Cermele: Cooking Your State Record Catch

I got a good chuckle out of this post on Roundvalleyfishing.com. Not long ago, right in my home state of New Jersey, two gentlemen landed an American eel that taped out at 50 inches. That beats the current state record eel by a pretty wide margin, but alas, their names will never see the record book because they took the monstrous slime ball home and ate it. I don't blame them for not thinking to weigh it in (I do for eating it...I find eel gross), because if I was the one that caught it, I wouldn't want my name tied to that record anyway. I would have cut the line because eels are nary my favorite fish to deal with.

If someone told me I could have any record fish, I'd probably take world-record striped bass, even though the misery that would come with the title would be vast. Finger pointing, disbelief, liar accusations...it all comes with the territory of coveted records. But the guys who spend time trying to top the 2-pound double-chinned Hong Kong mud perch record, it's like what for?

If I did catch the record striper, after weigh in and proper photo documentation for a replica mount, I'd probably steak it and grill it with rosemary and olive oil for me and 25 friends. So tell me which record fish you'd choose to catch if you could one catch one, then tell me how you'd cook it. - JC