When Bryan Tuliano watched his son net a largemouth bass he caught at Lake Wampanoag in Gardner, he had no idea the enormity of what he had just reeled in. But once Tuliano — a Gardner resident and native of Fitchburg — got a glimpse of the fish, he was amazed. “I just said ‘Holy cow. Look at the size of that thing.’ It was bigger than anything I’ve caught in New England,” the 53-year-old said. “I had only caught two other bass that day and they were both small, but this one made up for it.”
The lifelong fisher had caught a 14.2-pound bass, falling about a pound and a half short of the state record (15.8 pounds). And though Tuliano released the fish — “I’m a catch-and-release fisherman. It would be different if I ate fish,” he says — his photos and memories of the catch will last a lifetime. Read on….