I think it could be real. In VA we'd see people catch 20-40#'ers quite often, with a few 50# fish once in awhile. 70#'s isn't too far of a stretch. Stripers are the funnest fish to catch.

Your my boy Blue

Pffff, I catchem like that all the time in the pond at the lease, even release them back

They definately had a good photographer. When you look at the pics it's look massive then looks a lot smaller... But still it's a beast and I'm jealous

This is legit. I don't live too far from where this fish was caught. It was all over the news here. There were state officials on hand to weigh the fish on certified scales.
I think our state record was about 55-56 pounds.
The funny thing is that very few people here fish for Stripers. After living in Texas for so long and getting used to everybody chasing stripers all over the state I never could figure out why they don't get much attention here. These guys hate catching Hybrids and Sand bass (called white bass here) are concidered trash fish.

No.

UNTIL NOW. I have excellent vision and believe there may be a blue rope holding it up. Perhaps from the scale.

Here is story link to it. The first picture shows the rope holding the fish. Scroll down and you will see a video about it.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/03/dora_man_catches_record_stripe.html

uh, damn!