Pittsburgh-area man catches record yellow perch

ERIE, Pa. (KDKA) -- While thousands of people were focused on the sky above Erie on Monday, a local guy was focused on the lake, where he was reeling in a record. 

The prized catch was a yellow perch weighing 3.02 pounds. For some perspective, yellow perch usually weigh around 5 ounces. 

The man the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission called to certify the size and weight of the fish says it was reeled in Monday morning. The man behind the line is Chuck Main from Ellwood City.

In a Facebook video, the certified scale operator says Main caught the fish off Presque Isle. 

"I met the gentleman that caught the fish -- huge perch, huge perch! And we threw her on the scale, and it came up that tenatively, tenatively, it tied the state record," Tim Reddinger of ReddiBait in Bridgewater. 

He says "tentatively" because the details need to be certified in Harrisburg before it's official. This perch would be tied with a yellow perch that was also caught in Lake Erie in 2021. 

Technically though, Main's fish is bigger. The 2021 perch weighed in at 2.98 pounds, which per state rules, rounds up to 3 pounds. Main's, again, weighed in at 3.02 pounds. But according to the rules, in order to break the record, there has to be a 2 ounce weight difference.