A couple of boys fishing at a West Virginia farm pond is about as normal a sight as dandelions in a spring meadow, but 12-year old Josh Carr of Tallmansville and his buddy Devon Johnston took their farm pond fishing to a new level August 8th.
Josh hooked and landed what turned out to be the longest yellow perch ever caught in
"We went up there and we thought we kept on getting hold of a big bass," Carr explained in a recent edition of West Virginia Outdoors. "He (Johnston) let me use his fishing pole while he was hooking himself up a worm, and then when he came back I pulled out the yellow perch."
The boys argued for several minutes over whether the fish was a perch or a bass. They finally took it to Josh’s dad, Randy Carr who also thought it was a bass. Josh’s granddad confirmed it was a perch, but wasn’t so sure it would be a state record fish.
"Then I found the fishing booklet and I was looking at it in the car," said Josh. "I found out the record was 15.1 inches and mine was 15.2."
A little assistance from local Conservation Officer Jeff Craig put the Carr’s in touch with the right people at the DNR and the officials weights and measures were taken. The fish at 15.25 inches was the state record for length, breaking a record that had been established in 2005. The current record for weight is intact. Josh’s fish was 1.74 pounds, not enough to top the perch caught by Charles Mayle from
"I’m trying to catch a bigger one back there now," said a persistent Josh. "The record for weight and length."
Josh seems to be taking all of the attention in stride. He says while he was excited to catch the fish, he’s not nearly as excited as his family and friends.
"No, he doesn’t get excited over anything," said his dad Randy Carr. "He was kind of tickled that he caught a big fish, but other than that…”
Josh’s fish is at the taxidermist’s shop waiting to be mounted and will have a prominent place in the 12 year old’s bedroom very soon.