Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Record LMBass?

Ran across this on ESPN Outdoors this evening: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/news/story?page=f_fea_bass_world-record_Weakley_25.1

Finally. Course he blew it letting it go. IGFA won't recognize a fish that hasn't been weighed on a certified scale and viewed by a Fish and Game Officer. Somebody else did it too a few years back with a bass that looked to have topped 24lbs.

That fish looks like it ate anything and everything. I think he should have kept it and certified it. Then we could have figured out what was really inside that fish's belly. It doesn't look right.

Foul hooked with a jig? I wouldn't have thought it was possible.

Apparently this is the EXACT fish that was caught a couple of years back that almost broke the record. There are some identifying marks on the fish that seem to support this. It survived the other times it was released. Hopefully it lives one more time. I agree with Cecil and others that it looks like it could have been handled horizontally instead of vertically to give it a better chance of survival. Guess you can't really blame a guy for showin' off a fish like that.

It was on ESPN sportscenter this morning made the top ten plays.

Bruce

"......handled horizontally instead of vertically to give it a better chance of survival."

For a fingerling like me, would you help me to understand that statement? The fishing shows I've seen on OLN with all the "big" names show the fish being handled in a myriad of ways before being released.

Thanks
Chuck

Bigger fish, like that largemouth are designed so that the attachments of their internal organs don't have to bear much load, because of the fish's buoyancy. Apparently, when a bigger fish is out of the water you can minimize this load by supporting the fish with both hands, fingers spread, each hand one third of the way from the end. I've been plenty guilty over the years of having fish photographed by lipping them, but I'm trying to learn. I love to keep fish like crappie and walleye on occasion to put in the freezer, but I like to release really superior specimens from a genetic standpoint. I think the guys who caught the bass should be commended for releasing the fish, and can't really be blamed for a little "grandstanding" to get a better picture. I was being more facetious than anything. In a perfect world, if you're going to release a world record fish you would hold him horizontally and only have it out of the water for an extremely minimal period of time to maximize survival chances.

I'm kind of rambling, but I guess if you have a fish that you intend on releasing, and there are a hundred, or a thousand other fish in that water body just as good or better than the one you've got, it's different than if you're a pro bass fisherman who's holding what may be the best bass EVER and you personally hope to catch him again yourself.

This post gets the award for least said in most words.

"This post gets the award for least said in most words."

Yep.....LOL....though I did find my answer in there! Mission accomplished.

Thanks