State record? I'll never know now!

[agchawk]

 SO, I took my youngest son and my boss's son (Josh) out fishing this last Thursday. About an hour into it Josh reels in this monster Yellowbelly. We took a few photos and then turned to release it. In doing so I snapped the hook off in it's jaw but managed to get him back into the water.
  An hour later I got a hit, set the hook, and reeled in the same damned Yellowbelly! It still had Josh's hook lodged in it's jaw.

  Anyway, I showed my brother the pics and he stated "You know, the state record is only about a pound and a half for those things!" I looked it up and sure enough, the record is 1.63 pounds!! I think we may have not only released the state record once...BUT TWICE!

  What do you guys and gals think? I reeled this fatty in and held him in my hands twice and I swear he was 2 lbs at least.

   Good news...he hit twice and I am going back out to see if I can catch him for a third time!!!!

[tlbradford]

I would guess between 2-2.5 lbs as well.

[NRA4LIFE]

I'd go after him again too!  At least you know it's probably still out there.  Imagine if you'd have fried him up.

[agchawk]

 I know it! I wish I could get out there NOW but I have to work today and tomorrow. The chances are still pretty slim that I'll hit him again but I want to at least get a shot at it so that I can verify his size/wieght.

[seth30]

You caught that on a jig??

[agchawk]

You caught that on a jig??

LOL.....kinda. Josh wanted to keep the jig on his pole so I allowed him to. We were using worms and bottom fishing so I just put the worm on the jig. He's only 9 and thought it looked cool so I figured "What the heck."

[agchawk]

  Here's a pic of one of the other bigger ones we caught. This was my son's biggest of the day.

  I usually don't target these fish since they are not worth much as far as table fare goes. However, when I have the little ones with me I don't mind it since it's easy fishing for them and we always seem to bring more than a few to the bank.

  The boys had an absolute blast so in the end that is all that really matters.

[MichaelD]

Hey Hawk!     Good to see you guys out and about having a good time.  Good luck catching TANK - would not only be nice to see what he weighs, but imagine the stories you can tell your grandkids - "I was such a great fisherman,  I caught the same fish 3 times in one week on purpose..."   Good luck and hope to run into you soon!  Michael

[YellowDog]

That's a cool story. Catching the same fish twice within an hour. Too bad that you didnt' get a weight on that thing bucause he does look like he weighs over 2lbs.  So maybe the next time you catch it it will be even heavier so you put the record further out of reach for the next guy.  Go get him again!

[seth30]

Well thats nice you put a worm on the jig for your son and it worked

[bowhunterforever]

Good luck catching him again

[bow4elk]

Very cool!

[PA BEN]

Your throwing back some good eating there.

[bearpaw]

Looks bigger than 2 pounds, hope you catch him again, it would make quite the story.

[buckhorn2]

On the bright side the way he was feeding he will be bigger next time if you catch him again.