World Record Fish From "The Splash"
National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame

Amos M. Gay and his new all-tackle world record redear sunfish (shellcracker) from Santee Cooper Diversional Canal, caught in August, 1998.  The fish weighed 5 lbs. 7.5 ozs. and topped another fish from the same fishing hole by 3.5 ozs.  The fishing hole where Gay caught this fish has produced at least three redear over 5 lbs.  It is located where the canal meets Lake Moultrie.  The area was intensively sprayed to remove vegetation, and the resulting bare bottom became the perfect home for an unnamed species of Asiatic shellfish.  The shellfish are, of course, dinner for shellcrackers, and redear feeding in this area experience phenomenal growth and weight gain.  If the shellfish are the infamous zebra mussels, redear appear to offer a perfect solution to control.  Reduced zebra mussel expansion and big redear in one package!

Jeff Smith holding his 67-lb., 1 oz. new all-tackle world record striped bass taken from the Colorado River on August 15, 1997.

Lucas Lanczy, right, with his 61 lb., 8 oz. lake trout taken from Lake Superior off Michigan's Upper Peninsula on August 17, 1997.  The fish is recognized at the 17-lb. test line class record and is believed to be the largest laker ever caught in the U.S.

Raymond F. Lee's redear would have been a new world record at 5 lbs., 4 ozs., but for Amos M. Gay's even bigger fish (see above) caught just after Lee caught this fish.  Both fish came from the Santee Cooper Diversonal Canal near its confluence at Lake Moultrie, South Carolina.

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  Images courtesy National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.