I Have Just One Question: Why Ain't Anybody Talkin' 'Bout the Soft Plastic?

As originally reported (at this link: https://www.newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/2021/04/did-upstate-ny-angler-catch-and-release-a-state-record-largemouth-bass-i-think-so-he-said.html), the 42-year-old upstate New York angler in this photo is John Firstium. He's holding a 27-inch largemouth that he caught and released in April 2021.

Firstium was trout fishing a couple of Albany County streams with his 15-year-old son and a buddy at the time. They weren't having any luck, so decided to try a local pond, which the elder Firstium knew contained panfish and bass. He tied on what was labeled "a red and yellow diver," which, as best I can tell from the accompanying photo, appears to resemble a Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue.

However, I invite you to look closely at the photo because it looks like there's something else besides "a red and yellow diver" in the mouth of this fish. Unless I'm mistaken, there's also a piece of watermelon(?)-colored soft plastic present. It tends to pique one's curiosity why there's no mention of that soft plastic anywhere in the original article or any of the other versions I checked online. Seems to me that perhaps would make for some interesting dialog if the fish indeed had another lure in its mouth at the time of this angler's catch. {UPDATE: I decided to contact the author of this original story, and after blowing up the photo, he let me know he thinks that what is hanging from the lower jaw of the fish is some of the grass that's visible near the bank, and I agree.}

Of note here, too, is the fact Firstium was fishing 4-pound-test line on an ultra-light rod. It reportedly took him "nearly 10 minutes to tire and beach the bass on the side of the pond," which he asked the reporter to keep secret (divulging neither name nor location).

The only measuring tool Firstium had available was a 10-inch ruler on the back of a package of hooks that he had. He measured the fish three times before releasing it back into the pond. Was the fish a state record? No one ever will know, because Firstium didn't take the fish to an official weigh site, as required for determining a state record in New York. The current state record is an 11.4-pound largemouth that measured 25-and-a-half inches.

When questioned by the reporter, Firstium said he "put the fish back in the water so it can live to get bigger. I don't eat bass," he added. "And if I don't eat it, I ain't killing it."

I appreciate Firstium's sentiments, but I'd sure like to know if that piece of soft plastic I see in/near the fish's mouth played a part in this story.