Pair of fishermen make history in Big Bear by catching tagged fish worth $10k for the first time

A pair of fishermen struck gold while fishing over the weekend at Big Bear Lake, each reeling in their own fish worth $10,000. 

It's the first time in the more than 25-year history of the Fishing for $50k Trout Derby event held at the lake, where five tagged fish are released amongst thousands of others during the annual stocking. 

"We're absolutely ecstatic, not one, but two of our participants reeled in the Big Bucks!" said CEO of Visit Big Bear Travis Scott. "Just think…those fish are worth a whopping 10,000 clams each!"

More than two decades of trying saw two fishermen make history on the same day, with two anglers pulling up the $10,000 fish over the weekend. 

"I'm pretty excited," said one of the winners, a Hemet resident named Rodolfo Vizcarra. "It really surprised me, I wasn't expecting it."

He says that he used green power bait to catch the winner near the lake's dam and that he initially didn't think that he had caught a winning fish cause it was on the smaller side. 

"The fish was so small so I assumed a $10,000 fish would be worth more — bigger fish, harder to catch kinda thing," he said. 

His tagged trout was measured at 15.25 inches long and weighed just 1.61 pounds, according to Big Bear officials. 

"This particular trout however, will be Mr. Vizcarra's most memorable catch of his entire lifetime, because it put an extra $10,000 in his wallet," officials said.

The second winner, only identified as a man from Corona, wished to remain anonymous. His fish was nearly a pound larger than Vizcarra's but "it's not about the size of the fish," officials noted. 

The weekend-long event saw more ways for anglers to earn some money while practicing their favorite hobby as well. The first five people to reel in a trout were awarded $500 each, while adults and children could win prizes based on weight class.