I've caught one double digit that I know was the real McCoy without weighing it. A friend and I were fishing the lake pictured in my last post. before we learned to do total length measurements like fisheries biologists did we would measure to the end of the tail (not the fork) but to the longest part of the tail without it being compressed. My buddy caught a 25"x19" pig that weighed 10.37 lbs, a few hours later he had to go back to atl and he was the owner of the scale. an hour after he left I caught a 25 x 19" bass that was bursting at the seams.
I took the photos of him with his bass, he is substantially smaller than me, I was alone so I had to do the selfie.... with the measurements the same, even if the fish are shaped differently I have no doubt whatsoever that this fish was over 10 lbs, the only question is which one is bigger? and who's to say I didn't shortchange the girth. my fish came unbuttoned in the net.
his fish
my fish