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Record striped bass hooked by Longmont teen
LONGMONT -- A Longmont High School junior caught what appears likely to be officially declared a state record-breaking striped bass at McIntosh Lake on Friday evening, reeling in a fish that tipped the scales at 31 pounds, 8.4 ounces when weighed as a Colorado Division of Wildlife officer looked on.
"I just got lucky," 18-year-old Isaac Sprecher said the bass, which he said measured 41 inches long and 26 inches in diameter.
Sprecher said he's a good fisherman, but "I didn't expect to catch anything like that" when -- accompanied by his girlfriend, Longmont High sophomore Megan McGuire -- he began casting from McIntosh's south shore about 5 p.m. on Friday.
Colorado's previous striped bass record holder was a 15 pound, 11-ounce fish caught in 2009 at CF&I Reservoir No. 2, in Pueblo County, according to Division of Wildlife's online list of 43 different species categories the state tracks for their weights.
Sprecher said Saturday that once the fish took the Senko soft plastic worm he'd been casting -- and Megan briefly tried to reel it in before insisting he take the rod back -- he and his girlfriend soon realized that there was "a pretty good-sized fish" pulling away.
