Lure Maker Catches 2 Record Sunfish Back to Back

Mississippi fisherman and lure maker Eric Mayo has been on a record-breaking tear during the last 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 file, a redspotted sunfish that weighed round a 3rd of a pound.

“I’d already damaged the longear sunfish file final 12 months,” Mayo tells Out of doors Life. “So this one truly broke my earlier file.”

Each the longear and the redspot had 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 virtually really feel awkward at any time when I name the sport warden at this level. You understand, his telephone rings, and he in all probability appears to be like down and he’s like, ‘Oh, it’s this man once more.’” 

Mayo says he caught his file 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 sufficiently big, so he sized down his hook and baited it with a pink worm, and voila.

His file streak isn’t unintended. Mayo has spent his entire profession within the fishing trade, 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 sort out for bass fishing. Black Label Tackle is the opposite firm that makes a speciality of gentle plastics and balsa wooden arduous baits.

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This line of labor affords Mayo loads of time for fishing, and he says he first received into chasing state data round 2020. He’d simply picked up his first fly rod and, MDWFP’s file guide, he realized that most of the entries for smaller species like bream and different panfish had been both nonetheless open or simply breakable. Mayo already knew the place he’d start.

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His first-ever state file, although, was eaten earlier than he may 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 file within the fly-rod class.

“Certain sufficient, I had the file. The one drawback was I’d provided that fish to considered one of my pals as a result of he wished to eat it,” Mayo says. “So I known as him instantly and advised him I want that fish again. He stated, ‘Oh man, too late. It’s simply pores and skin in a bucket now. It’s executed.’”

Now he was decided to interrupt the file, and Mayo went again to that pond each likelihood he received over the subsequent few months to throw flies on the larger brown bullheads. He lastly landed one heavy sufficient to certify as a state file — the primary of many.

“My unicorn is the noticed bass fly file,” 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 aim. If I may have the bass file, I’d in all probability give up at that time.”