If I learned anything as a daily newspaper editor, it was this: Be wary of superlatives in print. They can come back to haunt you. That’s right, be skeptical and cast a scrutinizing eye at anything or anybody who claims to have lived the longest, found the oldest fossil, raised the tastiest tomato, or caught the biggest fish. Especially the biggest fish!

Fish records, especially Maine freshwater fish records, are as slippery as a smelt.

Case in point. This winter, a Maine ice fisherman, Jeff Paquette, caught a 3-pound, 2-ounce white perch at Ellis Pond in Freedom. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in a press release, reported that Paquette’s perch was a new state record. The outdoor publication, the Maine Northwoods Sporting Journal, published the press release, along with a photo of the ice angler with his “record” white perch.

In that same issue of the Journal, by sheer happenstance, a list was published on another page of Maine’s all-time record freshwater fish. Yes, you guessed it. That list reported that Maine’s record white perch actually weighed a whopping 4 pounds, 10 ounces, and was caught in 1959 by Mrs. Earl Small of Waterville.

A sharp-eyed Journal reader, Rob Spearin of Bradford, wrote this letter to the editor:

“Hey Paul, I’m a little confused as to why it states on page 8 of March’s Sporting Journal that the record white perch is now 3.02 lbs. caught in December ’08, and yet on page 58 of the same issue it states the record white perch is 4 lbs. 10 oz. caught back in 1959.

“Which is it, neighbor?”

In an effort to get to the bottom of this fish conflict, we checked with veteran state fisheries supervisor, Peter Bourque, in Augusta. Bourque’s reply:

“I think the old record was actually claimed since 1949 from Messalonskee Lake. This was a hoax. Rick Jordan and Denny McNeish examined this fish at State Archives a few years ago and found that it was actually a largemouth bass that had been “doctored up” so there went another cherished belief. The new white perch record was broken twice this winter.”

So, before Paquette caught the record-breaking perch this past December that weighed a little over 3 lbs, another angler before him, Michael Frechette of Sanford, caught a 2 lb, 8 oz perch in 2002 that was a record to that point, according to Bourque.

Do you see what’s missing? If Mrs. Small’s 1959 perch record was a hoax, a “doctored” bass made to look like a perch (how do you do that, by the way?), then who held the perch record before the 2002 catch? The answer may be nobody, because for years, big ole perch catchers didn’t bother to submit their fish. They thought they were competing with a white perch that tipped the scales close to 5 pounds.

As you can see, this is tricky business, establishing new state freshwater fish records. And, of course, the equation gets even more complicated when Big Ole Fish-Record snaggers refuse to divulge their bait of choice or their fishing tactics. Some even try to keep competing anglers off balance by withholding the name of the pond, or even lying about the location. Tssk, tssk.

Anglers are a competitive lot, especially the ones who will try to “doctor” a bass in order to claim a state white perch record. I have a hunch that there is another story there, maybe worth telling. Meanwhile, Maine’s list of record freshwater fish stands (See page 58 of the March issue of the Northwoods Sporting Journal). Besides, the “perchified” bass, the list contains 18 other freshwater fish species, along with all of the anglers who caught them, and the waters where they were caught. Like the hoax white perch, some of the existing state records reach back more than 50 years.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Which is the real thing, and which is just another fish story.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].