At the January 2014 IGFA annual meeting, a decision was made to separate the freshwater line class and tippet class records into men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 categories. This was done in order to create consistency within the IGFA鈥檚 records program where separate men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 categories already exist for saltwater records. This change created thousands of new record opportunities for male and female anglers, alike.
The split began on April 1, 2014, all current freshwater line class and tippet class records were appropriately placed in their respective categories, based on the angler鈥檚 gender. Retired records were not be reinstated when separating the records, but rather, vacancies filled the voids created.