Ah, it is that time of year when Mother Nature in both her roles as weather-maker and fish provider combine with familial responsibilities to make it more than likely that the Island’s anglers will be spending their weekends on land. This may not be all bad because the reports from the few boats putting in any offshore effort are pretty discouraging; certainly not the sort of thing that will move Santa Claus’ mission to the back burner anytime soon.So, maybe for the minute, it is better to think about the angling rather than burning the fuel and bouncing out to the Banks in search of disappointment.In the meantime, if someone were to pose the question: “Where are the most world records held?”, it might take a minute or two before arriving at the most logical answer. Exotic Pacific Island locations, obscure African nations and a host of South American venues would all cross your mind but not one of these would come anywhere near close.The careful use of logic would solve the question. First of all, you might want to establish whether it was fresh water or salt water records that were being called into question. Perhaps it is for both.If the category is freshwater than many of the tropical island paradise destinations can be safely discounted. If they do have any bodies of fresh water, they are likely to be few and the number of freshwater species that have made it to islands is likely to be even fewer. There have been some introductions like rainbow and brown trout to the mountain streams of Madeira, an island more fabled for giant blue marlin than anything else; but, for the most part, the fresh water fauna of islands tends to be impoverished.If the exercise is limited to salt water game fish, then the islands might warrant a mention but again, the islands that make the top ten list for marine angling tend to be of a tropical nature, thereby excluding many of the other game species that are confined to temperate or even cooler waters.That covers most of the natural and geographic factors; but what about the people who do the fishing. Places that mainly do subsistence fishing won’t be competing for line class records or tossing flies at game fish. The angler is a cut apart from the fisherman; he is someone for whom the chase is a large part of the action and the successful capture of a trophy fish the object of the exercise. There are places that have lots of “good” fish in the record sense but not many sports fishermen, so the overall numbers of records is likely to be less than expected; unless, of course, the place is visited by horses of anglers hell-bent on catching record-sized fish.So the criteria for the place likely to hold the most records are likely to be size (large), accessibility and have sufficient people who take part in the sport of angling.It doesn’t take a quantum leap to put the U.S.A. top of the heap. With over 300 million people, even the relatively small percentage that are anglers is a big number. The breadth, length and varied terrain that that great country encompasses pretty much ensures that just about every biotope is represented. Add in a coastline that runs from the Arctic, through the temperate, factor in the fact that it borders on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and there is plenty of scope for a huge number of species of fish. Other natural factors combine to make sure that some of the fish that traverse the sea lanes, not to mention the fresh water systems that straddle the nation, are of record size.Even a single state like Florida offers quality fresh water fishing and superb salt water angling with the islands and Keys mimicking many of the conditions found in the Caribbean islands. Many states like Virginia and North Carolina have built industries on tourism and active pursuits like boating and angling. Even the ski country has alternative pursuits such as cold water fly fishing during the winter. Dare we even mention ice-fishing?To really make the United States the jackpot for world records, throw in the tropical state of Hawaii, the islands of Puerto Rico and Guam and the title of record heaven is pretty much unassailable.In a nutshell, there is great fishing, plenty of anglers to do it, a wide variety of species found in circumstances ranging from mountain streams to the deep offshore of the Gulf Stream. All told, a fisherman’s paradise.Anyone who might question this outcome can be referred to the International Game Fish Association web site (www.igfa.org) or world record book and it will quickly become apparent that, with the exception of a few species that have very limited ranges, there are more records set in the U.S.A. than anywhere else.Something else that might need to be clarified is the fact that a species is only recognised for line class records by the IGFA if it has a range that is large enough to make it accessible to a reasonable number of anglers. Some species that is only found in a short stretch of the upper Orinoco just isn’t going to make it. For such species, there are the all-tackle records.But don’t sell the good old U.S.A. short on that one either. Of the 1,223 all- tackle records currently registered with the IGFA, 369 were set in the United States. The next best location would appear to be Brazil (figure the Amazon and all its tributaries must do something for obscure freshwater species) which has 97 entries in the record book.Actually the all-tackle list makes for interesting reading. There are species that you have never heard of before. Some probably the experts at the Bermuda Aquarium have no knowledge of either even though some are as pedestrian or common or garden as plain simple “goldfish”. There are also places that you did not know existed. Even some of the countries listed will drive you to the Internet or to an atlas.There are worse ways of passing your time, especially on a rainy weekend afternoon that looking through the IGFA lists. The computer works fine although it helps to be a paid-up member of the IGFA because that allows you greater access to the material that they have available on line. Who knows, you might even come across a record that you know you can better. There are some line class records that can easily be exceeded by some of the fish that occur here regularly. Something like the yellowtail snapper that we routinely catch here hold the all-tackle record and most of the line class categories; both the men’s and women’s. At the moment there are a mere three exceptions and all it needs is for someone to decide that is the target and to start fishing for yellowtails with the right tackle. It wouldn’t take a real monster to ensure capture of the record and there would probably be a fair few almost big enough to ensure some fine eating after some exciting Tight lines!!!