I have heard the forest moan like mortal men in their affliction; often, and again, have I listened to the wind playing its music in the branches of the girdled trees; and I have heard the lightning cracking in the air like the snapping of blazing brush as it spitted forth sparks and forked flames; but never have I thought that I heard more than the pleasure of him who sported with the things of his hand.
The huge creature broke the previous Missouri record of 60 pounds and 9 ounces for a pole-and-line striped bass, set in 2011 on the same lake. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the largest striped bass in Texas was a 53-pounder caught May 27, 1999, on the Brazos River.
Don Walker Was Using 12-Pound Test Line. During the 40 years Don Walker has fished at Blue Mesa Reservoir he's caught plenty of big lake trout, but none measured up to the one he caught on May 23. Walker, 61, now holds the record for the biggest lake trout caught in Colorado: The fish weighed 50 pounds, 5 ounces, and measured 44 1/4 inches long.