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Additional Lake Records: Beyond San Diego

Just a few months after he claimed the Jennings record, he attempted to claim another, but this time get caught in a lie immediately. In April of 2005 Long claimed to catch a 19.2-pound monster from the tiny, private community lake that’s 80 miles north of San Diego — Mission Viejo. Prior to being stricken with Golden Algae a few years ago, Mission Viejo was on the short list with Escondido’s Lake Dixon as the favorites to produce a world record fish.

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Long’s record claim was based on a photo of Long sitting on the front deck of his Ranger Bass Boat holding a large, dead bass in the dark. He said the fish weighed 19.2 on his digital scale, but did not weigh the fish on the lake’s dock which was operated by the Mission Viejo Association. The Association requires record catches to be weighed on the dock, in the presence of an Association Employee. Long knew this, as he had claimed to catch the lake record here in 2002 with an 18-pounder, which under the same circumstances and for the same reason, was denied.

In an article in the Union-Tribune by Zieralski published on April 30, 2005 titled “Mike Long’s whopper is No. 17 all-time but, technically, not a Lake Mission Viejo mark,” Long addressed the reason why he didn’t weigh the fish in at the dock to qualify it for the official record. Long was quoted as saying, “I’ve quit taking bass to the dock and have been releasing my fish where I catch them.”

What Long didn’t realize is that the photo he produced, when altered to increase brightness clearly shows a tree in the background. The enhanced photos were posted on internet message forums. Long initially refuted them, insisting the photos were taken at the lake. After Gerry Mahieu, a prominent fishing guide at Mission Viejo, posted photos of the entire lake’s shoreline, Long admitted the photo was not taken at Mission Viejo. He changed his story to say that the bass died and he took it home where he took the photos.

So, not only do we again have Long claiming a lake record on the sole basis of a photograph he produced, but he lied to Zieralski in that interview about why he didn’t weigh the fish on the dock, in addition to lying about the location where the photograph was taken. Long had no proof it was caught at Mission Viejo, or that he was even up there at all the day he claimed to be.

The bass was actually caught at Lake Jennings, at night, when the lake was closed to the public.

His final lake record came on March 16, 2007 at Diamond Valley Lake, a 16.43-pounder that was met with immediate and staunch resistance from other anglers.

Eighty-five miles northeast of San Diego, DVL opened in Oct. of 2003 and was cultivated by the State of California with a brood stock of fish from Lake Hodges in order to be one of the world’s best trophy bass fisheries. In the early years, it looked to be right on track as a 14.85-pound largemouth was caught just a month after opening by Diamond Valley regular, John Krumsiek. That mark stood until Long showed up one afternoon in 2007 and left a couple hours later with another lake record, leaving us with only a photo of a large bass, though one not resembling 16 pounds, in the parking lot of DVL.

Boisterous anglers accused Long of transporting a fish from San Diego up to DVL, as he was never seen at the lake prior and simply hadn’t put in any measurable amount of time into learning the lake or targeting a record-quality bass there. But Long was a super hero, and if anyone could waltz their way up the highway to a lake they rarely, if ever, fished before and catch a lake record after only an hour or two of fishing — it was Long. Without perspective, you not only believed it, you expected it.

At the time of this record, most assumed it would be broken again in short order. But DVL failed to live up to the hype, at least in terms of producing world record quality largemouth bass, and no fish larger than 16.43 has been caught there to date, and DVL still lists Long and his 16.43 as the record holder on its website.