Originally Posted By: FireIsHot
Thanks guys. First, I DID NOT catch this fish. I was spraying coontail, and kept seeing something sticking out of the water. I finally figured out it was a LMB tail. That's not a good sign. I went and got a net and my wife, and we spent almost 2 hours trying to net her. I would see her upside down on the bottom, but she would swim away. I finally got her netted, but she felt soft in the belly to me. That's another bad sign.

I wanted to see why her stomach was so soft, so I checked. There was nothing there but a tumor/growth of some sort. Her liver was diseased also.

Short story long, she weighed 9.11#, but was 3/4" longer than the TX state record of 18#. RW was 87%. I do know she was in old age decline, but I sure would like to have seen her caught her in her prime.

But, I really try to save these larger fish for guests, so I hope she had been hooked at some point before. Whatever the reason for her demise, she probably gave me 9-10 years of her genetics. That ain't a bad thing at all.

All's well.


This is the only scenario I can imagine being happy culling a trophy fish - you caught her on the definite decline and it's an easy call. Sorry to see her go, but there's more BG to feed the up and comers for sure. Fillets or the garden?


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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