# Maryland State Record LMB Caught on Private Pond. Opinions?



## Butthead (Aug 30, 2013)

https://www.wired2fish.com/12-year-old-breaks-30-year-maryland-largemouth-bass-record/#comments

First off, congrats to Colton! I'm sure it was pretty awesome to bring that hawg in to shore. It makes it better that it was caught by a 12yo kid! It makes me think of the guy that caught the NC state record channel cat on a hot pink Barbie rod 5 years ago. :LOL2: 

As much as it would be awesome to have that record, I do feel like it's a little tainted as it was from a private pond. I'm really not trying to knock it, but I just don't think it's the same as if it was from one of the public lakes or rivers in the state. I've personally seen people get very defensive of other fishing on their property and know of one pond near me where cops sit regularly so that people can't trespass to fish it. So it does seem to be an unfair advantage, especially if someone was feeding the pond. So you might just never know if that record fish was legitimate or artificial.
Now in Colton's case, it is a legitimate old school farm pond, so good for him. 
I want to know how many people are now begging the owner to let them fish there!  

What do you guys think?


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Aug 30, 2013)

It's comparable to a high fence hunt if you ask me. 

I'm not trying to rain on the kid's parade, just how I see it.


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## DrNip (Aug 30, 2013)

Don't really see any difference between this and somebody feeding deer on their private property. Its only pure soeculation to say the pond was being fed by man. Regardless it is a nice fish and I don't have any problem with it. Won't stop me from pursuing the dream.


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## Kismet (Aug 30, 2013)

happy for the kid.

As long as it was legal, screw the details. Catch of a life-time.

=D>


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## Butthead (Aug 30, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=327933#p327933 said:


> DrNip » Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:35 pm[/url]"]Don't really see any difference between this and somebody feeding deer on their private property. Its only pure soeculation to say the pond was being fed by man. Regardless it is a nice fish and I don't have any problem with it. Won't stop me from pursuing the dream.



I feel like it's a little different than that though because deer can be shot by someone else outside of your property. Fish in a private pond can't get away.

In the case of Colton, the pond he fished is just down the street from my buddy's grandparent's house and it's a legitimate pond. 

But I still have some woes with the whole private pond thing. Who's out there making the distinction that record fish are legitimately raised without heavy human intervention versus them being artificially grown by continually loading the pond with forage? Back in the day I wouldn't even have thought about it much, but in this day and age, I feel like there are a lot of dishonest people out there.


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## PGRChaplain (Aug 31, 2013)

Indiana doesn't recognize Record Fish from Private waters. Kind of like High Fence Hunting. Cool for the young guy that caught it!


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## lovedr79 (Sep 1, 2013)

Atleast a kid caught it! He was fishing instead of being up to no good. Good job Colton


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## Jim (Sep 2, 2013)

Did I miss the part where it stated it was a private pond? Is a farm pond the same as a private pond? Im being serious here, I have no idea.

I think it should count in my opinion. The fish still bit a bait and was caught. Those big bass do not get so big being caught all the time.


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## Captain Ahab (Sep 2, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=328149#p328149 said:


> Jim » Mon Sep 02, 2013 8:20 am[/url]"]Did I miss the part where it stated it was a private pond? Is a farm pond the same as a private pond? Im being serious here, I have no idea.
> 
> I think it should count in my opinion. The fish still bit a bait and was caught. Those big bass do not get so big being caught all the time.




I am reading between the lines


What Jim is really writing is that "Some $$%#[email protected] 12 yr old catches a F$$%)(*& state RECORD BASS!!!!!! I acannot even catch a bluegill most trips and this little Bastage catches a frooothing state record! 


Life is not fair Mr. Jim


And it could be worse - BassAddict could live near you


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## 200racing (Sep 3, 2013)

ponds shouldn't count. 

ponds are very easy to mess with. just go look at pondboss,com whole website dedicated to people playing god and designing their own ecosystems to fit their desires. 

once or twice a year i get to fish a pond stocked with largemouth, copper nosed blue gill and threadfin shad. it is heavily managed with limited fishing preasure and anything under 16" is culled. several 11lbs fish have been caught. at some point the right genetics might make it through and one grows over my state record. does a bass grown in a custom microcosm deserve the same respect as the record that came out of the Alabama river. surviving every predator there and anyone who wanted to fish there.


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## Ranchero50 (Sep 3, 2013)

Seems most of the questions could be answered by the OP.

Hard for me to get pissed over pure randomness (which fishing tends to be)


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## Butthead (Sep 3, 2013)

Sorry Jim, I was using farm pond and private pond interchangeably. It's tough to find ponds around here that are on public land and not fished to death.

This pond looks naturally formed, but it's on someones private property and I have no idea who they let fish there and what their culling practices are.


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## DocWatson (Sep 4, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=328284#p328284 said:


> Butthead » Tue Sep 03, 2013 2:36 pm[/url]"]Sorry Jim, I was using farm pond and private pond interchangeably. It's tough to find ponds around here that are on public land and not fished to death.
> 
> This pond looks naturally formed, but it's on someones private property and I have no idea who they let fish there and what their culling practices are.



My grandfather told me many, many years ago that if you see a body of water on private land that you might want to fish, pond, creek, river or lake, the best tactic is to drive up to the house (provided the entire place isn't posted "*Keep Out*") and knock on the door. 

I've found that if you identify yourself, and say where you're from (if it's local, of course) and how you came upon the spot and request permission to fish with the provisos that you will always leave the place at least as clean as you found it and will cull or share anything you catch, most folks will let you fish there pond. Times are different now, but it still works better than sneaking in or just being ignorant.


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## Butthead (Sep 4, 2013)

In central Maryland, ignorance is more the norm rather than the exception. We've certainly got more than our fair share of idiots. :roll:


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## Captain Ahab (Sep 4, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=328236#p328236 said:


> 200racing » Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:15 pm[/url]"]ponds shouldn't count.
> 
> ponds are very easy to mess with. just go look at pondboss,com whole website dedicated to people playing god and designing their own ecosystems to fit their desires.
> 
> once or twice a year i get to fish a pond stocked with largemouth, copper nosed blue gill and threadfin shad. it is heavily managed with limited fishing preasure and anything under 16" is culled. several 11lbs fish have been caught. at some point the right genetics might make it through and one grows over my state record. does a bass grown in a custom microcosm deserve the same respect as the record that came out of the Alabama river. surviving every predator there and anyone who wanted to fish there.




Your state record is 16 lbs! That is a lot of growing 


The problem that the "private" ponds run into is the size of the water - you need big water (or bigger) to get the biggest fish (usually)


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## Ranchero50 (Sep 4, 2013)

I thought all you really needed was an unlimited food source and no competition...


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## Captain Ahab (Sep 4, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=328391#p328391 said:


> Ranchero50 » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:56 am[/url]"]I thought all you really needed was an unlimited food source and no competition...




I am certainly not an expert but I think there are other factors as well - otherwise we should be able to grow records in home aquariums


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## 200racing (Sep 5, 2013)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=328386#p328386 said:


> Captain Ahab » Yesterday, 11:19[/url]"]
> 
> 
> [url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=328236#p328236 said:
> ...



not likely it will happen but the scenario i run in my head is...
one 11lber was in the fall. say she makes it to 13 a few years later the you get her off a 
bed just before spawning. [-o<


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## Bugpac (Sep 5, 2013)

Imo, a state record shouldnt be recognized from any body of water that cant be publicly fished. In georgia and several other states this is how the law reads. Very awesome for the young boy.


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## MiPikeGuy (Sep 6, 2013)

Awesome catch for the kid, but I also feel that it shouldn't count as a state record.


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## one100grand (Sep 9, 2013)

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this being a record. On one hand, I like to have faith that people aren't trying to cheat for a record like this, but unfortunately I also deal with people on a regular basis and know they can be shady.

I don't think this kid in particular cheated, maybe someone else, but probably not him.

Basing it on geography, I think I'd have to say that the record is probably legit. It might sound strange, but I say based on geography because unlike a place like Alabama, Georgia, or Florida; Maryland has winter. Winter seems very relevant to me that fish and forage regularly don't survive the whole year because of conditions, so just cramming tons of forage into a body of water doesn't mean that everything is going to survive long enough to reproduce. In my humble opinion, a fishery capable of producing a fish like this needs to have a healthy ecosystem and while stocking forage improves those odds, it does not guarantee it. 

I'll use an example of a place that I fish - it's posted as a "private" 5-10 acre pond, but it's supposedly limited to residents of a community (of about 1000 people). No one stocks it, nor do they patrol it to make sure that everyone who is fishing there lives in the community. I've pulled numerous 5+ pound bass (and seen a few fish that are around the 10 pound mark) from this body of water and never thought of it being any sort of cheating because of the nature of the body of water. The reason that the fish in this pond get so big is not because of lack of pressure, but more from the forage. There is an extremely healthy crayfish population and the bass flourish as a result; the crayfish have done well here (leading the bass to also do well) and are not/have not ever been stocked.

I do agree that places with no winter season shouldn't have private waters count for fish records.


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