Article: Freshwater fish records can be just fish tales

If I learned anything as a daily newspaper editor, it was this: Be wary of superlatives in print. They can come back to haunt you. That's right, be skeptical and cast a scrutinizing eye at anything or anybody who claims to have lived the longest, found the oldest fossil, raised the tastiest tomato, or caught the biggest fish. Especially the biggest fish!

Fish records, especially Maine freshwater fish records, are as slippery as a smelt.

Case in point. This winter, a Maine ice fisherman, Jeff Paquette, caught a 3-pound, 2-ounce white perch at Ellis Pond in Freedom. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in a press release, reported that Paquette's perch was a new state record. ...

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