Monday, May 08, 2006

George Bush's Fish Story

In an interview last week with a German Newspaper President Bush said:

"You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best," Bush told weekly Bild am Sonntag when asked about his high point since becoming president in January 2001.

"I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound (3.402 kilos) perch in my lake."

An odd thing to say even for this yahoo! So I decided to do a little fishing of my own and discovered some interesting information.

The Texas state record for "Yellow Perch" is 1.4 lbs. more than 6 lbs less than George's catch. So did George set a new state record more than five times the old one or was he just lying again?

There is another species of Perch on the books in Texas and this one does grow to enormous size. The Nile Perch has topped several hundred pounds in some parts of the world and the
record for Nile Perch in Texas is 12.6 lbs. However, it is also listed as a prohibited exotic species and is illegal to posses. So if Bush has planted them in "his lake" he is in violation of state fish and game law.

So which is it George. Are you a liar or are you lawbreaker?

4 comments:

  1. This is great! My guess is that he's lying. The only way a city slicker like Bush could catch a record-breaking fish is if he used his powers as Commander In Chief to order military strikes on his lake!

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  2. However, the specific answer to your question must be: c - all of the above.

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  3. Anonymous11:15 AM

    Alert: this is the first, and I suspect last time that I will publicly defend the honor of the simian-in-chief. The quote I saw indicated that the species in question was largemouth bass, a member of the perch family (which makes me suspicious of a "lost in translation" thing going on here). Largemouth bass are the most popular gamefish in the US, and are particularly popular in the South, including Texas, where anything bigger than a puddle is stocked with 'em. King George alledgedly caught his in a pond on his ranch. A 7+ pounder is a good-sized fish (a couple of pounds bigger than any bass I've ever caught), although most bass fishermen don't really consider anything less than 10 lbs. to be a "trophy". I believe that the world record is about 23 lbs.

    The only reason this item caught my attention was that in identifying catching a big bass as the highlight of his presidency, Bush has managed not only to embarass me yet again for being an American, but he's now embarassed me for being a bass fisherman as well. Is nothing sacred?!

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  4. Yea I know this was probably a translation error but any chance to give this guy grief I have to take.

    As I read someone else say, "isn't it a little rediculous to weigh a fish caught from your own stocked pond"

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