{"id":43983,"date":"2025-02-11T14:20:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=43983"},"modified":"2025-02-11T14:11:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:11:34","slug":"baltimore-county-angler-catches-new-state-record-yellow-perch-in-chesapeake-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/02\/11\/baltimore-county-angler-catches-new-state-record-yellow-perch-in-chesapeake-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore County Angler Catches New State Record Yellow Perch in Chesapeake Division"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angler fishing the lower Susquehanna River breaks a record held since 1979\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Photo

Thomas Dembeck Jr. with his state record yellow perch. Photo by Lee Haile, used with permission by Maryland DNR.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources recognizes Thomas Dembeck Jr. of Hydes as the new state record holder for yellow perch – Perca flavescens – in the Chesapeake division.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dembeck caught the 2.3-pound, 16-inch fish on February 7 while fishing in the tidal waters of the lower Susquehanna River. He was deep jigging in about 50 feet of water using a double-jig rig, which consisted of two small 1-inch plastic paddletails on \u215b-ounce leadheads rigged on dropper loops above a 1-ounce sinker. He was using a light spinning rod with ten-pound test braided line. Dembeck\u2019s catch bested the long-standing record of 2.2 pounds, caught by Niles Pethel on November 21, 1979.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fish was weighed on a certified scale at Gibby\u2019s Seafood in Lutherville, and the species was confirmed by DNR recreational fisheries coordinator Erik Zlokovitz.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dembeck has fished for yellow perch since the 1960s and catching a state record fish has been a lifetime pursuit. On the day he caught the record, he had been catching mostly small yellow perch. When he felt a slightly heavier weight on his line, he first thought it was just a double-header of two small fish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was nonchalantly reeling the fish towards the surface and even took time to watch an eagle fly by,\u201d Dembeck said. When he looked down, he saw a perch that looked like a big \u201cyellow submarine\u201d and yelled for his friend Lee Haile to net the fish. Haile, the <\/span>current state record holder for chain pickerel<\/span><\/a> in the nontidal division, realized they might have a state record yellow perch in the boat. After approximating the fish\u2019s weight on a hand scale, they took it to a certified scale for an official weight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Department of Natural Resources maintains <\/span>state records<\/span><\/a> for sport fish in four divisions: Atlantic, Chesapeake, Nontidal, and Invasive. Anglers who think they have a potential record catch should download and complete a <\/span>state record application<\/span><\/a> and call 443-569-1398. The department recommends the fish be immersed in ice water to preserve its weight until it can be checked, confirmed, and certified.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Angler fishing the lower Susquehanna River breaks a record held since 1979\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources recognizes Thomas Dembeck Jr. of Hydes as the new state record holder for yellow perch – Perca flavescens – in the Chesapeake division. Dembeck caught the 2.3-pound, 16-inch fish on February 7 while fishing in the tidal  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[2911,3069,3454,3780],"class_list":["post-43983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-baltimore-county","tag-state-fishing-record","tag-susquehanna-river","tag-yellow-perch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43983"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43988,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43983\/revisions\/43988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}