‘I’m glad it got to live another day’: Bend fisherman reflects on possible state record bull trout he let go

'I officially know, but it would have been nice to make it 100% official'

CULVER, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Ryan Mejaski and Joe Wilhite were fishing at Lake Billy Chinook in early April, but weren’t getting many bites.

After moving spots and casting towards some jumping kokanee, Mejaski felt the tug he’d been looking for.

“We came out to fish for bull trout. We just didn’t have that good of luck most of the day,” Mejaski recalled Friday. “That’s why I switched up my whole technique -- and that’s when it happened.”

He felt a fish pull his line down nearly 300 feet.

And then the fun began.

“So I started bringing in line, bringing in line -- and that’s when it took a giant run,” Mejaski said.

Wilhite acted quickly.

“So I went into panic mode and jumped in the captain's seat,” Wilhite said. “Full-throttled it and went 'wicked tuna' on him and chased him down.”

After a boat chase and nearly 10-minute battle, Mejaski got it close enough for Wilhite to finish it off with a net.

The bull trout was 33.5 inches long, with a 26-inch girth, maxing out their scale at 25 pounds.

The two said they felt it weighed at least 28 to 30 pounds.

The official bull trout state record, caught in 1989 from Lake Billy Chinook, is 23 pounds., 2 ounces.

The world record is 32 pounds, caught in Idaho back in 1949.

But the sportsman in Mejaski ruled this day.

After taking some pictures, he let the fish go.

Whilhite said, “I didn’t have the heart to tell the guy he just put the fricking state record back in the water.”

Without killing the fish and having it weighed by a third party, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife cannot officially mark the catch as a state record.

“I officially know, but it would have been nice to make it 100% official,” Mejaski said. “In the record books, no questions asked.”

However, knowing all the factors of a fish that big, and despite all the attention, Mejaski still feels he did the right thing.

“The biologist said it could have been 20 years old, so that’s pretty rare,” Mejaski said. “So I’m glad it got to live another day -- and maybe someone else will catch it.”

Wilhite preached the same.

 “I wanted him to be able to take the credit, but as far as letting it go, that’s just how we fish,” he said. “Fish lives another day, we get to fish another day.”

While it may not be officially in the record books, they said the praise they’ve gotten from their peers has validated their catch.