iStockphoto / Glen Richard
- A North Carolina just broke a 61-year-old state fishing record for Speckled Seatrout, a saltwater trout species
- One of the coolest details of this record-setting fish is he caught the massive Speckled Seatrout using a homemade fishing rod he built himself
- Read more articles about FISHING right here
A North Carolina angler by the name of Todd Spangler just broke a 61-year-olf state fishing record for Speckled Seatrout. This is one of the most popular inshore saltwater gamefish in the Southeastern United States with anglers chasing this species from the Gulf Coast of Texas, around all parts of Florida, and up the East Coast.
The previous North Carolina state fishing record for Speckled Seatrout was as 12-pound, 4-ounce fish caught in Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington all the way back in 1961. It is incredibly rare for fishing records to last that long when it is the record of a popular gamefish sought after by recreational anglers.
Todd Spangler was fishing the mouth of the Neuse River in Pamlico County, a wide-river basin that dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. The Neuse River is a 275-mile-long river, the longest river contained in North Carolina, that flows from near Durham all the way to the Pamlico Sound.
The Pamlico Sound is a hugely popular fishing destination for North Carolina anglers targeting Redfish, Flounder, Striped Bass, and Speckled Seatrout. Striped Bass grow considerably larger than Speckled Seatrout ever do. The North Carolina state record for Striped Bass is a 60 lb. 0 oz. fish caught in the Hatteras Island Surf back in 1972.
That’s A State Record Speckled Seatrout, Not A Striper!
When angler Todd Spangler hooked up to his now-state record Speckled Trout he actually believed it to be a big Striped Bass at first, that’s how hard the fish was pulling according to Field & Stream. Todd told F&S he initially thought it was a Striper and would have to release it but wasn’t 100% certain.
“I said ‘if this is a trout, it’s gonna be one of the biggest trout I’ve ever caught,’” he tells F&S. “It came up and swirled once, but it was far enough out that we couldn’t see it well. I told my buddy to get the net just in case. I kept fighting it, and when I saw it flash right below us I said, ‘Man, that’s a big striper right there.’ Then it came up to the surface, and I saw that it was a trout, I went all to pieces. I said, ‘Oh, my lord. Get the net! Get the net!’”
It wasn’t a Striper, it was a state record 12.50-pound Speckled Seatrout (also known as Spotted Seatrout) which smashed the previous state record of 12 lbs 4 oz. Look at this absolute hog of a Speckled Seatrout, a once-in-a-lifetime catch that was landed on a homemade fishing rod!
New North Carolina Record Trout, 12.50 Pounds
After catching the Speckled Seatrout it needed to be certified…
Initially, Spangler and his fishing partner weighed his record-setting trout on a portable scale. It was one of those common scales everyone keeps on the boat ‘just in case’ and the fish weighed 12.52 pounds. That’s when they knew they had something special so they brought the record-setting fish to Neuse River Bait and Tackle in Grantsboro to weigh the trout on a certified scale.
It took a state biologist several hours to arrive with a certified scale but they eventually got an official weight of 12.50 pounds and measurements of 33.5 inches (length) and 18 inches (girth).
For comparison’s sake, the IGFA all-tackle record for Speckled Seatrout (or Spotted Seatrout) is a 17 pound, 7-ounce fish caught in Fort Pierce, Florida caught in May 1995 by angler Craig F. Carson. There are A LOT of additional IGFA fishing world records for Spotted Seatrout but those are all fly fishing world records.
One of the more interesting details of this record-setting catch is the angler caught his fish using a homemade fishing rod that he built himself. Spangler told F&S that he started building his own rods around a decade ago. The rod he used here was a 6-foot-6-inch medium action rod and he’d only finished making it a week prior to catching this fish. Todd Spangler was using a Z-Man shad jerk bait when he caught this fish.
What a fish!
Credit: Source link
