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| ** | Claiming a world record isn't as easy or pleasant as it would appear. When you present what you feel is a record accomplishment, you might feel yourself puff up with pride, but if you have the same experience as Neptune, New Jersey resident Monica Oswald, you may have second thoughts about submitting your second record. The off duty nurse was fishing off the Monmouth County, New Jersey coast two weeks ago when she landed what some have called the Holy Grail of record fish - at least for the eastern seaboard. Oswald landed a 24.3 pound summer flounder - more commonly known as a fluke. |
What should have been a wonderful experience for any angler has been anything but for Oswald. But the blame's at least partially hers. She, it should be pointed out, is an amateur angler - not a charter boat veteran. So, she didn't take appropriate care of what might still be a world-record fish.
She didn't even manage to keep the fish in one piece, but I'll explain that later.
When the guys at Scott's Bait and Tackle in Bradley Beach, NJ weighed her fish, it wasn't in the "optimum condition" one would expect from a potential world-record catch. She was fishing with a friend in a 23-foot boat when she hooked what she says she at first thought was a ray. After a long fight, she got the big fish to the surface - and the comedy of errors that has led to her being savaged on internet chat rooms and fishing forums across the country began.
First, the fish was too-darned big for her net. It slipped out and got a bit marked up. Then, it fought on the deck causing Oswald to damage the tail while standing on it to work the hook out.
It gets worse.
The fish was too-big for the cooler on board and both the head and tail stuck out. More damage. When it finally arrived at Scott's, owner Scott Christensen says it looked a bit "beat up." That's an understatement - the fish's head was nearly severed from the body, and its tale is, indeed, ratty with scales missing.
OK, Scott admits, he's seen better-looking fish, but he's willing to swear the fish was fresh when it arrived in his shop. Neither, he says, was it caught as a by-product of a commercial dragging net. That would have disqualified the fish from the International Game and Fish Association records - the world records are all hook and line, not commercial catches.
A word on IGFA records - they're normally set by anglers who are seeking to set new records - and have the experience to present pristine fish to the certified weighing stations. Most record-fish only have a mark from the single embedded hook.
Oswald's fluke, unfortunately, appears to have looked more like it had been in a prize fight. And that damage is why angler forums have questioned everything from Oswald's honesty to her physical appearance. Anglers, it appears, don't like to have records broken by amateur anglers or women.
Christensen also says he can produce a number of other people who came in to see the big fish.
The largest mistake of the whole affair appears to have been Monica Oswald's excitement. Christensen offered to keep the fluke in his cooler - but she wanted to take it home to show her family.
She did - and after showing it off discovered it wouldn't fit in her refrigerator. She put it in a cooler in her garage, expecting an officer from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife to come and check out the fish the following day.
When he arrived, the cooler was open - and the fish was gone. They found part of the fish in the yard, but the head and part of the body was missing - apparently the victim of a wandering raccoon.
Now, the only tangible evidence are photographs taken at the bait shop of Oswald with her fish - and the IGFA record application. A decision on those records, incidentally, normally takes about two months.
But Oswald's determined to see the whole deal through. Although she's not talking to the media until after an IGFA determination, she is going to be talking to a polygraph examiner later this week. It seems she is now qualified for a boat worth $50,000 in The Fisherman magazine's "Dream Boat" contest. One stipulation says that the magazine has the right to polygraph all any contestant.
Executive editor Jim Hutchinson Jr. says he's not "saying she's guilty" but says with the controversy online, feels he "owes it to his 55,000 readers to resolve the issue."
In the meantime Monica Oswald's not saying anything and her husband says she's a bit overwhelmed by the controversy, but she'll be able to handle it.
After all, he says, "Monica doesn't have to answer to anyone but God and the IGFA."
In the meantime, the online anglers are having a field day - at her expense.
We'll keep you posted.
--Jim Shepherd
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