BIG, BIG FISH.......STORY

I received this text the other day out of the blue from a good friend and fellow fly fishing nut:

Text Message Received July 7, 2013

At first glance my heart skipped a beat and thoughts of grabbing my 8 wt and running out the door flashed through my mind.  Then the skeptic took over.  I got online and did some digging.  First, I could find no pictures or reports of the fish.  Next I tried to verify some other information.  For instance, if the record was greater than 38 lbs. I could assume that this was an old mass text that was circulating around and just happened to be passed on to me.  The all tackle record is 41 lbs., but upon further digging, I found that the fly fishing record for brown trout on 20-pound tippet is 36 pounds, 6 oz., caught by Hans-Peter Schaar, from Obervellach, in the Moll River, Austria, July 2, 2007.  This confirmed the fact that "it would have been a new world record if it was caught", assuming that it was caught on 20 lb. or smaller tippet.  On that note, I don't even own 20 lb. tippet.

So, I am unable to either confirm or deny the validity of this story.  This is where I turn to you, the few readers that actually stumble upon this blog.

Is it true?  Is it an old, circulating text that pops up every now and again?  I know I passed it along, so I can see how it could do that...  Perhaps this was started to drive a little more traffic that way... who knows.

Can anyone provide some more information on this rumor?  Much obliged.

- Sky