Bleacher Bits: This one didn't get away
It's a classic story - man concocts some crazy story as to why he should get a one-day reprieve from the honey-do list so he can go fishing. Then he fishes for awhile, and comes up with more stories where inches and pounds are added to the size of what he actually caught, and a full foot is tacked on to the proverbial "one that got away."
Alabama angler James R. Bramlett's story is not like that at all, but rest assured that his is a bona fide whopper.
On Wednesday, GrindTV.com reported that Bramlett, 65, landed a record striped bass that makes the previous record catch look like a guppy.
Fishing on the Black Warrior River on Feb. 28, Bramlett reeled in a 70-pound striped bass that not only shattered the previous record, but could land him in the word record book for the heaviest striper ever caught in a landlocked fishery.
In an interview for another website, Bramlett actually credited his wife Janice for urging him to go fishing. At the time she was scheduled to undergo a hospital procedure in a few days and would need him around to take care of her.
The catch, which was weighed on a certified scale, topped the previous record set in 1959 of a striper that weighed in at a now-puny 55 pounds. Bramlett's prize measured 45.5 inches long with a girth of 37.75.
Bramlett said he saw the fish roll on the surface so he tossed a bait and hooked up. The fight was on for the next 20 minutes, with Bramlett calling his wife with the news as soon as he secured his catch.
"It's definitely uncommon," said Heath Haley, a biologist for Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. "This fish certainly, in my opinion, was an anomaly. It's a very fat, chunky fish."
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has reportedly already approved the catch as a state record, and if approved by the International Game Fish Association, it will go into the world record book.
It is unknown if part of Janice Bramlett's convalescence is a seafood diet, but if it is, I would think they have that covered.
CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.
