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You are here: Home / Photos and Video / Trophy Room / CA Angler nails a 70-pound inland striped bass!

CA Angler nails a 70-pound inland striped bass!

August 15, 2008 By JD 6 Comments

70-pound striper.jpg
Aug. 5, 2008 is a date that Frank Ualat of Gilroy, CA won’t soon forget.

Down to his last bait at Central California’s O’Neill Forebay, Ualat hooked this mammoth 70-pound, 6-ounce striped bass.

The enormous fish measured 52.5 inches long and had a 36-inch girth and was caught on a pileworm fished on an 11-foot G. Loomis Surf Series spinning rod and a Team Daiwa Advantage 4000 reel spooled up with 50-pound braid.

But that’s not the whole story…

After catching the fish, Ualat packed the fish in ice — in his bathtub — overnight and then took it to Coyote Bait & Tackle where it was weighed on an uncertified scale and photographed. At 70 pounds, 6 ounces, the fish is larger than the current state record of 67-8, taken in 1992 by Hank Ferguson of Merced — at the same lake.

Though the scale has been sent in for official certification, there’s some doubt that Ualat’s fish will be recognized as a state or IGFA line class record beecause the evidence is gone. Ualat ate the fish….

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Filed Under: Trophy Room Tagged With: 70 pound striped bass, striper

Comments

  1. maria says

    December 13, 2009 at 3:50 am

    why didn't you invite me for dinner. i have a good recipe for striper, call me next time im really hungry

    Reply
  2. ryan says

    December 13, 2009 at 3:48 am

    all you needed to do is call fish and game, they would talk you through the process…..no brainer.

    Reply
  3. Frank Ualat says

    August 27, 2008 at 7:01 am

    I brought the fish the coyote bait and tackle to have it wieghed because i thought that they would help me but all they suggested was to go find a certified scale in morgan hill but where???? I was told to go to a feed store because they told me that they might have one. That didn’t really make any sense but I went anyway and they didn’t have one. I couln’t just keep fish at the house till I found one, I didn’t have a freezer big enough and as the days pass the fish would lose weight. I really didn’t know what to do next with the fish because no one told me that it could be a world record or state record. I didn’t know where to go and the proceedures to get the fish in the books untill it was too late. I really thought that Coyote bait and tackle would help me at the moment. It was weighed there, measured, and pictures were taken by the co- owner Teri Bradford. Overall the experience of catching a big fish is a huge accomplishment for a simple fisherman like me.

    Reply
  4. Ryan Sabalow says

    August 16, 2008 at 7:52 pm

    With tartar sauce?

    Hells yeah.

    That story made me laugh.

    What else are you going to do with a 70 pound fish? Keep it in your bathtub for a week until you find a certified scale?

    Reply
  5. Jeremiah W. says

    August 16, 2008 at 12:00 am

    I mean, he went out of his way to pose with the G-loomis shirt and the rod and then ATE it without an official weight????? I don’t get it.

    Reply
  6. Jeremiah W. says

    August 15, 2008 at 10:22 am

    Why in God’s name would you give up on getting a certified weight on that fish and EAT it?????????????

    Reply

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