Well, there's good news and bad news.
Hang tight guys, this is going to be a long one.
I finally ended up joining the teener club with this lake record fish but i ended up infringing the law.
I want to be transparent with the monster fish and i want to own up to my mistake. I'll go step by step of what happend this day with baits included.
I arrived at the lake and pulled up to the first spot, within the first 20-30 minutes i land a 7.5 and a 10.05 on a Workingclasszero Tyrant10. Few more casts go by with a few tail grabbers, i switched it up to a Megabass Magdraft 10" in Albino Pearl. Made about 3 casts at the tree, popped it free from the limbs and that is when the big girl ate.
Fought her for 30 seconds and boated her. At first i thought she was just another 10 maybe pushing 12 until i held her up. Put her on the scale the first time and she went around 17lbs-17. 70 due to the high winds and wakes. I went to the bank to get a better scale reading. She ended up going 17.46 on my Rapala scale weighed on land.
A good freind of mine was there as well and he informed me that this is the lake record. I ended up putting the fish in his livewell to keep her lively while i went back to the ramp to get some cell service to get a hold of Fish and Game.
I made multiple attempts at trying to reach them to get a certified scale to weigh the fish. Also called the U.S Army Corp ranger station there with no help from either. Which is understandable since it was the weekend. The one time I actually reached someone from DFG, i was told to fill out the application.
Frustrated we reweighed her on a different scale, and she went 17lb 14oz on a Bubba Smart Fish Scale. Seemed like weight was all over the place, I decided to just drive(transfer) the fish(live) to a certified scale to have her weighed.
Not going to mention the business i went to get the fish weighed but on the certified scale she went 18.75lb. Excited we went back to the lake where we caught her and released her.
The following day, a good freind of mine called me to congratulate me. I told him step by step of the day and of what I did. He double checked and Informed me that even though it seemed like it was the right thing to do; it was against the law(transfer/move live fish).
It didn't even click with me until it was mentioned.
Apparently the certified scale needed to be brought to the lake or fish needed to be dead to be transferred to weigh.
Not making any excuses, just want to be transparent and own up to my actions.
A good learning lesson, never thought I'd find myself in a position to hold the unnofficial lake record fish in my hands. I got 3 different weights for this fish. My scale 17.46(rapala scale), 17lb 14oz(bubba scale), 18.75(certified scale).
I'm going to go with the lowest. 17.46lbs for my Personal Best.
Once again thanks to those that were there to help me on this once in a lifetime catch. #pline #plinefishing
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