Lynn Bumgardner instructed his buddy he had the brand new Kentucky state file as quickly as he noticed the perch floor
Lynn Bumgardner holds his state-record yellow perch. {Photograph} by the Kentucky Division of Fish and Wildlife Assets
Lake Barkley is legendary for a lot of issues, together with excellent bass and crappie fishing. However Lynn Bumgardner, a visiting angler from Tennessee, might have added a brand new web page to the lake’s fame by catching a Kentucky state-record yellow perch that weighed 1.58 kilos.
In keeping with a information launch from the Kentucky Division of Fish & Wildlife Assets, Bumgardner was trolling for crappies on March 2 within the Trigg County portion of sprawling 58,000-acre Lake Barkley. He was fishing along with his long-time pal Lee Andrews, Kentucky subject supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, when the large perch struck a small crappie jig.
“We had been trolling grubs in Linton Bay on Lake Barkley,” Bumgardner, knowledgeable tv actor from Oliver Springs, Tennessee, instructed KDFWR. “After I caught that one, I knew instantly it was a heavy fish.”
The pair had caught crappies earlier within the day and had been virtually achieved fishing when the large perch hit Bumgardner’s lure.
“The fish rolled over and I noticed the nice huge stomach and I noticed the stripes and I knew it was a perch,” Bumgardner mentioned. “I mentioned ‘Lee, I’ve caught the brand new state file yellow perch.’ I didn’t know if it actually was, nevertheless it was the most important perch I’d ever seen.”
Andrews checked the state data and discovered that the standing yellow perch file was 1 pound 7 ounces. He insisted that Bumgardner’s fish weighed greater than that.
“We weighed it on hand-held digital scales and it was 1 pound 9 1/8 ounces,” Andrews instructed the company. “I instructed him, ‘If it weighs that a lot, you do have the state file.’”
The pair fished for a bit longer, catching one other crappie to finish the day. Then they determined to go to shore and have the large yellow perch weighed. They went to a Meals Big grocery retailer in Cadiz, the place an evening supervisor named Braxton weighed the fish on a licensed scale.
“Braxton was very enthusiastic about weighing the large perch that evening as a result of he’s a fisherman, too,” retailer supervisor Amber Lehman tells Outside Life.
Bumgardner’s fish measured 14 and 1/4 inches lengthy and it tops the earlier Kentucky file by simply over two ounces. That yellow perch was caught by Klint Thaxton from Kentucky Lake in March 2010.
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Barkley and Kentucky lakes are widespread fisheries that span the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. For many years they’ve supplied anglers and vacationers a wealth of cruising and fishing alternatives. Tenting and looking are additionally widespread across the lakes, significantly on the 171,000-acre Land Between The Lakes Nationwide Recreation Space. Spring is prime time for crappies on each lakes, however after Bumgardner’s file catch, yellow perch might change into one other widespread goal for space fishermen.
