Possible record Smallmouth or not?

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Courtesy of the Tri-City Herald: Kennewick angler lands likely state record smallmouth bass

[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]Published Monday, September 11th, 2006
By Anna King, Herald staff writer
Austin Kenyon says he has dropped his bait into the deep holes of the Yakima River many times, but on Saturday of Labor Day weekend he hauled out what appears to be a record smallmouth bass.
The 22-year-old Kennewick man said he was startled after he set the hook, the fish leaped into the air and showed itself.
"I thought I had a carp on until it jumped 2-to-3 feet in the air," he said.
Kenyon landed the beamoth without a sparkly bass boat or any special tackle. He caught the 9-pound, 32-ounce fish with a 8-pound test line, a jig-like worm and a bass rod from the shore on the lower Yakima River. The fish measures 22 inches long.
If confirmed, the fish would usurp the previous Washington record for a Micropterus dolomieui set in 1966 for a 8.75-pound bass caught on the Columbia River's Hanford Reach by Ray Wonacott.
Officials from the State Department of Fish and Wildlife officials examined Kenyon's fish, took scale samples and weighed it on a certified scale last weekend. Kenyon said he is still waiting for his certificate and for his record to be posted on the state's Web site.
State wildlife officials couldn't be reached on Sunday.
Kenyon said he had to battle the burly fish for nearly 30 minutes before he landed it.
Each time he reeled the fish in near shore, it would surge back out to deep water, he said.
"It just took my line," he said, slightly breathless from retelling his story. "We fought and fought."
Finally, when Kenyon got the fish near shore, he waded in among the weeds and caught the bass by hand, because he had no net.
"The hook was only an eight-of-an-inch in his mouth," he said, "It was luck that I reeled it in -- it was just meant to be."
Once he got the fish ashore he realized how truly large the fish was.
"My jaw dropped," he said. "I knew that it was an amazing thing. I had to go see if it was a record breaker."
Kenyon took the fish home and put it in the freezer, then returned to his lucky spot to fish through the night.
"I was so excited that I spent the night out there and I caught a 12-pound catfish," he said.
Kenyon was only slightly that he killed the "humungously fat," bass.
The fish is set to be mounted courtesy of Sportsmen's Warehouse in Kennewick.
"It's the state record. I have to mount him," he said. "It's OK, he lived a good life."
Kenyon said he's been fishing in the Mid-Columbia since he was about 7 years old. He goes to the river frequently to unwind from stress, he said.
Kenyon's friends have now taken to calling him the "bass assassin." But the Kennewick man doesn't appear to mind, he's totally focused on his next cast.
"I am going to get into the tournaments and start working on the largemouth (bass) record," he said. "I want to get big time into catching bass."
* Reporter Anna King can be reached at 582-1537 or via e-mail at aking@tricityherald.com.[/font]

[font "Arial"]New State-Record Bass?[/font]
[font "Arial"]WDFW is reviewing paperwork for what could be a new state-record smallmouth. [/font]
[font "Arial"]Caught over Labor Day weekend, the bass weighed 9.34 pounds on a certified scale at the Kennewick Fred Meyer, according to meat manager Don Anderson. [/font]
[font "Arial"]WDFW fish biologist Paul Hoffarth at the Pasco field office says the smallmouth was brought in Sept. 6 and taped out at 22 inches long and 17.25 inches around. [/font]
[font "Arial"]However, a standard length-girth math formula used to estimate bass size yields a weight of only 6.96 pounds, according to a calculator at landbigfish.com.[/font]
[font "Arial"]The fish may have been frozen and thawed several times. It’s unclear whether that disqualifies it from record contention, but WDFW’s official application says, “Frozen fish will not be accepted for weighing.”[/font]
[font "Arial"]A call to WDFW’s Keith Underwood, who oversees state-record applications, wasn’t immediately returned this afternoon.[/font]
[font "Arial"]The standing state record is an 8.75-pounder, caught in 1966 by Ray Wonacott in the Hanford Reach. [/font]
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[EZOP]

[inline Record.jpg]

Well what do you think? Big yes, over 9lbs, I'm not sure.[unimpressed]
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[davetclown]

sounds like a state record posibility, provided it wasnt full of lead.

the world record is held in Tennesse at a wapping 13+ pounds.

mind you a 6 pound smallie is impressive any day of the week.[cool]
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[EZOP]

by Andy Walgamott, Washington Fishing & Hunting News

A 9.32-pound smallmouth bass caught by a Kennewick angler earlier this month is the new state record.

“We’re going to go ahead and recognize it as a record,” said WDFW angler education specialist Keith Underwood, who maintains state records, this morning.

“Right on!” said Austin Kenyon, 22, when he heard the news around noon today. “Phew, no complications. Yah!”

The 22-year-old angler caught the smallie while bank fishing on the lower Yakima River Sept. 2 with a plastic grub.

“It hit my line so hard I thought I had a carp on,” he told F&H News yesterday.

Fishing partner Laura Herin, who was there when Austin hooked it that Saturday afternoon, says he was very excited to catch the huge fish.

“It was definitely bigger than a football,” she says.

It tops a 40-year-old record, Ray Wonacott’s 1966 Hanford Reach smallie, by 9 ounces.

Underwood was filling out final paperwork and forwarding it to Director Jeff Koening for his signature this afternoon.

WANTS TO GO PRO: A rabid angler, Kenyon says his technique is to “jig, jig, jig” his lure and then let it sit.

“The longer you let it sit, the more likely it is to be bit,” he says.

Kenyon landed his big fish on a Shimano reel and ultralight rod, 8-pound Stren line and a Yamamoto pumpkin-green grub.

He also likes 7-inch YUM green-pumpkin lizards. He snaps their legs off and fishes the tail.

“I’m a very dedicated fisherman. I go out there every single day. I love fishing. I want to be sponsored ... I want to go out in pro tournaments,” the material handler for Apollo Sheet Metal says.

UNUSUAL WEIGHT FOR SIZE: Perhaps the bass downstream of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation have different densities than those elsewhere, or the formulas designed to figure out fish weight can’t account for local variations, but what’s puzzling WDFW and local bass anglers is that Kenyon’s fish is somehow heavier than other fish its size.

“The measurements don’t fit,” says Underwood, referring to standard length-times-girth formulas used to weigh bass.

Three different formulas, which use slightly different calculations, put the fish at 6.65 pounds, 6.85 pounds and 7.95 pounds, he says.

However, Underwood says the fish has a very large belly, and that biologist Paul Hoffarth and a taxidermist at the Kennewick Sportsman’s Warehouse could find no evidence of lead or anything shoved into the fish’s stomach.

“It didn’t appear there was any distortion in the gut ... Paul remarked that the fish felt exceptionally heavy,” Underwood says.

He adds that there is no evidence of fraud.

“We know there are fish that come through that area that are pretty good size,” Underwood says.

Adds Kenyon on the lower Yakima’s bass, “They’re just fat, but not long.”

In fact, there just might be something in the water that’s creating short but incredibly stout fish in this area.

Underwood notes that Wonacott’s 1966 record smallie displays the same characteristics as Kenyon’s bass.

“Its weight was heavier than its size,” he says. Wonacott’s fish was 2 inches shorter, but just 4 ounces under the 9-pound mark.

However, it was also caught in the spring (April 23), when hen bass are typically fat with eggs.

RECORD RE-EVALUATION: Still, the oddity of Kenyon’s bass is forcing the state to re-evaluate how much information is required for potential state records.

“This particular fish is causing us to review our records,” says Underwood. “What we’re going to be doing is look at our record-keeping process.”

While there is a space on Washington’s record application form for a biologist to mark down fish length and girth, records are awarded by weight alone.

“This one is tipping the scale, telling us something is wrong ... How can something that’s 22 inches long and 17 inches around weigh so much?” Underwood says.

“This one does have a pretty good-sized gut. It looks like there’s a softball in there,” he says.

Underwood’s quick to add that standing records would not be revised.

He also says he will bring the issue up with colleagues during a conference at an Arkansas bass hatchery.

“It’ll be a good place to have a talk about this issue,” he says.

FROZEN STATUS CLEARED UP: Underwood says the only way they could disqualify the bass is because it was frozen, which Kenyon readily admits occurred.

The application for state records reads, “Frozen fish will not be accepted for weighing.”

“But this fish was thawed before weighing,” Underwood notes.

Kenyon says he had to freeze it because it was Labor Day weekend. He wasn’t able to bring it in to state offices until Sept. 6.

The regulation against frozen fish is designed to keep out-of-state fish out of the record books, says Underwood.

Potential records can be weighed at certified scales which can be found at most if not all grocers’ meat and produce departments.

Official instructions can be found here: [url "http://wdfw.wa.gov/outreach/fishing/bigfishapplication.pdf"][#336633]http://wdfw.wa.gov/outreach/fishing/bigfishapplication.pdf[/#336633][/url]
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[EZOP]

Friends, lead weights sink angler's 'record' catch

[#666666]October 12, 2006

By [url "mailto:webteam@komo4news.com"]Associated Press[/url] [/#666666]

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[font "verdana, arial,geneva"][size 2]KENNEWICK - A Kennewick man won't be listed in state record books because the smallmouth bass he caught was packed with lead weights, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Two of Austin Kenyon's friends signed statements saying Austin's fish had been tampered with when it was weighed on a state-certified scale at Fred Meyer in Kennewick.
Kenyon denies the state's ruling and says the fish he caught Labor Day weekend was legitimate.
Kenyon says his fish weighed 9.32 pounds on a state-certified scale and measured 22 inches long.
Ray Wonacott of Ellensburg holds the record with an 8.75-pound smallmouth bass caught in 1966 on the Columbia River's Hanford Reach[/size][/font]
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