ArielANDJared said:
dude i was not even talking about u ya freak wow there r some real winners on this site lol
Let me introduce you to that "freak"... oh and welcome to the forum:lol:
Mail Tribune Local & Regional Sports Coverage
August 24, 2006
Colby Pearson’s largemouth bass likely would have been a new state record had he not released it back into Hyatt Lake. (Kristen Pearson)
Record bass set free at Hyatt Lake
ASHLAND — Colby Pearson stood on the Hyatt Lake Dam a whipped 12-year-old boy, his arms tired from three hours of catching and releasing largemouth bass.
"I said, 'this is going to be the last one, my last cast,'" he says.
Fifteen minutes later, Pearson stood waist-deep in the lake, bear-hugging a largemouth whose fleeting moments in Pearson's arms have made the angling world take notice of this boy and his fish.
The Central Point seventh-grader did the improbable Aug. 15 by catching a largemouth that pencils out to be an estimated 12 pounds, 12 ounces at Hyatt, a high-mountain lake known more for its big rainbow trout than as Oregon's new largemouth mecca.
The fish likely outweighs Oregon's existing record by more than a half-pound, yet it won't ever make the list of the state's best bass.
Pearson kept his catch just long enough for his mother to snap a few photos and take a few measurements before they watched his record swim away.
"It doesn't really matter how big the bass is, I let it go," Pearson says. "That fish probably is as old as I am.
"I don't think it's right to kill a fish just to get a record," he says.
In doing so, Pearson has done more than claim a state angling record. He has won respect in the angling world where chasing a sowbelly — the nearly mythical "pig" bass with a swine-like girth — is a ritualistic obsession where releasing big bass has become as important as catching them.
Since Bass Angler Sportsmen Society founder Ray Scott instituted catch-and-release rules for BASS tournaments in 1972, bass anglers have grown more and more immune to temptations of killing big fish.
"Now, catch-and-release is sort of second nature," says Monte Burke, whose best-selling book "Sowbelly" chronicles the quest to best the 74-year-old bass world record of 22 pounds, 4 ounces. "I don't know anyone who keeps a bass, regardless of its size."
Record-keepers have followed suit. The International Game Fish Association will recognize released fish as records — provided measurements, witnesses and a verified weight are recorded.
That's also true in Oregon, where the Portland-based Oregon Bass and Panfish Club is the official keeper of the state's record warmwater catches.
A record fish does not have to be a dead fish, but the club requires a witnesses weight taken from a state-certified scale, normally found only at butcher stores.
The closest registered scale to Hyatt Lake would be in Ashland some 20 miles away. After capturing his mega-bass, all Pearson could do was briefly show his fish to manager Cathy Hanscom at the Hyatt Lake Resort store.
It was never weighed, even on a non-certified scale. All Pearson can do is estimate the weight based on a standard formula of length-squared times girth divided by 1,200.
"So, that fish is kind of out, and that's too bad," says Mike Darnell, a Milwaukie man who is the club's vice president. "That's admirable, releasing a fish like that."
It's also within the boy's character.
"Colby has always been a catch-and-release kind of guy," says Kristen Pearson, Colby's mother.
A bass angler since age 3, Colby Pearson has mined Hyatt for largemouth regularly during 35 days camping there already this summer. His lure of choice is a Grass Hog — a long, tube-like plastic "creature bait" that doesn't look like anything natural but somehow attracts big fish.
"I usually fish it pretty fast," Pearson says. "But for that last cast, I decided to slow it down."
The fish slurped in the bait, turned and finned away like it knew it made a mistake.
"It took tons of line," he says. "I was thinking what a big fish this was going to be."
Pearson eventually coaxed the bass toward shore, where it displayed its enormity in one underwater flash.
"It turned on its side and it looked so huge," Pearson says.
That's when Pearson stepped into the water and headed toward the bass. Standing next to it, his rod bent over, Pearson thought grabbing the bass by its mouth could cause it to throw the hook.
"I couldn't take that chance," he says. "So I just bear-hugged him and took off to the store."
Kristen Pearson intercepted her son half-way there.
Cameras clicked. The tale of the tape: Length, 251�„4 inches; girth 24 inches.
The math says 12.75 pounds.
Pearson since has rounded the weight down to a more conservative 12.36 pounds.
"It doesn't matter," he says. "People don't believe me now as it is."
When asked to produce the fish, he says it's back in Hyatt Lake where it belongs.
"People just look at me like I'm crazy," he says.
Burke looks at Pearson with envy.
"I've fished for bass all over the world, and the best I've caught is 10 pounds," says Burke from his New York City office.
"That's an enormous fish," Burke says. "Good for him."
And good for the bass, which swam from Pearson's hands with its tail fin partially out of the water.
"It was almost like he was waving goodbye to me," Pearson says.
In doing so, Pearson waved goodbye to the state record. It still stands at 12.16 pounds for B. Adam Hastings at Ballenger Pond near Springfield.
Without knowing it, Pearson even ends his story sounding like legendary catch-and-release advocate Lee Wulff, who said a game fish is too valuable to catch just once.
"That fish will be there for somebody else to catch," Pearson says. "Someone else can have that joy."
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ya its been about 25 minutes since i caught my last bass..........
----OH and with the number of bass i have caught i am gonna go out on a teeny tiny hunch and go ahead and say its not just OUR catching 
... i would rather be a freak than most things 
