After catching one of the largest bass ever caught in California, kayak angler Damian Thao wasn’t sure it would be properly certified as a lake record. The nearly 19-pound largemouth was enough to set a record, but a bizarre state law Thao inadvertently violated while transporting and weighing the fish may have hampered the achievement.
Thao admitted his mistake in a post he shared on Facebook on Tuesday. He said he wanted to “be transparent about the monster fish,” which was his personal best largemouth bass and his first over 12 pounds. Thao did not respond to a request for comment. outdoor living Wednesday.
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“Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news,” Thao wrote in the post. “I ended up joining the teen club of record fish in this lake, but I ended up breaking the law.”
A closer look at bass from the cockpit of a Thao fishing kayak. Photo by Damian Thao/via Facebook
Thao explained that he was fishing from his kayak on Sunday when he hooked the giant pipefish to a big bait, a 10-inch Megabass MagDraft in Albino Pearl. He said it was the first spot he fished in the first hour of the day, but he did not reveal the name of the lake.
“Struggling with her for 30 seconds and then rowing her. At first I thought it was just another 10 seconds, maybe 12 seconds of pushing until I got her up,” Thao wrote. “When she was first weighed, she weighed about 17 pounds.”
Damian Thao and the California largemouth monster he caught from his kayak. Photo by Damian Thao/via Facebook
After paddling to shore and weighing the fish a second time on a hand scale, Thao’s reading was 17.46, which his friend told him was good enough to set a new lake record. They put the bass into his friend’s livewell while Thao tried to call the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps ranger station to ask if a certified scale could be brought to the lake. He didn’t get a reply, which he said was understandable since it was the Sunday of a holiday weekend.
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Thao decided to transport the bass live to his friend’s live well so they could take it to a certified scale, where the fish weighed in at 18.75 pounds. He and his friend then drove back to the lake and released the giant bass. By this point, Thao had entered legally questionable territory, but he didn’t realize it until the next day when another friend called to congratulate him.
“I told him step by step what the day was like and what I did,” Thao explained in the post. “He looked it over and told me that even though it seemed like the right thing to do, it was illegal. I didn’t even realize it until someone mentioned it.”
Thao weighed the fish multiple times on a hand-held scale and then took it to a certified scale, where it came in at 18.75 pounds. Photo by Damian Thao/via Facebook
Under California law, it is illegal to remove live fish from the water where they were caught. According to the state, the law exists to prevent the spread of invasive species and protect native ecosystems. But the rule, which requires anglers to kill fish before transporting it, makes California something of an outlier. Other states have laws prohibiting the transportation of live fish, but these laws generally target more specifically invasive species or the movement of fish from one body of water to another.
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Fishermen in other states regularly transport live fish, especially potential records, so they can be weighed on certified scales — or, in some cases, donated to state-run stocking programs. As catch-and-release fishing becomes more popular, this is becoming more common. Many anglers today, like Tao, are adamant about not killing fish unless necessary.
Read next: ‘I’m not going to kill that bass.’ Tournament angler releases new state record smallmouth
“Not making any excuses, just trying to be transparent and acknowledge my actions,” Thao said in the post. “It was a great learning session and never thought I would find myself able to hold the unofficial lake record fish in my hands.”
Several other social media users retweeted the photo of the giant bass and heaped praise on Thao, who is famous in the kayak fishing community for catching giant California largemouths. His accomplishments include winning multiple kayak championships and finishing second with Team USA at the 2022 Kayak Fishing World Championship.
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“You still hold the lake record for all of us!” one Facebook user wrote in the comments section of Thao’s post. “At least transparency will help people in the future [with] How to Officially Get Fish Certified. “
