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holy blasting sandwich pants. that looks like a bass!
SENECA LAKE, NEW YORK They don't measure them,,, They weigh them..
and apart from the st lawaurence, the niagra river, and lake otisco there are no other worldclass musky waters. I have not seen any pics of truly world class pike, and a 30 pound king is not world class.
IMO it's highly probable that many guys catching enormous perch are unmotivated by competition to win, so THE biggest perch (and others species) never get entered in tournaments. The same thing even goes for record size fish. Some guys have no interest whatsoever in recognition or fame, and eat fish that would be record setters. I do fish taxidermy for a hobby and never cease to be amazed at the gigantic fish that some guys catch that are simply valued for their hefty fillets. That MI record perch (21" long)) was apparently never mounted or even photographed!!!!
Don't misunderstand my position. Indeed I know that there are perch-jerkers out there who target and catch more than their share of super dupers, and keep it quiet. They don't boast of what they catch and they sure don't load up photos of them on multiple fishing websites for a big pat on the back. I honor (and envy) their expertise and desire to remain humble. Then there are the ones who fish a little, know very little, and catch very little, but to stroke their own egos they make pompous claims of exceptionally large fish(perch) that they caught, someone else caught, or they just "saw." Such stories are deserving of skepticism. Without acutally measuring a fish, one is just guesstimating length. And how the hell did someone "lose a 21/2 lb perch" when they never weighed it? I've got a lot of years of experience around all kinds of "huge" freshwater fish. When the claimed size of some fish gets just so big, I refuse to believe it without some kind of proof. Example? On one of these threads a guy "claimed" to have caught(or seen?) a 19" perch. Anyone who believes a report of that big of a perch without proof is a sucker (Pun intended). I'd believe a 15"perch without proof because they are not that uncommon. However, if anyone claims a perch over 16" they had better have proof like this for credibility.(Image removed from quote.)
what ever name you go by now, none of those perch are anywhere near what you clamed them to be. I believe you claimed them to all be in the 16 to 18 inch mark, which is not even close. If you actuall put a tape on them instead of gestimate the size you would know the truth.