General - Foul Hooked is hooking it anywhere other than the mouth. He basically snagged it. Problem is by IGFA rules the catch has to be made in compliance with local regulations. California (where it was caught) Fish & Game regs don't allow foul hooked fish regardless of intent. (yes intent matters, by IGFA rules, they disallow foul hooked fish only if it was intentional, anal and stupid I know
) So if your trolling along and you tail hook a monster by accident it's cool by IGFA standards for a world record but depending on your local regulations it may not be. California has this rule because of all the salmon snagging that goes on. If the rules were not in place you'd have people dynamiting or shocking lakes and streams looking for the next record. By the way did you catch that whopper Hammerhead shark that guy got the other day? 14 ft, around 1400 lbs. Took 5 hours to land it. Beats the old record by 300 or so lbs. Now thats a friggin monster!