Is This Is A World-Record Spotted Bass?
More details on @codymeyerangler's potential world record spotted bass. https://t.co/co4VXlUX23 pic.twitter.com/Vv4LWfJr4f
— FLW (@FLWFishing) December 19, 2016
The Sacramento Bee has more details on this story:
Meyer knew massive spotted bass lurk in the emerald waters of Yuba County’s New Bullards Bar reservoir, an hour or so from Meyer’s home in Auburn. Meyer said he’s caught a veritable “truckload” of spotted bass at the lake over the years topping more than 8 pounds. In January 2015, his friend Tim Little caught the current International Game Fish Association world record, a 10 pound, 6 ounce behemoth.
Other anglers have reportedly caught fish from New Bullards Bar that weighed even more. One of them is even listed as a state record, but those fish weren’t officially certified for the world record books.
For Meyer, Friday was supposed to be a lazy fishing trip with his buddy. Maybe they’d shoot some pictures for a sponsor if they caught a few of the big spotted bass that lurk in the lake, gorging on the landlocked sockeye salmon local fishermen call kokanee. Spotted bass, native to America’s South, were introduced in California in 1974. The hard-fighting fish thrive along the rocky, muddy banks of Northern California’s major reservoirs.
As they fished, Meyer said he spotted what appeared to be a fat bass on the high-tech depth and fish finder he’s got on his boat. The fish was hovering around 20 feet below the surface, some 80 feet above the lake’s bottom. He tossed an Ocho, a soft, plastic lure made by Strike King Lure Co., over where he he thought the fish might be hoping to ambush a kokanee.
Upon weighing the fish and seeing that at 10.8 pounds, it appeared larger than Little’s record, Meyer said he wasn’t sure what to do, so he called Little. When Little’s not fishing in his free time, he’s a game warden with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Little informed him about the special procedures and certified scales that must be used before the fish can be listed in the International Game Fish Association record books, Meyer said. Off duty that day, Little actually drove with a certified scale almost three hours over to New Bullard’s Bar from Lake County so he could weigh it. Little couldn’t be reached for comment, but Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed Meyer’s version of events.
