THE NEW RECORDThe dam towered over our heads as we made our way along the rocks near the spillway. The long surf-type fishing rods didn’t make the trip easier. The reason for this hike was to cast for spawning stripers in the waters directly below the dam on Lake Texoma. My guide was Jody Griggs who at that time owned the Whopper Stopper Lure Company.
Striped bass are an anadromous fish and their spawning ritual of traveling up rivers to spawn led some of them to become landlocked during lake dam constructions. It was once believed that the first area they became landlocked was in the Santee-Cooper River during the construction of the two dams that impounded Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, and because of this belief the state game fish of South Carolina is the striped bass. Now several lakes across the country have this species.
The striped bass (Morone saxatilis, also called Atlantic striped bass, stripers, linesiders, rock, pimpfish, or rockfish) is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater (marine) fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire.
The striped bass is a typical member of the Moronidae family in shape, having a streamlined, silvery body marked with longitudinal dark stripes running from behind the gills to the base of the tail. The average weight is 30 to 40 lbs. Striped bass are believed to live for up to 30 years. Which brings us to this story.
McReynolds a former Atlantic City resident held the record, with a 78-pound, 8-ounce striper he caught on Sept. 21, 1982 until just recently when the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) approved an 81 pound, 14 ounce heavyweight from Connecticut angler Greg Myerson.
Jack Vitek, world-record coordinator, met with IGFA president Rob Kramer and conservation director Jason Schratwieser, to go over the details one more time, and then authorized the record.
Vitek said the IGFA recently requested what he called testimonials from Myerson and the weighmaster that certified the catch
Myerson's bass was caught August 4, 2011 from Long Island Sound. It also will be listed by the IGFA as an 80-pound test line record.
McReynolds stays in the record book because he caught his striper with 20-pound test line.
McReynolds caught his striper on an Atlantic City jetty, and was certified at then Campbell Marine in Northfield.
As stripers go this is a very big fish deserving of the IGFA records, however there has been a larger one caught.
There was a 92 pound striped bass was caught in a net by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service in 1995. The fish now hangs on the wall of the Maryland DNR in Annapolis Maryland.
A hearty congratulation goes out to Myerson and the 81-pounder he caught that morning.
