SO...I Think I released a state record!!!

[AGCHAWK]

SO, I took my youngest son and my boss's son (Josh) out fishing this last Thursday. About an hour into it Josh reels in this monster Yellowbelly. We took a few photos and then turned to release it. In doing so I snapped the hook off in it's jaw but managed to get him back into the water.
An hour later I got a hit, set the hook, and reeled in the same damned Yellowbelly! It still had Josh's hook lodged in it's jaw.

Anyway, I showed my brother the pics and he stated "You know, the state record is only about a pound and a half for those things!" I looked it up and sure enough, the record is 1.63 pounds!! I think we may have not only released the state record once...BUT TWICE!

What do you guys and gals think? I reeled this fatty in and held him in my hands twice and I swear he was 2 lbs at least.

Good news...he hit twice and I am going back out to see if I can catch him for a third time!!!!

[killerbee]

i'm no huge fisherman, but by looking at that fish i would think he's over 2 lbs easy? pretty cool!
if you catch him again, i hear tell the thing to do is dropp a bunch of lead weight down his throat untill he weighs 5 lbs or more somewhere i read a story of a guy doing that go catch that pig again

[WinMag]

It's hard to tell with only the reel and jig to size him up by. But I think you may be right that you let a State record go twice. Good luck on your attempt to catch him a third time.

[ABert]

I caught a mess of them things as a kid, though we called them mudcats. I learned the hard way why they are called mudcats. If you are fool enough to try and eat them they taste just like mud.

And, yes, from my professional mudcat/yellowbelly days, that one is over 2lbs!

[182BC...4Now!]

Looks pretty friggin' big to me...I don't know how that thing doesn't go over 2 lbs! Congrats on the catch...hope you can do it again!

[huntfishnv]

That deffinitly looks over two pounds! go catch him again

[sneekeepete]

Well hawk he definatley looks like he will break the record. Good luck trying to catch him again!

[MuleyMadness]

Yep you just released the state record TWICE. Agreed.

[MULEY7MM]

I would even say that thing could be closer to 2.5 i catch a ton of cats and they have alot of weight to them I say go get it again and break the record for a 3rd time

[AGCHAWK]

Well, I went back out to the same spot in which I/we hooked him earlier this week. Unfortunately all I caught was smaller ones!

Oh well, you live and you learn right? Now I just hope that he wasn't caught by someone else. That way next year he will be even bigger!!!!