Yes the IGFA World Record is 1lb 6oz. And there are people on here probably thinking they have caught bigger ones than that, and you probably have. The problem with this fish and records, is simply what we are discussing here. People ordinarily do not keep grass perch and they are referred to as a trash fish. Here is a prime example of a fish I caught that would have been a record. While crappie fishing I marked a very large fish on the depth finder at the same time my pole bent double. I played the fish down, thinking it was a cat. To my surprise it came directly out of the water towards my face with it's mouth open. Kinda scary when your looking into the mouth of a gar. We got him all tangled in the net and eventually I had to hit it with the paddle. The paddle broke and busted its head open. I pulled this fish up while grasping the tangled net, the tail never came out of the water. The diameter of this fish was larger than my thigh. Now that is a big gar, but it wasn't a alligator gar. I cut the line and got his teeth out of the net and dropped his head back in the water. Amazingly enough, it swam to the bottom. I never reported or thought to bring the fish in, because it was a gar. I later was looking at record fish and the largest gar other than an alligator was 15lbs and this gar exceeded that, if not doubled it. By the way I just checked the record for NC and it was broke in 2002 (around the time I caught mine) the new record is 19lbs 2ozs and go figure, it was caught in the same place I caught mine, Northeast Cape Fear River. Another fish that is over looked is a green sunfish. In 98 the previous record was broken by a 6oz fish. The hoopla brought attention to that particular species of fish. A local knew he had caught bigger in his farm pond. He and his son went down and caught a 8oz fish a few weeks later. That record now stands. Do you know what a flier, green sun fish, grass perch, redear, and so on look like? Can you determine every species of fish as you decide wether or not to release it? Most can not. As you can see on this website, and everywhere you fish, most have very little knowledge of fish at all and are pulling straws to figure them out. That's why most people end up targeting one or two species. My point is simply this, with all the targeted species, most people have a lack of concern for the records of non-targeted species. That in turn causes a lot of records to be over looked. I am probably mistaken of the type of fish the 3+ pound fish is. But I am in no way mistaken on the size fish I've caught. Even though I never weighed them, my estimate puts them at 2lbs. When I go back home I will check to see the type of fish and weight. I do apologize for any misinformation.