Who Cares?  Regardless of what the outcome is, even after all of the controversy, these guys caught a big freakin bass.  They were not arrogant about it and were good sportsmen when it cam to the descision of keeping or releasing the fish.  Personally, I think maybe we should worry more about the fish we might catch as opposed to a controversial fish most of us will probably never catch.

It's all right if people bash Perry. Heaven forbid if we question Mac's catch. > I guess were not allowed to state any opinions on Cali's catches.  

Here is the problem in 1968 the California record bass  14 lbs 15 oz. May 1959 is when they stocked with Florida bass. 1972 California record 17 lbs 14 oz.....1973 20 lb 15 oz. It wasn't until they stocked with Florida bass that they ever beat their own state record.

Florida record in 1961 was 19 lbs

Uncertified State Record - 20 pounds, 2 ounces, caught in Big Fish Lake (private pond) in Pasco County in 1923.

* 20 lb 15 oz 1974 CA record was between 12 and 14 years old. Studies have shown that a Florida strain should live another five years or more. 1973 it was said that a 25 lb largemouth or better might become a reality in the next few years based upon the conditions and the due to their feeding on trout.

Do most all these lakes stock alot with trout?

That is not the point a Florida Bass is considered it's own species of bass separate than any other bass. It is the only bass that has the capability to grow really big in a short period of time. While one bass out of millions of other species might get a chance to grow 10 lbs or bigger the odds are greater that a Florida bass will grow bigger than 10 lbs because of genetics. Food don't matter but the difference is in deep lakes that have trout stocking programs trout can thrive in deep water so larger bass have more of a deep water food source. This means that a large bass don't need to move shallow to find food so they have less contact with anglers except during spawn.

I'm asking for a different reason.

But now i got another question too, heh How many different largemouth species. I think i've seen 3 in north carolina alone.

Kentucky Spot, redeye, suwannee, largemouth, smallmouth, Florida strain, shoal bass

I don't know why, but the Florida state record largmouth is the most incorrectly reported bass record I know of.  There must be a list out there somewhere that has been repeated.

This is from the Florida F&W website.

Certified state record fish must be legally caught using an active hook-and-line method (including a proper license or exemption) by sport fishing methods, identified by a Commission biologist and weighed on a certified scale. Uncertified state records (indicated below by an asterisk) are believed accurate based on reliable witnesses and other evidence but are not certifiable, or they were caught by other than legal sport fishing methods. To set a new record, you just need to exceed the certified records; the uncertified records are provided just for information. The "Big Catch" program gives recognition to anglers who catch fish that exceed the minimum "qualifying weights and lengths". If you catch such a fish, contact the appropriate regional office. These records are updated as soon as they are verified. The links in the below table go to photos of either the record fish or a recent past record fish. Anyone having photos of other state record fish is asked to contact us. More information is provided about the various species on our Freshwater Fishes of Florida pages.  It is important to properly measure fish.  The record fish application is available on line in PDF format (instructions for PDF use).

SPECIES WEIGHT PLACE COUNTY DATE ANGLER  

Largemouth bass 17.27 unnamed lake Polk 07/06/86 Billy O'Berry

* Largemouth bass  *20.13 Big Fish Lake

Pasco

 05/00/23 Frederick

That was out of a bassmaster mag and to be honest I am not surprised that it was wrong ;)http://myfwc.com/Fishing/updates/rodm-rec.html