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First of all, to answer the original question--I don't think Al's fish was ever gutted. It went intact to a taxidermist, in all likelihood. It had to be weighed on a certified scale to be accepted as the record, and was probably the single most scrutinized fish in history. If I had to guess, I would say the belly was loaded with the mullet it was feeding on.
Al caught the fish. No doubt about it. If it was caught in a net there would have been unmistakeable marks on it, and as I said, it was probably the most scutinized fish ever. The big problem is that Al is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and is his own worst enemy sometimes. At last count, he's told about 4 different versions of how long he had the fish on the line. I don't believe for a second it was an hour and forty minutes. It probably seemed that long to him, but in actuality, was probably more like 40 minutes. A Penn 710 doesn't hold enough 20# line for a striper to fight for close to 2 hours.
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