I can tell you the game warden here in ky would have given a ticket and probally taken the gear being used,rightfully so. The law is the law. Weakley broke the law and the park ranger, game warden what ever they are called there didn't do his job plain and simple. I too wish some kid with a snoopy rod and reel would reel the WR in that would be something to talk about.

You can 't choose which laws to obey, you have to obey them all until those laws are changed or eliminated.

the above statement is what most of WISH were true.  The fact of the matter is that many laws are changed because someone broke them deliblerately and challenged the arrest.  The entire civil rights movement was based on this.  Remember Rosa Parks?

I don't see how California would prosecute any one who legally caught the new WR and possessed it only long enough to have it certified.

I think it's called "The world record largemouth bass exemption clause"

Or as governer Schwartenegger would say.  "only a sissy girly man would throw back the world record bass"

Hey Matt,

All of these bass anyway you look at it are quite amazing. I give anybody who tries for a record a lot of credit and I can only imagine what they are put through. I myself have broken state records in Maryland and I was put through the ringer so a World Record is hard to comprehend. It seems thay anybody can dispute anything and everyone has a different opinion so to me it might not even be worth it. Of course bass is a little different when it comes to monetary gains so to each his own.