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Giant striper may be new world record

The behemoth was landed on a live eel in Connecticut on August 4
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Courtesy Field & Stream

A Connecticut angler may have set a new International Game Fish Association All-Tackle World Record for his 81.8-pound striped bass, if his recent catch passes that organization’s review process.

Greg Myerson, 43, of North Branford Connecticut launched his boat at Westbrook, just before dark on August 4, and headed out to fish Six Mile Reef. Along the way he stopped to fish familiar spots, places where he has had good luck in Long Island Sound. As usual, he was rigged with his preferred bait, large live eels. Myerson is a large bass specialist, but he was about to up his own game. By 8:00 that night, near Outer Southwest Reef he had landed the potential world record fish following a 20-minute battle.

He was fishing a 6-½ foot St. Croix rod, and Quantum Cabo reel spooled with 50-pound-test Berkley Gorilla Braid. The striper had another hook and a length of leader in its mouth when he landed it. Once it was in the boat, Myerson continued fishing, and didn’t get around to weighing the striper until the next morning, when he took it to Jack’s Shoreline Bait & Tackle in Westbrook.

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At press time the IGFA had not received the necessary paperwork to verify the catch and certify it as a new world record, according to Jack Vitek, records coordinator for the IGFA.

” We have yet to receive the documentation that is required,” he said, “but it is our understanding that the angler has mailed the application.”

Vitek explained that work-record verification is a complicated process and for domestic applications such as this one, generally requires 60 days from the date of catch before it can be certified and entered into the record book. On this timeline, the record would not be certified until October.

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Should it be certified the 81.8-pound striper would eclipse the current IGFA All-Tackle record, the 78.8-pound striped bass caught on an artificial lure by Albert McReynolds from the Ventnor Avenue jetty in Atlantic City, New Jersey on a September night in 1982.
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You can find many more exclusive photos of the catch here!_

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