Released 9-Pound Smallmouth Bass Would Have Beaten Angler's Own Record

Summer officially gets here this week with the summer solstice. That means the longest dasy of the year are upon us, giving you even more time to hook a lunker before sunset. Now begins the long, slow, hot trek toward fall hunting.

Here’s this week’s installment of the Game & Fish News Digest.

Nine-Pound Smallmouth Caught, Released in NY

Here's another story that proves history can repeat itself. That was the case for a New York angler who not only caught a fish that was bigger than his own state record for smallmouth bass, he believes it may be the same fish he caught last year to break it.

Thomas Russell, of Albion, N.Y., caught a monster 9-pound, .04-ounce smallmouth on June 15 while fishing in the Finger Lakes Open on the opening day of the Empire State's bass season. The would-be record was caught at Cayuga Lake, the same lake the Major League Fishing pros recently visited for a Bass Pro Tour event.

The fish was easily large enough to break Russell's own state record of 8 pounds, 5.8 ounces, caught last year, according to NewYorkUpstate.com. Photo of the big fish also was shared on Instagram by Game & Fish.

Even more, Russell pointed out in a YouTube video that the markings of his recent catch looked identical to last year’s catch. That led him to believe it was the same fish. Despite all of that, the latest catch won’t break the current record. Russell weighed the fish on a certified scale and quickly released it because he was worried about its health.

"Yes Sir, it was 100% the same fish,” Russell said in a Facebook post quoted by NewYorkUpstate.com. "However this time I chose not to certify it as the new record. We did weigh it on the same certified scale as last year but there was not a certified witness available. We just did not want to stress the fish out any further, so we put her back asap. I would be nothing happier than another angler catching the fish of a lifetime.”

Russell's team (including his cousin and longtime teammate Eric Sullivan) won the Finger Lakes Open by more than five pounds with five smallmouth bass weighing 33 pounds, 1.2 ounces. That was good enough for a $1,130 first-place prize and a $180 lunker award.

Connecticut SR Flounder Caught

Retired police officer and avid angler Bill Proulx had quite the day out on the salt in Connecticut waters earlier this month, boating a massive summer flounder that most anglers can only dream of. And after being weighed in at Hillyer’s Tackle Shop in Waterford, he was all smiles at the news that his big catch is the new Connecticut state record for the species.

"Now THAT is a doormat!," noted the CTFishandWildlife Instagram account of the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. "Please congratulate Bill Proulx with a new state record summer flounder. This monster weighed in at 15.3 pounds at 32 5/8-inches long with a girth of 26 1/4 inches. It surpasses the previous record caught by Michael Maffucci of 14 lbs. 13.76 oz. and 31.5 inches back in 2019. Awesome fish!”

Proulx’s benchmark summer flounder came on June 8 in Niantic Bay, according to the Connecticut DEEP state-record page for marine fish.

Proulx’s catch is a true giant. How big can the species—also known to some anglers as flukes—actually get? According to the International Game Fish Association’s 2023 IGFA World Record Game Fishes record book, the all-tackle record is a 22-pound, 7-ounce specimen caught off Montauk, New York, in Sept. 1975 by Capt. Charles Nappi.

Not to be confused with the Gulf flounder and southern flounder subspecies that anglers from Florida to Texas are familiar with, the summer flounder is found in the western Atlantic waters from Maine to South Carolina, and perhaps even into northeastern Florida, according to the IGFA.

The IGFA notes that the summer flounder is a left-eyed flatfish that can be found in water measuring in inches each summer (the largest summer flounder are in deeper water each summer, however), with the species moving out to deep water of 25 to 80 fathoms for the winter. A variety of angling methods are in play in terms of catching a summer flounder, with some flukes caught on a saltwater-style Carolina rig. An excellent fish for the dinner table, the flesh is white firm meat and considered a succulent delicacy by many.

Arizona Camper Killed by Black Bear

Black bears have been making the news cycle in recent days as viral videos of a cub swimming out of the Gulf of Mexico near Destin, Fla., and of a momma bear and her cubs breaking through a bug screen surrounding a swimming pool in Florida.

Further west, the bear news is far more tragic as news reports indicate that 66-year-old Tucson, Ariz., resident Steven Jackson was reportedly mauled to death in an unprovoked attack by a black bear over the weekend as he drank his morning coffee while camping on a Prescott-area property he owned.

According to a Facebook statement by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office over the weekend, YCSO dispatch reportedly received multiple 911 calls about a man being mauled by a bear in the Groom Creek Area. When YCSO deputies and Prescott Police Department officers arrived on the remote scene, they found Jackson dead and the attacking bear dead as well. Game wardens with the Arizona Game and Fish were then summoned to the location.

"From multiple witness accounts and preliminary investigation of the scene, Mr. Jackson had been sitting having coffee at a table on his property where he was building a home," said the post. "It appears that a male black bear attacked Mr. Jackson, taking him unaware, and dragged him approximately 75 feet down an embankment.

"Neighbors who heard the victim screaming tried to intervene through shouts and car horns, but the bear did not let go of Mr. Jackson until one neighbor was able to retrieve his rifle and shoot the bear to get him to disengage. Unfortunately, by that time Mr. Jackson had succumbed to his horrible injuries."

According to Arizona Game and Fish, a predatory attack by a black bear is highly uncommon. It was the first apparent fatal black bear encounter in Arizona since 61-year-old Lana Hollingsworth was attacked by a bruin while walking her dog near Pinetop-Lakeside, Ariz., on July 25, 2011. According to a Reuters report, she succumbed to her wounds four weeks later, apparently becoming the first person to die from a bear attack in Arizona (incidentally, the Grand Canyon State doesn't have grizzlies, only black bears) since 1990.

Short Casts

Texas Game Wardens were some of the first people on the scene after a deadly tornado tore through the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Three residents died in the EF-3 twister and dozens more were injured after the twister—reportedly a half-mile wide at one point—descended suddenly on the edge of town and ground its way through the community of 8,492 residents. "The destruction caused by tornado is very surreal. It ripped through Perryton and did not discriminate. It has deeply affected so many people’s lives," said Ochiltree County Game Warden Jeremy Schwalk in a TPWD news release. "I’m proud to be a part of such a resilient community that has come together, without fail, in moments of need. This is a humbling experience and as a community we are eager to rebuild the city we love so much." …  In what authorities believe for now was a hunting accident, two unidentified men who were hunting coyotes were shot and injured over the weekend in Rush County, Indiana. According to a Fox59 news report, the men were struck by gunfire from an unknown direction. The two injured men were transported, one by ambulance and the other by medical helicopter, to a nearby hospital where they were both in stable condition. … The recently completed June 12-18 Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament out of Morehead City, N.C., saw a team of anglers miss out on a $3.5-million payday, acording to UPI, despite having the offshore derby’s biggest catch. According to the report, the 619-pound blue marlin was caught off the Tar Heel State coastline by anglers in the 52-foot Sensation boat, a billfish fight that reportedly lasted for more than six hours. But it was disqualified at the scale because of possible shark bite marks and a chunk of flesh missing according to tournament officials. Had the fish been eligible, the UPI says that the Jarrett Bay vessel would have reeled in a $2.77 million prize for finishing in first place, in addition to pocketing $739,500 for being the first 500-plus-pound marlin of the tournament.