JonT said:
Why do people feel like they have to kill everything? That fish is majestic.
It doesn't sound like you read the article. If they had the option they would have released it. Majestic for sure, I wish it would have lived.
It does bring up a question I've been considering lately. If you were fishing for a species you would normally release, and caught a fish you thought would be close to a state record, would you keep it? I've been thinking about what I would do if I caught a largemouth or walleye of record size.