I guess I have no excuses for growing giant RES. The state record RES was landed by the young fella seen below, from a farm pond about 90 minutes southeast of my pond. Good stuff!
12.8 inches, 2.31 lbs!! I saw this on the DNR website, but don't know the fisherman personally.

I sure love seeing that look of wonderment on his face! Another fisherman for life. (And no batteries or wi-fi required.)

I'm loving that picture and the success the young fisherman had!

I'm curious, with all the interesting discussion about RES and RES hybrids on this forum, how did the Iowa DNR determine this is pure RES? Or do they do a visual on it?

Very cool moment for that young man!

I believe species ID is strictly visual. I would have to defer to others whether the specimen pictured seems representative of typical vs hybrid RES.

I stocked them in my pond, but have never caught one. Probably hard to get a hook past all the other takers (BG, BCP, LMP, YP).

It looks typical RES to me, but when they list state records of fish that commonly hybridize I always wonder how they can tell at the boat launch when they weight and 'certify' the new record fish.

They will look at the gill rakers and a few other things that you and I wouldn't look for to identify what it is. To me it looks like a big female RES. I have wondered if female RES have a much bigger size potential than male RES as most of the HUGE RES pictures I have seen appear to be female.

That kid will be grinning ear to ear for next year!

When the species is in question they do take samples for testing.

There are some giant RES in Iowa you just don't hear of many people catching them - I have them in my pond too, never caught one in the nearly two years since stocking. I know there are some big ones in Belvadere

Same here. I know they're doing well only due to electro shock surveys.

I like it. Kids catching fish for fun, now how great is that? Not even to mention his trophy status. Thanks for posting this up Dr. Luke

My uncle caught what wouldve been the state record channel cat in a river not known to harbor blues. The state biologist couldnt tell due to damage to the anal fin so they had it DNA tested but filled out the paper as a channel cat. DNA came back a blue cat.

Hope the kid still has all his fingers

RES info (picture mid page)