Newport’s Todd Pietsch displays a 19-inch, 4.65-pound large mouth bass he caught Aug. 2 at Eckman Lake. The catch is an Oregon 20-pound line class record. (Photo by Jake Schubert)

Newport’s Todd Pietsch is in the record book again after landing a 19-inch, 4.65-pound largemouth bass at Eckman Lake Aug. 2. The fish is an Oregon 20-pound line class record, and Pietsch caught it with a homemade lure (Faith Bait Lure) that’s available in a number of local stores.

“It was quite exciting,” he said. “I was reelin’ in, I was wakin’ it, buzz baitin’ it, and it blew up and exploded on my lure, and put up quite a battle. It didn’t jump; it just exploded.”

Pietsch, who set a world record last year by hooking a Monkeyface Prickleback fish off the south jetty in Newport on June 29, caught the bass on his first cast of the day, and continued fishing with no bites for the rest of the day.

“Sometimes they say if you catch a fish on your first cast, you won’t catch another fish. This time it was worth it because it was a record,” he said. “I try to make a little practice cast, usually, to get that one out of the way so I can keep fishin’, and I didn’t do it that time. I did an actual cast, which was all I needed.”

Pietsch said when he hooked the fish, he knew it was a big one because of the way it “blew up” on the bait. “I knew by the way he was pulling that it was a respectable fish,” he said.

After landing the big fish on his first cast, Pietsch was excited about fishing for the rest of the day.

“I was thinking I was going to catch one every cast, then nothin’,” he said. “It’s a great confidence factor to get a nice fish early, but for these kinds of fish, you fish just for one bite. A record fish comes in just one bite, and it can take one cast or years.”