world record striper

[ChiefLinesider]

He will be going down in history either way... Whether he caught it or not, can be argued both ways. So your always left back at square one, with Al McReynolds still the current IGFA record holder. And that fact will not change, unless of course....

It's bound to be broken eventually. You only need 78 3/4...

[ProfessorM]

The way I figure it is he is standing next to the world record fish on the scale and it is an official weight so I guess it counts. I really don't care if he waded in and wrestled it he brought it to the scale. I also think the record will be broken but by a fresh water fish.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by ChiefLinesider

It's bound to be broken eventually. You only need 78 3/4...

Actually, I think you'd need 79-1/2 to break the record. Somewhere in the IGFA rules, I think there's a provision that you have to beat the existing record by a full pound--otherwise, it goes down as a tied record

Of course, if you catch that 78-3/4 on anything but 20# class line, you'd have a line class record, at least. The 16# record is 69 (Steve Petri) and the 50# record is 76 (Bob Rochetta). No clue on the 30# class record

Cinto's fish was never accepted as a record, for two reasons--it was caught on wire line, and the rules at the time prohibited using a lure with multiple treble hooks. A few years later, a guy from Fall River named Ed Kirker caught a 72 which tied Church's record. Then, sometime down the road, due to uncertainty over whether Church weighed his fish on an accurate scale, his fish was taken down, and Kirker's stood alone as the record until Rochetta caught a 76 in 1981, a few months before Stetzko got his 73.