Fisherman are notorious for tall tales as the catch normally gets bigger with each telling of the story. But it’s not often that an angler has a professional film crew around to document the story. So there’s no disputing this one.
When the boys from Stoked on Fishing, a fishing program that airs on Fox Sports West, caught and released a potential record-breaking spotted bass recently, they captured it all on video.
In the scene, set to air in February, Paul Bailey and Matt Newman told Wired 2 Fish the two were fishing an unnamed lake in Northern California when Matt caught a 9-pound bass, representing his personal best. Within minutes, Paul had hooked another monster, but this time it was an 11-pound, 4-ouncer, a world record, which they weighed on camera.
But because the pair couldn’t get an wildlife official to certify the catch and they didn’t want to kill it, the anglers released the catch to live another day.
“We didn’t want to kill the fish and wait until tomorrow to for someone to weigh it,” Newman said. “We were so stoked to have caught the fish on film, including weighing it on three seperate scales. So we decided to let it go and hope for the best. We’re not sure what will happen from here, but we’re still stoked.”
So far all you record-hunters, there’s a potential spotted bass goliath still out there.
Posted by Stoked On Fishing on Monday, November 30, 2015
Photo credit: Facebook
