Jacob Powroznik caught a bass with a culling clip still in its mouth. “That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me,” he said. “Weigh it with the culling clip, right? That’s the way I caught it.”
Jon Stewart, who’s the judge in the boat with Powroznik, made a call to tournament director Trip Weldon, who said to weigh it both ways, with and without the culling clip. The fish weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces with the culling clip and 3-3 without it. Controversy averted. All parties happy. Powroznik has 14-15 now. He caught this largemouth bass drop shotting near the bank.
The cull clip controversy is averted because the fish weighed 3-3 in its purest form. With the scales upgrading in increments, the fish most likely weighed on the smallest end of 3-3 and even with the cull clip it wasn’t enough to flip the scales and go to the next weight mark of 3-4. We now know a standard metal ring cull clip with a short rope weighs less than an ounce.
The good thing in this whole situation is that the fish was released back into the lake without the cull clip in question. Now it is free to swim and eat whatever it chooses with no hinderance.