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Sports

Brothers Catch Record-Breaking White Sea Bass Off Laguna Beach

In the waters off of South Laguna on Saturday, Scott Caringella caught a world-record 76.4-pound white sea bass with the help of his brother, Craig Caringella.

Brothers Craig and Scott Caringella were fishing on their 13-foot Boston Whaler off South Laguna on Saturday when they noticed bird activity a mile away. The two drove the boat closer and decided that things weren't normal.

"Bait was jumping out of the water. There was boiling left and right," said Scott. "Craig slid up to it and I threw off a sardine. Then he did."

"Pretty soon, we were double hooked up," said Craig. "I snapped my line off so we could take off after his."

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"I was only fishing with 20-pound test, and that thing was just pealing the line so fast," said Scott. "Craig jumped on the steering wheel and hit the throttle."

After 25 minutes of work, Scott started to break the fish down a bit. Then after 45 minutes, the fish came to the surface.

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"At first, I thought it was a thresher shark," said Scott. "Then it came up and rolled, and I saw it was a white sea bass. I don't know if it was intuition or what, but I thought, 'That's a record right there ... that's CRAZY BIG.'"

"I gafted the fish out of the water," said Craig. "When that thing was coming out, it was amazing ... incredible."

"We both pulled it onto the boat," said Scott. "We were celebrating quite a bit."

The brothers took the fish in the boat to Dana Point, then, thinking it must be a record catch, they drove it to the Balboa Angling Club in Newport Beach, where they have an International Game Fish Association certified weigh station."

The bass weighed in at 76.4 pounds, a new world record.

"I was kind of stunned, and it hasn't totally sunk in," said Scott. "It's kind of surreal. Like, this is a world record ... something that's been on the record since 1982. You just don't wake up thinking, 'Today I'm gonna catch a world record fish.'"

Scott's 7-year-old son was on the boat with the two men, taking video of the whole event.

"That fish is way bigger than my 7-year-old. It absolutely dwarfs him," said Scott.

The brothers sent the fish to Bill Taylor's Taxidermy in Fountain Valley to be mounted. With the taxidermy process that Taylor uses, the sea bass steaks are saved.

"We ate a bunch of the fish last night," said Scott. "It was soooo good. I think it had a little extra 'pop' since it's the one I caught."

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