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Outdoors: A confusing deal for Tulsa's Kevin Deal

 
BY ED GODFREY    Comment on this article Leave a comment
Published: April 19, 2009
photo - Kevin Deal of Tulsa holds a 24-pound, 1-ounce fish that will be the new state hybrid record, if it is a hybrid. Photo provided
Kevin Deal of Tulsa holds a 24-pound, 1-ounce fish that will be the new state hybrid record, if it is a hybrid. Photo provided

For six hours Wednesday, Kevin Deal thought he owned a state record.

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Go to the bank to get the big catch
April is prime time to catch hybrids at Canton Lake while fishing from the bank.

On Wednesday, Kevin Deal and his father were wade fishing at Longdale Point, catching several double-digit hybrids before landing the mystery fish.

Using live perch for bait, the anglers waded out in the lake as far as they could to cast then walked back to shore to anchor their rods for the hard-fighting hybrids.

Conditions were perfect for hybrid fishing that day, with strong winds blowing directly into shore, stirring up the water for a hybrid buffet.

The wind blows plankton into shore that the bait fish feed on, which in turn attracts the hybrids.

"You want the water to be whitecapping,” Deal said. "The harder it is crashing in, the shallower they (hybrids) will come in.”

Then he learned that the hybrid he thought he caught likely was a striper, instead.

"It kind of rips your heart out,” Deal said. "For a guy like me who lives to fish, a state record would be equal to like a national championship in sports.”

Deal, a Tulsa pharmacist, landed the 24-pound, 1-ounce brute while fishing for hybrids at Canton Lake.

The fish was assumed to be a striped bass hybrid – hatchery crosses between striped bass and white bass – because hybrids are stocked in Canton Lake and stripers haven’t been for many years.

"It never even crossed my mind that it was a striper,” Deal said.

Biologists aren’t sure what it is.

"The fish looks funny,” said Jeff Boxrucker, assistant chief of fisheries for the state Wildlife Department.

Hybrids normally are deep-bodied, almost round, and their heads are shorter than stripers.

While the fish might be a striper, it also could be a hybrid of a hybrid, Boxrucker said.

If that’s the case, it would still be considered a state hybrid record, he said.

State wildlife officials are running a DNA test to determine the genetics. The results should be known this week.

So Deal either caught a state record hybrid or a Canton Lake record striper.

"I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s a hybrid,” he said. "The lake record will be a neat deal, but it don’t compare to a state record.”

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