BALTIMORE, MD—A Baltimore County angler fishing in the lower Susquehanna River has broken a state record for yellow perch that had stood for more than four decades.

On February 7, Thomas Dembeck Jr. of Hydes caught the 2.3-pound, 16-inch fish in the tidal waters of the lower Susquehanna River. Dembeck was deep jigging in about 50 feet of water using a double-jig rig when he felt a bite, but he initially thought it was just two small fish on the line.

“I was nonchalantly reeling the fish towards the surface and even took time to watch an eagle fly by,” Dembeck said in a statement. When he finally looked down at what he had caught, he realized it was a much bigger fish.

“I yelled for my friend Lee Haile to net the fish,” Dembeck said. Haile, who holds the state record for chain pickerel in the nontidal division, helped Dembeck land the record-breaking yellow perch.

The pair took the fish to Gibby’s Seafood in Lutherville to weigh it on a certified scale, and DNR recreational fisheries coordinator Erik Zlokovitz confirmed the species. The fish took the record from a 2.2-pounder caught by Niles Pethel on Nov. 21, 1979.

Dembeck has been fishing for yellow perch since the 1960s, the DNR said, and said catching a state record fish has been a “lifetime pursuit.”

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

Photo via Maryland DNR