Mississippi fisherman and lure maker Eric Mayo has been on a record-breaking tear over the past 5 or so years. On April 11, Mayo was fishing his household’s farm pond close to his hometown of Petal the place he caught the brand new state-record longear sunfish. He then went again to the identical pond the next day and landed one other state document, a redspotted sunfish that weighed round a 3rd of a pound.
“I’d already damaged the longear sunfish document final yr,” Mayo tells Outside Life. “So this one really broke my earlier document.”
Each the longear and the redspot have been licensed by the Mississippi Division of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks on April 21. Mayo says that counting these two most up-to-date catches, he now has 10 state data in a number of classes. MDWFP maintains three separate categories for record catches: one for fish caught on typical rods and reels, one other for fish caught on fly gear, and a 3rd for all different authorized sportfishing strategies.
“So for the redspot, the longear, and the greenback sunfish, I personal each the rod-and-reel and the fly rod data for all three species,” Mayo says. “I nearly really feel awkward each time I name the sport warden at this level. , his telephone rings, and he in all probability seems down and he’s like, ‘Oh, it’s this man once more.’”
Mayo says he caught his document longear on a Z Man micro finesse TRD, which he rigged on a small jighead he made himself. The smaller redspotted sunfish tried consuming the identical lure, however its mouth wasn’t large enough, so he sized down his hook and baited it with a purple worm, and voila.
His document streak isn’t unintended. Mayo has spent his entire profession within the fishing business, and he works at two lure-making services close to his residence in Southeast Mississippi. Boss Outdoors is a lead-casting facility, the place they make jig heads, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and different deal with for bass fishing. Black Label Tackle is the opposite firm that makes a speciality of smooth plastics and balsa wooden exhausting baits.
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This line of labor affords Mayo loads of time for fishing, and he says he first obtained into chasing state data round 2020. He’d simply picked up his first fly rod and, taking a look at MDWFP’s document ebook, he realized that lots of the entries for smaller species like bream and different panfish have been both nonetheless open or simply breakable. Mayo already knew the place he’d start.
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A detailed-up of Mayo’s state-record redspotted sunfish. -
Mayo makes use of a kitchen scale to weigh his panfish, after which he brings them to the native farm retailer to have them weighed in entrance of officers on a licensed scale. -
The redspotted sunfish is Mayo’s tenth state document within the Mississippi document ebook.
“I obtained my pondering cap on, and I assumed, ‘man, if I can simply go and inventory my pond with a few of these fish which are low on the document checklist, after which handle it intensively, I might smash numerous these data.’”
Mayo says round half of his data have come from that personal pond. The opposite 5 – 6 have been caught in public waters.
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His first-ever state document, although, was eaten earlier than he might get it licensed. This was in 2020 and he was sight fishing for brown bullhead catfish within the pond exterior one of many lure factories the place he works. It took him a pair weeks, however he lastly landed a giant bullhead on a streamer. He posted an image of that fish to a Fb web page, the place somebody commented that if he did catch it on the fly, it was eligible for a state document within the fly-rod class.
“Certain sufficient, I had the document. The one downside was I’d provided that fish to considered one of my buddies as a result of he wished to eat it,” Mayo says. “So I referred to as him instantly and advised him I would like that fish again. He stated, ‘Oh man, too late. It’s simply pores and skin in a bucket now. It’s finished.’”
Now he was decided to interrupt the document, and Mayo went again to that pond each probability he obtained over the subsequent few months to throw flies on the larger brown bullheads. He lastly landed one heavy sufficient to certify as a state document — the primary of many.
“My unicorn is the noticed bass fly document,” Mayo says. “It’s solely 4 kilos right here in Mississippi, which isn’t unbreakable, however that’s nonetheless pushing it for a Kentucky noticed bass. And that’s my purpose. If I might have the bass document, I’d in all probability give up at that time.”
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