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DES MOINES – Ralph Mayer of Knoxville has caught some big bluegills and sunfish through the years, but nothing like the one he caught July 29.
He was bass fishing in a farm pond in Marion County with plastic lures and spinners. It was getting dark around 8:45 p.m. He made a couple more casts with the spinner when he had a good strike.
"It felt like the best fish of the evening and it was," he said. "But it was a different species."
Mayer caught a 12 1/4-inch, 2 pound 1 ounce green sunfish – a new state record. The previous record was a 1 pound 14-ounce fish caught from a Union County farm pond in 1997.
"I thought either I’ve got a big bluegill or something that might be in the top 10 for green sunfish, not knowing how big it was at the time," he said.
Mayer submitted fish in the past for big fish honors, including a 1 pound 9-ounce miscellaneous sunfish caught from a farm pond.
Mayer, a member of the South Central Iowa Bass Club, considers himself a versatile angler fishing for whatever seems to be hitting at the time.
"I do try to get out every week at least once," he said.
Uploaded: 8/28/2000
Uploaded: 8/28/2000