Mac Weakley, who caught a potential new world-record bass from California's Lake Dixon this week, weighed the fish on a handheld scale. The scale read 25-01, but what kind of scale was it, exactly, and was it accurate? Could it possibly have been more than 2-13 off, which would have (at the least) tied the fish with George Perry's standing 22-04 record?
Here's what Weakley's friend, Jed Dickerson, had to say about the measuring instrument used that day.
"It was a Berkley scale, like a Boga Grip," he said. "It was digital. The morning before, I took out one of my wife's 5-pound weights, weighed it, and (the scale) said 5-01. Then I zeroed out a bucket, put the weight in the bucket, and it weighed 5-01. There's no way it could be that far off."
Another interesting anecdote from Dickerson: "There was a story last week (at Dixon) that someone on the dock was fishing for trout. The biggest fish he'd ever seen in his life came up, ate the trout and snapped his line. This fish (Weakley's 25-01) had 2-pound line sticking out of its mouth."
One last Dickerson anecdote: After Weakley caught the fish, he, Dickerson and Mike Winn went toward the middle of the lake. "We had to take a step back," Dickerson said. "We knew it was the world record. We're like, 'That was crazy, there's the world record right there.' Mac wanted to call his lawyer. I don't think the guy was up, but he called. Then Mac said, 'We have to let this thing go, it was foul-hooked.'"
> The name of the Berkley scale is the Digital Lip Grip.
