| June 1,
2005
 Raleigh,
N.C. – John Michael Deaton of Rougemont landed a 1 pound, 2
ounce green sunfish while fishing on a pond at Falls of the Neuse/Butner
Game Land on May 5. Deaton caught his record-breaker using an ultra
light Shakespeare Ugly Stick and a live red worm as bait.
Around 11 p.m., Deaton landed the 11-inch whopper and suspected
right away that he had a new state record dangling from the end of
his hook.
He called his granddad, Sam Wiseman, to find out the size of the
current state record.
“He looked in the regulations book and told me the state record was
8 ounces, and I knew that the fish I had caught was bigger than
that,” Deaton said.
The previous green sunfish state record, held by 12-year old Robert
Womack of Benson since May 18, 2005, tipped the scales at 15 ounces.
(Womack’s fish was caught after the 2005-2006 N.C. Inland Fishing,
Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest went to print. The state
record before that was an 8-ounce sunfish held by Gibsonville angler
Craig Wyrick since Sept. 16, 1998. )
The fish was weighed on certified scales at Spanky’s Produce in
Oxford and was verified by Corey Oakley, a fishery biologist with
the Commission, and Wayne Starnes, curator of fishes at the N.C.
Museum of Natural Sciences.
To qualify for a state record, anglers must have caught the fish on
a hook and line, must have the fish weighed on a certified scale
witnessed by one observer, have the fish positively identified by a
qualified expert from the Commission and submit an application with
a full, side-view photo of the fish.
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