Im not a big fan of nit picking on people about what they do with there catch, I find it an annoying part of this forum. I will condrodict my self in this situation:
I find it as a lack of ones character to remove a fish from a fishery, transport it home to be left in a cooler over night, for the sole reason of a photo-op, and then to plan on returning it to its waters and realese it. I would feel extremely different, and support the choice if the intention was to stick it on the chopping block, and throw it in the deep fryer (regardless of size).
Here is a quote, and I apologize too the person who is in it if they did not want to be put up as an example of good character.
In this situation, it is a legit record breaker, not just a plus sized fish.
[ASHLAND — Colby Pearson stood on the Hyatt Lake Dam a whipped 12-year-old boy, his arms tired from three hours of catching and releasing largemouth bass.
"I said, 'this is going to be the last one, my last cast,'" he says.
Fifteen minutes later, Pearson stood waist-deep in the lake, bear-hugging a largemouth whose fleeting moments in Pearson's arms have made the angling world take notice of this boy and his fish.
The Central Point seventh-grader did the improbable Aug. 15 by catching a largemouth that pencils out to be an estimated 12 pounds, 12 ounces at Hyatt, a high-mountain lake known more for its big rainbow trout than as Oregon's new largemouth mecca.
The fish likely outweighs Oregon's existing record by more than a half-pound, yet it won't ever make the list of the state's best bass.
Pearson kept his catch just long enough for his mother to snap a few photos and take a few measurements before they watched his record swim away.
"It doesn't really matter how big the bass is, I let it go," Pearson says. "That fish probably is as old as I am.
"I don't think it's right to kill a fish just to get a record," he says.]
Now, again, if your first intention was to fry this fish, hell yeah! But your first comment was about getting some photos for attention.