ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Dixon Lake's legendary largemouth bass, easily the world record when the 25-pounder was hooked in 2006, bellied up dead, 10News reported.

The big fish, dubbed Dottie by locals, was found floating in the lake Friday and appeared to have been dead for a day or more, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Dottie, believed to be 15-17 years old, is being kept in a freezer over the weekend, until state Fish and Game officials can get some tissue samples Monday to pinpoint the fish's age.

Jed Dickerson of Oceanside and Mac Weakley of Carlsbad caught the bass two years ago, and they were called to the ranger's office to identify the renowned fish. It has a distinctive black birthmark below its jawline.

"That's it, that's THE fish," Weakley said. "The fish has lived out its life cycle."

At death, Dottie weighed in at 19 pounds, well shy of the 25 pounds she weighed when full of eggs when she was snagged, weighed, photographed and released on March 20, 2006.

Had the anglers kept the fish -- it had been foul-hooked in its side and therefore ineligible as a record catch -- it would have broken the largemouth bass record set in 1932, when a 22-pound, 4-ounce bass was caught in Georgia's Montgomery Lake.

A crew hired by National Geographic was on the lake this week, filming a story about the fish and the people trying to capture it.

Since letting Dottie go, Weakley and Dickerson had spent lots of time trying to find the fish and hook it by the rules. Dickerson told the newspaper he had been fishing Dixon Lake for 70 straight days.