Little Girl Catches Big Fish

Idaho girl catches world record yellow perch fish

Last winter, 12-year-old Tia Wiese and her dad went ice fishing expecting to catch some big fish. The Wiese's had no idea just how big one of their catches would be.

On March 1, 2014, Tia and her dad, Gary, set up on Lake Cascade expecting to catch a yellow perch. Tia's line went screaming off and the fish got tangled in two other lines. With help from her dad, Tia was able to reel in the giant perch.

Gary weighed the fish on his personal scale and knew it was close to a state record. He rushed to Cascade to have her fish weighed on a certified scale where his suspicions were confirmed.

"I couldn't quit smiling," says Tia. "It was the biggest perch I've seen. I was kind of hoping it was a state record."

Tia's yellow perch weighed in at 2 pounds 11.68 ounces, making it the new state record holder.

After visiting the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Wisconsin, Gary learned that the world record for yellow perch caught while ice fishing weighed in at 2 pounds 6 ounces out of Sheep Pond, Massachusetts.

He also discovered that there is a world record classification for ice fishing with a tip-up rod and saw that Tia's fish weighed five ounces more than the record holder.

Gary submitted the paperwork and it was recently confirmed that it was the largest yellow perch caught while ice fishing using a tip-up rod anywhere in the world.

Good for Tia!

We have a struggling population of Yellow Perch in Chesapeake Bay. Yellow Perch usually live in lakes and rivers and spawn in small streams The Chesapeake Bay population is the only one in the world where the fish is estuarine, running from the Bay up into small tidal creeks to spawn. It is thought that this occurred during the ice age, as perch populations in streams and Susquehanna River that ran to the ocean at that point, retreated, and the perch became 'captured' in the upper areas of the tidal rivers. In all but a few of these streams, the yellow perch populations are in jeopardy, for reasons that remain unclear.

Wombat-socho has the mega "Rule Five Sunday: The Two Faces Of India" and "FMJRA 2.0: Jetpack Blues" ready at the Other McCain.