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Alex Foster holding his potential world record catch and release striped bass, Thanks to Chris’ Bait and Tackle.
Alex Foster holding his potential world record catch and release striped bass, Thanks to Chris’ Bait and Tackle.
Catch and Release World Record
The striped bass season ended at midnight on December 31 in the State of Virginia, but a West Virginia angler managed to catch and release a potential world record striped bass. With the likelihood of the minimum size of bass now being limited to 35-inches, these “Catch and Release World Records” will become more common, maybe too common in this day of social media and attention-grabbing.
Alex Foster has caught and released what is likely to be an International Game Fish Association’s Catch and Release World Record for a striped bass he caught and released off Cape Charles. Foster was fishing with Sho-Nuff Sportsfishing. Charters. The fish measured 48.03 inches long, five centimeters longer than the current record and good enough to win him a release award from the Virginia Salt Water Fishing tournament.
but as a person that ran The Triple Crown of Fishing, from Rhode Island to New Jersey for 5 years in a row, I can say with authority that sadly, anglers cheat. A year didn’t go by without some type of controversy centered around cheating. It was profitable for us and the industry as excitement and participation increased. But the constant BS forced me to say screw it, and we shut them down.
Now I’m not calling him a cheater by any means, and I know the guy that he beat out by 5 centimeters. Let’s face it folk’s, being recognized by the IGFA for any kind of world record will entice the few cheats out there to figure a way to beat the system. I somberly predict that these Catch and Release IGFA records will be broken annually - forever!
First of all, it's a 48-inch fish that registered 58 pounds on a boga. Now that is a big bass, bigger than anything I've caught. But the lure of recognition in fishing means too much to some.
Terry Long was indicted in Texas for cheating. But the worst one of all is in the video below showing the World Famous "Big Bass King" Mike Long - no relation I think? - being about as low as you can go. Watching this guy snag 10-pound plus spawners and then take selfies literally turns my stomach. Here's a guy that won over $150K cheating while fishing the bass circuit. He was found to be snagging big bass on beds. All the while he was taking credit and basking in the glory as the Big Bass King. There's a great article on it at www.sdfish.com.
So I ask does an IGFA Catch and Release World Record actually mean anything when we have cheating anglers among us?
