I caught you a delicious bass

Fisherman Mac Weakley caught a ginormous 25.1 lb bass in Dixon Lake near Carlsbad California. This bass is phenomenal for several reasons:
1) It was caught by his fishing buddy in 2003 when it weighed a mere 21.7 lbs. How do you know it’s the same fish? Because of the tell tale dark fish birthmark on its underbelly visible in the photo.
2) Prior to this challenger, the official largest bass ever caught was 22 ¼ lbs in 1934. So there’s been decades of constant angling and the record has never been broken!
3) This fish was caught on 15 lb test line. I mean I saw a fat catfish snap a pole in half in Kansas, I can’t imagine what happened to this guy’s pole with a 25 lb fish!
4) It was caught on accident. An issue with the IGFA (International Game Fish Association) has arisen as to whether this fish was “foul hooked” and therefore not qualify to break the standing record. Details of this exciting catch follow:

As for the catch itself, Dickerson explained that it was raining and dark early Monday when the anglers came across the bedding bass in 12 feet of water. A male — often much smaller than a female in the world of spawning bass — also was on the bed, and it made several stabs at the jig. The fishermen couldn't tell whether the male or female was hitting the jig when Weakley set the hook at about 6:40 a.m.

The fish surged to deeper water, and Winn, who said he was manning the boat, motored toward a nearby dock — where, Weakley explained, three people, including the dock attendant for the city-owned facility in Escondido, Calif., witnessed the action. There Winn fumbled on his initial attempt at netting the fish.

Yep, Winn swung and missed, which is surprising to anyone who saw him skillfully gaff saltwater fish on the fly when he was a second captain on a charter boat out of Santa Barbara, Calif., in an earlier career.

"My heart was in my throat," said Winn, 32, of Carlsbad, who now also works in the casino industry. "I was wondering which I would get next, a black eye or a bloody nose."

In the confusion and excitement that can at times underscore this level of fishing, Winn had picked up a net that wasn't his and was unfamiliar to him.

"I just grabbed for whatever was closest. I have never, ever missed a fish with my net," Winn explained. " But I got the fish halfway in and it freaked out and kicked out of this other net."

By this time it was quite apparent that it was the female at line's end, and one extremely large and displeased specimen. It again finned to deeper water, and the pursuers followed in their electric-powered rental boat (all that is permitted for use at this 80-foot-deep reservoir).



More evidence of big bass at Dixon Lake: Mike Long registered the largest largemouth in two decades when he boated this bubba in late April 2001.But a few moments later and five minutes after it was hooked, the big mother was in Winn's net. To the anglers' great dismay, the fish had been hooked in its side. Soon after that sad discovery — and determining that its own weight might hurt the fish in the handling process — the bassers decided to release it.

Thank you espn outdoors.

Many of you are wondering “fishing is cruel why endorse it? Or “it’s just a big fish.” But this is the kind of story that sparks interest in the outdoors. Activities such as rock climbing, fishing, hunting, hiking, diving, rafting etc expose people to what their environment is like. When people associate good times with clean environment they start to care and if they don’t work to protect it, they sure don’t vote to destroy it. When environmentalists do their job too well and close off parts of the wilderness to others, biodiversity is preserved, but preserves are always threatened by man because no one is allowed to enjoy the land therefore it has no value to the local voter, who makes the decisions about their fates. For example before Heal the Bay and other marine organizations started exposing the public to Southern California’s wetlands, they were just waterfront property sites that needed to be landfilled. Now we have protected estuary and wetland areas for naturalist activities and the tide of public approval is against development of these areas. Likewise, sportfishing associations organize and work to remove offshore oil pilings and work with environmentalists to make offshore preserves. Environmentalists take heart and suspend your disbelief. Sportfishermen care about water quality because it affects their catch. Sushi consumers care about bioaccumulation of toxins because it affects their meals. Beachgoers care about urban runoff because it affects their picnics. However it is up to us to make them see how their interests are connected to the environment and affect them personally; but the interest can start with an enormous bass.