Paul Duclos nailed a potentially larger fish and possible world record that weighed 24 pounds on a kitchen scale at Spring Lake in 1997. However, Duclos released his fish, after taking some photos of it, and never weighed it on a certified scale. We will never now exactly how big that monster fish was.

Jensen's fish was larger than the Clear Lake record of 17.52 pounds and the previous Delta record of 17.57 pounds.

How did Jensen do it? He went out in his Hawk 2100 bass boat with his dog, Tahoe, as a fishing partner to pre fish for an upcoming Delta tournament. He had fished for an hour on Old River in the South Delta when the monster hit.

"After catching a 2 pound largemouth earlier, I tossed a 6 inch black/blue flake Yamamoto Senko out," he said. "I felt a tick and set the hook. The fish came up and shook his head and I picked him out of the water after about a one minute fight."

He didn't have a net, so he pulled the big fish in the boat. "I had the fish hooked real good, since I was using a 5/0 Owner hook, so I knew I was going to get her in the boat," he explained.

"I knew I had a huge fish, so I pulled up my trolling motor, put the boat on the trailer and drove over to Hook Line and Sinker to weigh it on their certified scale," added Jensen.

The angler, a construction teacher at a federal correction facility, has been tournament fishing for 18 years and bass fishing since he was 10 years old. His previous largest bass weighed 12.2 pounds.

Jensen attributes his heavy 50 pound Spider Wire Fusion line to the ease at which he landed the big monster. He also used a 7 foot Lamiglas heavy pitching rod, outfitted with a Castaic Shimano reel, to subdue the fish. The fish was notable for its huge eyes, as well as the fact that it hit his bait when the water was an icy 46 degrees.

The large number of trophy bass caught in the Delta over the past decade is attributable to four main factors. The first is the introduction of the Florida-strain bass, a larger class of fish than the northern-strain, to the Delta by the DFG. The second is the abundant forage Delta bass have to feed on, including threadfin shad, bluegill and a variety of native minnows. The third factor is the long growing season that the bass have in the myriad waterways of the Delta. The fourth factor is the widescale practice of catch and release, which allows more fish to reach a trophy size.

It'll be interesting to see how long Jensen's record stands. An amazingly productive bass fishery like the California Delta has a real potential for producing the next state largemouth record or even a world record.

Check out the Fishsniffer Paper this week, Volume 21, Issue 5, for the Photo!

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