When the state record spot is 2 pounds

[WB Staff]

If you thought the state record blue catfish last week was big, well, here’s another new state record…a 2.32 pound, 16-inch spotted bass!
Okay, so that’s a roughly 103 pound and 44 inch difference, but proof that not all fish have to be ​humongous to be a record!
But wait, what the heck's a spotted bass? They aren't native to Iowa, but were stocked unsuccessfully in the 1960s in a couple of locations. In 1969, stockings at Lake Macbride *were* successful - and today spotted bass successfully reproduce on their own in Lake Macbride, the Coralville Reservoir and the Iowa River.
They rarely grow larger than 15 inches, making this guy a monster — but DNR sampling regularly finds spotted bass over 3 pounds in the Iowa River, so you could break this record!
This new record bests records set in 2021 by Davis Horton (15 inches, 2.06 pounds, Lake Macbride) and in 2013 by James Steffen (16 inches, 2 pounds, Coralville Reservoir). To qualify as a state record, the fish needs to exceed the weight of the former record by one ounce or more.
Toby's new state record fish was transported in water and released after being weighed on a certified scale.
And finally, one more fun fact about spotted bass: when they cross with a smallmouth bass (which happens often in the Iowa River), you get a hybrid fish called a "meanmouth bass."

https://www.iowadnr.gov/things-do/fishi ... ecord-fish