, and after weighing and measuring it on the boat, he released it.

“I held it for a minute and then tossed it overboard,” Myerson says. “My buddy was mad. He said, ‘You’re crazy.’ Maybe I am. I say you can’t keep taking without sometimes giving back.”

[bluesdude71]

It remains to be seen, of course, whether this is just the beginning of the same kind of full-blown frenzy that engulfed McReynolds after his record catch almost 30 years ago. One thing’s for sure—Myerson isn’t waiting around to see what happens.

After visiting a doctor to check out an injury sustained while boating the pending-record fish (he slipped and banged his side on a gunwale while lifting the striper in the boat; an X-ray confirmed his ribs were only bruised, not broken), Myerson headed out for another night of chasing giants. He fretted that he might not be able to fish his usual spot, because there’d be people watching, ready to mark his honey-hole.

[bluesdude71]

But that would only last a couple of weeks, he reckoned, before the attention would wane. And then Greg Myerson could get back to doing what he loves best. Could his record last nearly three decades, as McReynold’s had?

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Myerson laughs. “I’m going to try to break the record tonight.” And probably every night after.





http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos...d-striped-bass

[stormchaser]

Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing. congrats to the angler.

[Monty]

Should be nothing but accolades for Greg. From what I have read the guy is a big time big fish catcher. Great to see that someone with a lot of skill set the new record. He caught a fish that we all dream about, congratulations. Heck, he has caught a lot of fish that we all dream of. This one is super special.
Great post Buesdude71, you but it together real nice

[crosseyedbass]

Yeah bluesdude, nice article and pics. It seems field and stream did a well-balanced article. The thing about pictures is they can be deceiving depending on the angle and how the guy holds it. Half the people complaining about it probably never caught a fish above 40 and the other half, maybe they arr just jealous. He weighed it on a scale at that tackle shop in conn. If he weighs it again it will definitely be less as they lose weight every day. Hell, I'll bet it lost a pound or 2 after being on the boat 12 hours and out all night. So if he did weigh it again and it was only 78.5lbs, who's to say that it wasn't 81.88 when it was first weighed? Congrats to him, whether he decides to pursue it with the IGFA or not. He knows he caught it and that's good enough for hm. Great catch!

[jonthepain]

Several years ago he boated a 71-pounder in his favorite spot, and after weighing and measuring it on the boat, he released it.

“I held it for a minute and then tossed it overboard,” Myerson says. “My buddy was mad. He said, ‘You’re crazy.’ Maybe I am. I say you can’t keep taking without sometimes giving back.”

good man.

[bluesdude71]

NBC news CT did a video interview. He's a big guy, maybe 6'3". A lot of the whiners complaining about the relative size of the bass may not be aware of the size of the guy. This video shows it a little better, check it out.
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/s...127485023.html

[nitestrikes]

Do people realy understand that Myerson is 6'4" and 275 lbs? Most guys aren't even close to that size. I think it puts a whole new perspective on the pictures with him and the fish. Here is an article from the Port Washington Patch.

Nice job on the pic posting bluesdude.




Talk about laid back.

Since last Friday, when news about Greg Myerson's apparent world-record striped bass started churning up the Internet, his cell phone and email in-box have been jammed with messages. His friends and people suddenly claiming to be his friends have been agog with talk of big money from endorsements.

Nevertheless, Greg Myerson started Monday morning knee-deep in the cold, clear water of Munger Brook, calmly adjusting rocks on a small spillway he constructed next to his North Branford house in Connecticut.

"I'm going to wait and see what happens," he says about the possibility of benefits and fame derived from the 81.88-pound fish he caught Aug. 4 in Long Island Sound, just beyond Outer Southwest Reef off Westbrook.

His wait-and-see attitude is pure wisdom, because the fish must first be certified as a record by theInternational Game Fish Association (IGFA), which approves and keeps track of such things.

"Approval of a record is a rigorous process," says Jack Vitek, IGFA records coordinator.

Not only must appropriate documents be completed but the fishing line and leader used to catch the fish must be tested and the scale on which it was weighed certified. No action can be taken until at least 60 days from the catch day.

Still, says Vitek, "I've seen photos of the fish. It's pretty exciting."

Scoffing at rumors that he would not submit his fish to the IGFA, Myerson, 43, points to his house and says, "I've got the IGFA papers in there."

With that, he tosses a handful of feed pellets into the brook, bringing the water to a boil of hungry trout, fish he has stocked there for fun.

A few minutes later, shutting off his noisy cellphone, Myerson sits in an easy chair by a large window overlooking the brook.

"I can feed my trout out this window," he says.

The Catch That Changes Everything

The big -- he's 6-feet-4-inches and 275-pounds -- former linebacker at the University of Rhode Island seems almost unaware that, in the angling world, at least, he has become an instant celebrity.

Obviously, however, Myerson is planning ahead.

"I want to start a company that sells online," he says. "It would market T-shirts, caps, fishing rods and maybe reels."

As for endorsements, Myerson adds, he is open to offers but not looking for them.

After news of the catch went out, Myerson says he was called with advice and congratulations by former record-holder Albert McReynolds, who boated a 78.8-pound bass off South Jersey in 1982. McReynolds, formerly of New Jersey and now retired in Florida, made a ton of money but also was targeted by cranks as a hoaxster.

Myerson has already been subjected to similar treatment. One well-known fishing writer wrote in his blog that the fish had been caught by an "Al Stromski" and when the name was corrected, noted that Myerson had suffered a panic attack after being badgered about the fish.

Some posts on the Internet suggest something is fishy about the catch besides the fish itself. The burly Harley-Davidson rider laughs it all off.

Fishing Since Childhood

Many anglers who know Myerson say he's paid his dues and deserves the record.

"Better he catches it than some guy who just happened to toss his line in the water," says a buddy.

During the season, Myerson virtually lives on the water, fishing night after night. Big fish are not a novelty to him. He routinely catches and releases stripers that would be another angler's fish of a lifetime.

Myerson has been fishing for most of his life. He started at age 12, fly fishing on the Muddy River behind a friend's house in his native North Haven. About the same time, he caught his first striper when a family friend took him to the turbulent Race at the eastern end of Long Island Sound.

"From then on, I wanted to catch stripers, he says.

Myerson recounts how he trapped muskrats to earn money for a boat. Fittingly, he chose a salty 17-foot Brockway skiff, a wooden craft built by Old Saybrook's Richard Earle Brockway, a New England legend who produced more than 5,000 boats in his cluttered yard near the Connecticut River, working virtually until he died at age 76 in 1996.

Brockway used a rusted old Cadillac to hoist and tow his boats, which were favored by true watermen for fishing and utility use. Plans for one of his models were circulated to fishermen in developing countries by the United States Peace Corps.

"I watched my boat being built," says Myerson, speaking of the time he spent among the lumber, old tires and tools strewn about next to Brockway's ramshackle home.

"I kept the boat at a marina in Branford," says Myerson. "My parents told me not to go past the town dock. I'd go a lot further than that," he admits.

He now keeps his boat at Pier 76 Marina, north of the Singing Bridge over the Patchogue River in Westbrook.

The Fateful Night

Myerson left the marina with a friend aboard before dusk on Aug. 4 and, once near Southwest, stopped at a bouldery hole marked "22" on his GPS.

"It's my lucky number," he says of the hole's designation. The number is the same as the length in inches of a rainbow trout caught when he was young, still mounted on a wall in his home.

Myerson started his drift about 8 p.m. He favors slack tide at dark's approach for the biggest fish. His reel was a Quantum Cabo and his rod a short, stout St. Croix, at six-and-a-half feet. The eye at the tip of the rod had been removed and replaced with a roller. "I use braided line. It wears at the eye," he explains.

He used a three-way swivel rig with an eel, pretty standard except that he opts for super-size eels, figuring they attract super-size fish.

Reeling Her In

As the drift progressed, Myerson felt a powerful strike. He lost half an eel and the fish. He began the drift again.

"I expected the fish would be still there, especially if it was hungry, he says.

(Turns out it was, exploration of its stomach revealed only a sea star.) The fish slammed the eel again and Myerson hooked it -- or, rather, her. It was obvious he had a whopper at the other end of the line.

"I know what a big fish feels like," he says. "Towing the boat, the striper bottomed then streaked away as stripers are known to do, ripping off line."

Myerson waited for the fish to surface, as he knew it would when it finished its run.

"Crashing the surface, its dorsal fin was so big it looked like Batman's cape," he says.

As Myerson pumped his rod and fought the monster, he slipped on eel slime that coated the deck and bruised his ribs. Eventually the fish tired before Myerson did. At the boat, it edged under the swim platform, which snagged the net wielded by Myerson's companion.

"I use a huge net," says Myerson.

After a few anxious moments, they freed the net and boated the fish. From the broken-off leader in the fish's mouth, it was apparent that someone else had missed the chance at boating a record.

Even though he suspected he had something special, Myerson, laid back as ever, stayed out and continued catching stripers. After finally returning to the rock, he iced the fish, put it in his truck and relaxed for a while at a nearby seafood spot. Only after he returned home did he weigh it. Then he went to bed.

The next morning, a customer was having a reel spooled with line at Jack's Shoreline Bait & Tackle in Westbrook. The phone rang and owner Jack Katzenbach answered. After the call, he turned to the customer and another man who was hanging out and told them, "A big striper is coming in for weighing, more than 81 pounds."

And that is what it turned out to be, on Katzenbach's scale.


From Port Washington Patch:
http://portwashington.patch.com/arti...ut-8?ncid=M254

[BassBuddah]

6'4" and 275 lbs? That's a big guy. Congrats to him.