Last September 29 was an ideal Midwest autumn fishing day. So, retiree George Bruggeman, age 72, and his son went to Champaign County’s 400-acre Kiser Lake, a small reservoir 35 miles north of Dayton.
They brought their 14-foot aluminum boat and launched it at a public ramp in the lake park.
“No motors are allowed on the lake, so we just started rowing to a few places where I’ve caught fish during the 30 years I’ve fished it,” Bruggeman tells Wired2fish. “We put out a few nightcrawler baits with light tackle and started catching fish in water about 8-feet deep.”
They didn’t fish very long before catching bluegills and yellow perch, then a heavyweight 33-inch carp. They released all their fish, and about noon they were ready to head for home in the nearby town of New Carlisle.
“I had about half of a nightcrawler bait on a small #1 hook with a few split shot to get it deep,” said Bruggeman. “I cast it out with a medium-action spinning outfit with 8-pound test Berkley mono line. In just a little while something took the worm, a fish splashed, the rod jumped and I grabbed it to set the hook.”
At first the anglers thought the fish was another big carp. But when it made a pass near the boat they thought maybe it was a big catfish because Bruggeman couldn’t get it to rise up off the lake bottom.
The fish was so strong that the anglers hauled in their boat anchor, and with George connected to the fish with rod and reel, it dragged them around the little lake for at least 20 minutes.
“Finally, it wore out and came by our boat and I saw it was a striper,” said Bruggeman. “It took off again, and I told Nathan to get out our little folding landing net.”
The net was small, and only the striper’s head fit in it. Somehow the father-and-son grabbed the fish in the net and rolled it into their boat. When they saw the size of the striper they just stood there staring at it in disbelief.
They measured the fish’s length, and Nathan got on his cell phone and looked up what the state record striper was.
“We knew right then we had to get it accurately weighed and measured for it to qualify as a record striper,” Bruggeman explained. “We took it to a feed store in New Carlyse where it was weighed on certified scales. Then after talking with a DNR representative, we drove the fish to their District Five Office in Xenia.”
There the fish was officially measured at 41.81 inches long, with a 27.36-inch girth. Its weight of 37.375 pounds topped the old Ohio Record striper weighing 37.10 pounds, caught in 1993 by Mark Chuifo from West Branch Reservoir.
Bruggeman’s 37.375 pounder now has been recognized officially as the new Ohio record linesider. Bruggeman already has the fish with a taxidermist to have a mount made.
“I don’t know if we’ll mount it on a piece of driftwood for a table display or on a nice wooden wall plaque,” he said. “It’s a big fish, but it’ll go someplace in my house – at least I think it will.”
