During spring break Sam Murch fished for his first time from the shore on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Conditions were pretty rough. Surf was way up, and even most of the locals had opted out. Still he and his buds decided to give it a shot. The men were fishing cut bait, and eventually Sam got bit. After a 20-minute fight he brought in this estimated 41-lb. red drum with a 28-inch girth. He thanks guys in the local tackle shops who advised him to stick it out even in weather that drove others home or into neighboring watering holes. "Keep posting the records, please," Sam requests. "It helps me to make it through the off season!" Outdoor Life Online Editor
Here's 12-year-old Christina Smith holding the 28 lb., 8 oz. muskie she took from Big Lake MN, using a Le Lure Front Thumper. The muskie is the new female junior- class record. The fish was released after documenting. Outdoor Life Online EditorWhile calmly soaking corn bait in Texas' Lake Hubard, seven-year-old Dylan Thomas Davis was suddenly jolted to attention. He reacted swiftly, though, and in five minutes, the youngster had landed a 35 lb. 10 oz. smallmouth buffalo that has become the new IGFA Smallfry record for the species. Outdoor Life Online EditorLast fall while home on R&R; from Afghanistan, Master Sergeant Mike Hoskins took his son nine-year-old son Jon bass fishing. They did right well, as you can see from the lunker Jon's holding. The fish was "released to grow bigger," says Mike, who adds he loves reading the Gone Fishin' blog and fishing stories in OL-especially when he's over there. Outdoor Life Online EditorQuick-set or quick-strike rigs are essentially a forward single hook with a tandem leader attached to either a double hook or one small treble or two small trebles. The tandem hook goes into the bait's body. They are fast gaining favor among muskie hunters and big pike anglers who fish live suckers. The benefit is that you can set the hook-right now-and avoid gut or deep-hooking a fish too valuable to be caught one time. Outdoor Life Online EditorGary Engberg used just such a rig to boat this nice 41-inch muskie before last turnover on Lake Monona in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Nice fish, Gary, and good on you using the quick-set. Check www.smitybait.com , then click on "other products" for pre-rigged quick-sets. Outdoor Life Online EditorJohn Walters of Flin Flon Manitoba caught this 11 lb. 7 oz brook trout on 12-lb.-test line from the province's Barbe Lake. It's a pending IGFA record for that line class. But, as big fish aficionados well know, an even bigger brookie came from the same lake also last October and caused a furor. At first the doubters said that Tim Matheson's monster was really a splake-cross between a laker and brook trout. Biologists confirmed both the fish and the fact that there are no splake in Barbe. Bottom line is Tim's fish became the new National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame world record in the "Catch-and-Release" division. Based on measurements (29-in. length, 21-in.girth), Matheson's fish would have weighed 16 lbs. (1 1 / 2 lbs. more than the kept world record brook trout). Outdoor Life Online EditorAnd then there's Kentucky native Mark Blair who was tapped by Matt Eastman for ESPN Outdoor's "Wanna Go Fishing" and came up with the fish of a lifetime. Blair had not eaten since early morning of the fishing day, and was dog tired from that plus his fast, 5:00 am trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was now 5:00pm, and that's when the yellowfin tuna hit. "I knew all I had in me was enough for a short battle," Blair said. Tough luck. "What really hurt was when my arm was on fire and I was really sucking wind and somebody said I'd only been on the fish for twenty minutes!" More than two hours later Capt. Josh Temple eased his charter boat "Conquistador" into neutral the last time while the huge fish was gaffed; all 361.7 lbs. of it. Anyone who has fought tuna know what a fish like that can do to you. Mark Blair's fish is just 27 lbs. shy of the yellowfin tuna record of all time. The Wanna Go show featuring his catch will air this spring. Outdoor Life Online Editor
Fishing Editor Jerry Gibbs shows off his favorite reader photos from our Gone Fishin’ blog.
