I don' t believe the 24 pounder existed. The pic of the fish is dry for one. Next is the body is not folded around his right hand from the 24 pounds of weight witch indacates to me that the pic is of a mounted fish and not a live one. Neither the fish or the guys hands are wet. Where is the boat? I calculate that the fish was 22.5 inches long by the pic. Here is how I did that:

I measured the fish on my screen - 3.75"
I measured the with of his middle finger - .125"
I measured the with of MY middle finger - .75"
Do the math and get 22.5"

I think that most of us have cought a 22 inch bass before and know about how much it weighs. Take into consideration the gerth and the pic still don' t add up to 24 pounds to me.

In my opinion, that pic is of a mounted bass about 16 pounds. Still pretty nice one though