West Point Striper Record Broken

On March 8, Mike Bradford, of Douglasville, caught a West Point striper certified at 36.17 pounds, breaking the old record by more than a half pound.

At 6:30 in the morning, Mike and his friend Jamie Townsend arrived at the lake. Mike said he’s been fishing West Point for 30 years.

“My friend Jamie and I go a few times a year, just trophy hunting,” said Mike. “We specifically wanted to catch some big fish.”

They made their way to a spot between Ringer Access and Yellow Jacket Creek.

“We decided to use gizzard shad, and we pulled them under balloons,” said Mike.

After a couple of hours had passed, Mike and Jamie were already having a super morning of fishing, catching stripers that weighed 26 and 29 pounds.

Jamie Townsend with a 29-lb. West Point striper that was caught and released the same day as Mike broke the record.

By 4 p.m., Mike and Jamie had caught six fish. After being on the lake for eight hours, Mike finally hung into the new lake record, which would end up beating the previous striper record of a 35-lbs., 8-ozs.

After a 20-minute battle with the fish, Mike was able to get the fish out of the water. Later, Mike took the striper to be weighed on certified scales at a Publix in Villa Rica. 

“We went to the lake to hunt big trophy stripers, and that’s all we do, so it was pretty awesome to have three fish in that class of trophies, and especially for West Point,” said Mike.

Mike believes his catch is a result of the fish stockings being changed.

“They changed the striper stockings in 2005 and went to a Gulf strained striper,” said Mike. “So, we’re in  2019, and it’s 14 years later, and we’re just now getting these large class of fish because they’re at that age.

“I feel like right now there is probably a couple of 40-pounders in the lake, and there’s a good chance that the record could be beaten multiple times this year, and hopefully it’s by me,” said Mike. 

Mike Bradford’s lake record striper from West Point.