Chong Yang, a 5-foot-4, 160-pound man from Fresno, had but one option when hooking into a Millerton Lake-record striper a week ago: "Hold on for dear life."
In a fantasy-like series of fish stories - only these in truth - Yang landed the 61.8-pound, 50 1/2-inch fish off shore after catching 41.6- and 49-pounders out of Millerton and the O'Neill Forebay at the San Luis Reservoir in the previous month.
The biggest of the lunkers broke the Millerton Lake striper record of 50.3 pounds by 
Roger George in 1998. And it made a run at the world freshwater record of 67.8 pounds, from San Luis.
Yang, 33, connected after casting a fluke - a simple setup consisting of a 4-inch plastic shad-like body threaded on a 3/4-ounce jig head.
Releasing in the morning off a point in the main lake, he had the fish strike about 25 feet deep, then run nearly 200 yards of 12-pound test line off his Curado level wind reel - stripping the reel down to a mere 30 yards of line before finally slowing down, turning and returning toward shore.
Chong Yang of Fresno caught this 61.8-pound striper at Millerton Lake breaking the previous record of 50.3 pounds held by Roger George.
"Oh, man, three times I had to switch hands," Yang said.
Suddenly a master of monsters, he had no doubt what was on the other end of the line: "I knew in the first minute and a half. You have a gut feeling, and my gut said it has to be."
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Record-setting striper
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