New World Record Yellow Perch Caught by 12 Year Old Girl

Tia Weise World Record Yellow Perch

A 12 year old girl recently became the world record holder for Yellow Perch caught through the ice using a tip-up!

Tia Weise and her dad, Gary, were on a regular ice fishing trip on Cascade Lake in Idaho. The Eagle, Idaho youngster knew she had a truly big fish when she landed it, and hoped it might be a new state record, but she never dreamed that she would be weighing the new world record!

Tia’s dad, Gary, said that he had landed a monster yellow perch the week before that they had weighed, but it missed the state record by 4/100 of a lb. just a week earlier. So when Tia landed this fish, they wasted no time in getting it to certified scales to have it weighed.

The world record behemoth was actually caught in March of 2014. It was certified as a new state record quickly. But it wasn’t submitted for world record consideration until Gary realized that the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame had a tip-up category.

Gary helped Tia get the paperwork in order and submitted it for the world record for tip-up caught Yellow Perch. When everything was said and done, Tia’s fish easily broke the world record for the species, beating the old record of 2 lbs. 6 oz., which was set in Massachusetts in 2005. 10 months after the catch, the world record status was verified.

When asked about how the fish was caught, Tia was pretty secretive, not willing to reveal the kind of bait she was using, or any other real details about the rig. With the numbers of monster fish they’ve been catching, who can blame her?

And to be clear here, Tia isn’t a fair weather angler! She and her dad had to go through an ordeal just to get onto the ice that day. Recent rains had caused the water levels to rise, causing the ice to separate from the shoreline, leaving a small stretch of open water between land and the ice. They actually had to back their trailer into the water and connect ramps from the trailer to the ice pack in order to get their 4 wheeler from the trailer onto the ice.

Add to that the weather itself that day, with rain and sleet hitting them pretty hard, they had to endure some nasty conditions to catch the record fish.

Tia said that when the fish hit, it made a run that got it tangled up with some of their other tip-ups, but she was able to get it untangled and land it, despite the tangled mess.

I’d like to congratulate Tia, who is now 13. Keep up the great work. Maybe you’ll land another record fish some day 🙂

Fish On!

Curt <><