I fished the ABA tournament on the Neuse river Sunday. I caught my first bass on about the fifth cast, He weighed 3.80lb I put my culling rope on him and in the live well he went. Well the rest of the day went downhill that was the only bite I had all day. When I got back to the weigh in I seen all the fish that were being weighed so I just took my fish out and turned him lose. : Guess what the big fish of the tournament was > 3.45lb That's right I throwed back a couple hundred dollars.

OUCH! That had to hurt!  

sorry about that.  i know you musta been p.o.'ed big time.  

Wow! This may or may not make you feel better but I have noticed over the years that the tournament scales always seem to be off. Some days it will say that we have more than than what our X-tools tells us and some days it is less. Off course everyone's fish are weighed on the same scale so it doesn't matter as far as who had the heaviest bag or big fish.  But being that you didn't weigh your fish on that scale I wouldn't beat yourself over letting her go.

Man that sucks!!!!!!!!!!!

Tough break.  That will teach you though.

That suck big time.  I too hate carrying just 1 measley fish to the scales.  Kind of embarrassing, unless it's the big fish of the day........

Would you do it again?

P.S.That place can be tough.

Tough break. That will teach you though.

Probably the most painful lesson you can learn in tournament fishing. Everyone is always bs'ing so you should always weigh whatever you got. I have seen 20 bot tournies up here won with one fish for over two pounds. Never assume anything.

You just never know until the scale tips

You can see another angler catch a fish in front of you and you'd think his well is full

Aint that the truth

I've brought in one 12" bass just so I don't zero and end up in 5th place

Better "luck" next time