03-31-2006, 01:34 AM
SAN DIEGO, CA-A Carlsbad, California, angler recently caught what under slightly different circumstances could have become the new world record largemouth bass. John "Mac" Weakley caught the 25-pound, 1-ounce largemouth last week while fishing California's Dixon Lake, a 70-acre water-supply reservoir near San Diego. Although the fish's weight would have shattered George Perry's world record, a fish that weighed 22 pounds, 4 ounces and was caught on Georgia's Montgomery Lake in 1932, Weakley foul-hooked his bass, making it an illegal catch under California law. Weakley was fishing with longtime friends Mike Winn and Jed Dickerson when he hooked the fish. All say it is the same one Dickerson caught in 2003, then a 21-pound, 11-ounce fish (refer to "News Update" in the October/November 2003 issue of North American Fisherman). They identified the fish by a distinct black dot under its right gill plate. Weakley released the fish after taking one photo (being held by Winn) and video footage of it being weighed.
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