Indiana fisherman has set a new state record after catching a huge whitefish on Lake Michigan near Portage.
Phil Duracz’s catch weighed in 9.34 pounds and that beats the last record set in 2019 by a whole 1.65 pounds according to the Indiana Department of National Resources, Fox News reported in a piece published Monday.
The lake’s whitefish record has been broken eight times since 2012. (RELATED: Michael Jordan Enters One Of The Largest Fishing Tournaments With Record-Breaking $3 Million Purse)
“Whitefish are usually caught by pier anglers using simple techniques, such as bottom fishing with a slip sinker rig with a short leader, small hook, and single salmon egg or piece of night crawler,” Ben Dickinson, Lake Michigan biologist with the Indiana DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife shared in a post on Facebook about the catch. (RELATED: Michael Jordan Comes In Second To Last Place In Fishing Tournament)
“As the ecosystem changes due to invasive species, whitefish are switching from eating mostly invertebrates to incorporating more small baitfish such as invasive round gobies,” he added. “We’re also seeing more boat anglers targeting them successfully using jigging spoons or small swimbaits worked slowly along the bottom.”
The outlet noted that in the last year, more than two dozen catch and release records were set in the state of Idaho, something that hasn’t been done since it started tracking fishing records in 2016.