India, Oct. 25 -- A fishing trip that began with a long drive from California ended with an extraordinary catch in an unnamed Idaho reservoir. Matteo Bonales, 23, was using forward-facing sonar with his father, Mark, when he spotted an unusually large fish holding near a rocky structure deep beneath the surface. The fish was holding in about 54 feet of water, and at first Bonales did not even think it was a bass.

The father-and-son pair drove about 16 hours from their home in Ceres, California, to reach the remote Idaho reservoir. They had already spent several days learning the lake and catching smallmouth bass before Bonales located the unusually large mark on October 16. The fish eventually proved to be a 9.41-pound smallmouth, which ...