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Lynn Bumgardner and his friend were almost through with their day of crappie fishing on Kentucky's Lake Barkley. Then a shockingly big yellow perch hit Bumgardner's lure.

The post Tennessee Fisherman Catches Kentucky State-Record Perch appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Lake Barkley is famous for many things, including outstanding bass and crappie fishing. But Lynn Bumgardner, a visiting angler from Tennessee, may have added a new page to the lake’s reputation by catching a Kentucky state-record yellow perch that weighed 1.58 pounds.

According to a news release from the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, Bumgardner was trolling for crappies on March 2 in the Trigg County portion of sprawling 58,000-acre Lake Barkley. He was fishing with his long-time pal Lee Andrews, Kentucky field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, when the big perch struck a small crappie jig.

​​​“We were trolling grubs in Linton Bay on Lake Barkley,” Bumgardner, a professional television actor from Oliver Springs, Tennessee, told KDFWR. “When I caught that one, I knew immediately it was a heavy fish.”

The pair had caught crappies earlier in the day and were almost done fishing when the big perch hit Bumgardner’s lure.

“The fish rolled over and I saw the great big belly and I saw the stripes and I knew it was a perch,” Bumgardner said. “I said ‘Lee, I’ve caught the new state record yellow perch.’ I didn’t know if it really was, but it was the largest perch I’d ever seen.”​​​

Andrews checked the state records and learned that the standing yellow perch record was 1 pound 7 ounces. He insisted that Bumgardner’s fish weighed more than that.

“We weighed it on hand-held digital scales and it was 1 pound 9 1/8 ounces,” Andrews told the agency. “I told him, ‘If it weighs that much, you do have the state record.’”

The pair fished for a bit longer, catching another crappie to end the day. Then they decided to head to shore and have the big yellow perch weighed. They went to a Food Giant grocery store in Cadiz, where a night manager named Braxton weighed the fish on a certified scale.

“Braxton was very excited about weighing the big perch that night because he’s a fisherman, too,” store manager Amber Lehman tells Outdoor Life.

Bumgardner’s fish measured 14 and 1/4 inches long and it tops the previous Kentucky record by just over two ounces. That yellow perch was caught by Klint Thaxton from Kentucky Lake in March 2010.

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Barkley and Kentucky lakes are popular fisheries that span the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. For decades they’ve offered anglers and vacationers a wealth of boating and fishing opportunities. Camping and hunting are also popular around the lakes, particularly on the 171,000-acre Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. Spring is prime time for crappies on both lakes, but after Bumgardner’s record catch, yellow perch may beco*e another popular target for area fishermen.

The post Tennessee Fisherman Catches Kentucky State-Record Perch appeared first on Outdoor Life.