Not the actual fish, just a picture of a European Rudd

BROOKINGS, S.D. – A Flandreau angler landed a small, strange fish just before the Fourth of July, and it turned out to be a state record.

Brian Korman was using a worm for bait at the Interstate Pond in Brookings County when he landed a 7.5 inch, 3-ounce European Rudd.

The fish is considered an invasive species in South Dakota because it can quickly overpopulate and crowd out native species.

Korman submitted the fish to the Department of Game, Fish and Parks. A European Rudd had never been submitted before, so Korman’s catch is now in the books as a state record.

If there could be a poll of bass fishermen asked to guess where the next world record largemouth bass will be caught, responses would include California, Texas, Mexico, Cuba and Florida. What about Japan?

Reports indicate that a 22-pound, 5-ounce bass was caught by Manabu Kurita, a professional angler, in Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake. It covers more than 259 square miles and is 300 feet deep in spots. It is one of the world’s oldest lakes.

The fish was caught either Wednesday or Thursday about noon on live bait. The fish’s girth and other information were not given, but images of the bass were posted on various Web sites.

If reports are true, the fish will tie Georgia’s 22-pound, 4-ounce world record bass caught by George W. Perry on June 2, 1932, in Montgomery Lake in Telfair County. The record has stood by itself for 77 years. The International Game Fish Association requires new world records of fish 25 pounds or less to weigh two ounces more than the previous one.

The previous Japanese bass record weighed 19.15 pounds and was caught in 2003.

Most fishermen thought the next world record bass would come from a California reservoir that gets stocked with rainbow trout. Dixon Lake in Escondido, north of San Diego, served up a 25-pound, 1-ounce bass in March 2006, but angler Mack Weakley foul-hooked the bass, making it an illegal catch. The bass was found dead two years later.

Iowa State Record Carp

Congratulations Tracy Seaton!

The state bighead carp record established here Thursday won’t stand long, according to the Shellsburg archer who killed the 79-pound, 4-ounce monster.

Tracy Seaton, 47, said he has set his sights on another bighead that’s “at least a foot longer” than the 53-incher.

Paul Sleeper, Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist, confirmed the record at an official weigh-in Friday at Nelson’s Meat Market, 1140 Old Marion Rd. The fish broke the record by about 3 pounds,  a record set year ago on the Missouri River..

Seaton saw the spawning female Monday when he shot a 53-pound bighead carp in the same section of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids.

He stalked the 79-pound carp for parts of three days before he finally got close enough for the shot, which pierced the aptly named fish’s head, killing it in seconds. Seaton said he doubted he could have landed the powerful fish if it had been alive.

While the bigheads represent fun to fish archers like Seaton, they could spell trouble for Iowa fisheries. Last year’s floods enabled the bighead and another Asian invader, the silver carp, to leapfrog what had been natural barriers to the expansion of their ranges.

The silver carp — known for leaping out of the water at the sound of an outboard motor  — moved upstream from Lock and Dam 19 on the Mississippi River at Keokuk, according to Kim Bogenschutz, the DNR biologist coordinating Iowa’s effort to track and contain invasive animals.  “The big concern,” she said,”is that the voracious filter feeders will out-compete native aquatic species.”