John Ackerman, Rock
Island, IL, is all smiles as he shows off his unusual catch. John
hooked this 21½" fish at the Hennepin Canal State Park while casting
a #4 Mepps
Aglia dressed with a white tail. It was identified by park
officials as a paradise bass, a striped bass/yellow bass hybrid.
Apparently the fish are rare, especially one the size of John's. "I
wish you would have gotten a tissue sample from this one," Illinois
state officials wrote John, "We (Illinois officials) have never
verified one, so if DNA would have confirmed it, this might have
been a state record to last a long time."
