This is truly a fish tale. After catching this massive fish and wanting to see just how big her trophy was the couple went to Piney Point Plaza on March 12, to weigh it in. The scales at Piney Point were Postal scales and they are certified but…. they were missed read by the weigh master. Something to remember is that any one that is present and weighs in the fish becomes the official weigh master. And this is where the story gets confusing. This scale has two sides to read and by accident the wrong side was read at 12lb 10 oz. Michelle decided that she wanted to mount this hawg and took it home. This trophy bass was 27 and 1/4 long and 22’” in the girt. Hard to believe it could be mistaken for a 12 pounder. The story continues, three days later this fish is on ice, they take it to their taxidermist, who re-weighed the fish. To everyone’s surprise she weigh in at 15.00 lbs. His advise was to take it to certified scales and have it re-weighed. Fourth day the fish is taken to Wingates Meat Market in Orange, TX. and is weighed in at 14.75 lbs. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department was notified and the proper paper work was filled out for certification. Now , a problem arises that Michelle’s fish can not be certified because in the rules it states that the fish must be weighed in before the 3rd. day on certified scales. This couple had waited until the fourth day to weight her in on certified scales. Not really, because the scales at Piney Point Plaza are certified . Well , the miss read scale was not detected until Mr. Seidensticker was called out to make another certification and he started looking at the scales at Piney Point. On his inspection he found that if you look at the side that read 12.10 oz. the opposite side reads 15.00lbs. This solves the problem of the fish being weighed in before three days , because she was first taken to Piney Point. So new paper work was submitted and finally approved. Sam Rayburn has a new lake record. Congratulations to Michelle Ford on her outstanding catch.
