By Paul Lebowitz

Even anglers who get their mail by carrier pigeon know the story by now. On March 20 2006, while fishing on cramped, 70-acre Dixon Lake in Escondido under dark clouds that foreshadowed the unfortunate outcome, Mac Weakley caught the biggest largemouth bass ever known to have been taken on rod and reel.

The female bass, belly swollen to gigantic proportions by a huge load of eggs, weighed 25.1 lbs. on a hand-held electronic digital scale. That's just shy of 3 pounds larger than the moldy 22-lb., 4-oz. mark set by George Perry way back in 1932. Unfortunately for Weakley and his big-bass fishing partners Jed Dickerson and Mike Winn, the incredible catch was doomed from the hook-set.

It was laid low by the jig stuck in the left side of the fish just below its dorsal fin, and Section 1.05 of the 2006 California Freshwater Sportfishing Regulations.The dispassionate passage defines what constitutes a legal catch: "To take fish by hook and line with the line held in the hand, or with the line attached to a pole or rod held in the hand or closely attended in such manner that the fish voluntarily takes the bait or lure in its mouth."

Only Weakley knows for sure how the fish came to be snagged, yet most accounts indicate it happened accidentally when the big girl swirled on the white Western Plastics Rattlesnake jig intruding on its nest.

Almost Record - Mike Winn holds up Mac Weakley's near-record catch that was foul hooked and landed at San Diego County's Lake Dixon in 2006. Photo courtesy Mac Weakley

After landing the fish, the trio motored off for a while and then returned to the dock where they weighed it and took the video and photos that before long had made their way around the globe. Weakley and his buddies didn't bother to get the fish's measurements or put it on a certified scale as the International Game Fish Association requires for certification of a world record. They just released it and watched it swim off. That didn't stop sportswriters and TV commentators alike from proclaiming the fish likely to pass muster. That was nothing more than wishful thinking. Weakley must have sensed it from the start.

There's nothing ambiguous about the rules.

"The regulations state that for a fish to be legally caught, it has to voluntarily take the lure in its mouth," said Dennis Lee, a senior supervising fishery biologist for the Department of Fish and Game. Lee administers the Fish and Game Commission's database of record catches.

IGFA rules state "failure to comply with equipment or angling regulations" disqualifies a catch. A catch "must not be at variance with any laws or regulations governing the species or the waters in which it was caught." As far as the state is concerned the big bass was not fairly caught, there was never a chance that the IGFA could have recognized it as the record.

The IGFA's Conservation Director Jason Schratwieser echoed the point. "If the state says the catch is outside the intent of the law, then we'd have to disallow it too," Schratwieser said.

At Dixon, the media circus that included ESPN, local TV news crews and swarms of print journalists has pulled out of town. As of press time, the big fish was still swimming somewhere out in the lake. With the world record maybe just a cast away, angling pressure is running high.

"We had two and a half times the normal business last week compared to the three weeks prior. Quite a few people know the location where the big bass was caught. They race in the morning to try to get to the location first," said Tony Smock, Escondido superintendent of Lakes and Open Spaces. The competition to be the first to fair-hook that big fish is intense enough to inflame passions. So far, so good. Said Smock of the polite behavior displayed by the anglers jockeying for position, "There's a lot of peer pressure. No one wants to look like a jerk."

As for the rest of the mysteries surrounding Weakley and his catch, they're no more than curious ingredients in a delicious fish tale stew. The tidbits include attempts to pay off another angler who was working the fish the prior day. As reported by Union-Tribune columnist Ed Zieralski, Weakley offered Kyle Malmstrom $1,000 for the chance to fish the bass for half an hour. Malmstrom, who obviously failed to catch the bass before nightfall, refused. 

Allegations that Weakley and his buddies unfairly beat other anglers to the fish by getting on the lake early on that fateful day have proved false. According to Smock, anyone who purchases a camping pass has first crack at renting a boat. Even the beauty mark on the cheek of the bass is intriguing. By all indications, it identifies the fish as the 20.12-pounder caught by big bass specialist Mike Long in 2001, and then two years later by Dickerson when it weighed a near-record-busting 21.11. The tasty detail: In 2005 Long reported that fish had been found floating, yet here it is again.

Smock isn't tired of all the fuss. "It's a rush to know the lake has the next world record. It's only a matter of time before someone catches it.