Sunday, January 17, 2010
Largemouth bass record sparks debate
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
mark.taylor
@roanoke.com
981-3395
Mark Taylor
Outdoors coverage
- Notebook: Outer Banks beach-driving plan kicks up sand
- Outdoors commentary: Many Sunday hunting cons
- Winter tourneys invite fishermen out in the cold
- Visit our Outdoors page
The Wild Life blog
For 77 years the record sat there, triggering wonder.
Reverence.
Doubt.
Obsession.
It was a 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass, pulled from Georgia's Montgomery Lake by George Perry, a poor farmer who went fishing that day only because the fields were too muddy for work.
And it is no longer alone.
Last week the International Game Fish Association announced that it had certified another huge bass as tying the record.
The bass was caught back in July in Japan's Lake Biwa by Manabu Kurita, who hooked the hog on a live bluegill.
The bass has gotten some attention, but seems hardly to have generated the buzz many expected would come when the most sought-after record in fishing was topped.
Because this isn't how this was supposed to happen.
To be fair, bass fishing is huge in Japan, even though biologists there consider largemouths an invasive species.
Think about it -- lots of our favorite bass tackle, from silky smooth Shimano reels to gorgeous Lucky Craft crankbaits, originates in Japan.
We also import some Japanese anglers, including 2004 Bassmaster Classic champion Takahiro Omori.
Japanese star anglers come here because, well, this is bass country.
The largemouth is the most popular game fish in the U.S.
It appeals to country kids and city slickers. Hard-core tournament anglers and low-key retirees.
Everybody loves its spunk. Its size. Its predictability. It's unpredictability.
The quest for the record has been something of an American obsession, too.
In Southern California, where small lakes have produced a number of bass that have flirted with the record, the quest spawned a culture of hog hunters.
The lives of these men revolved around their mission to top Perry's record.
There were financial incentives, to be sure.
The thinking has been that the angler who finally broke the record could earn good money from companies whose gear was used in the catch.
But the quest has been about more than money.
At its heart was the notoriety and fame that would come with finally being the one to break a record that some have deemed unbreakable.
Some have come agonizingly close, too.
Bob Crupi caught a 22.01-pound bass in California's Castaic Lake in 1991.
Then, in 2006 angler Mac Weakley pulled a bass from tiny Dixon Lake that weighed 25 pounds, 1 ounce.
Just one problem: Weakley had foul hooked the fish.
So Weakley released the fish, which was given the nickname Dottie because of a unique marking on its gill plate.
No one caught Dottie again. She was found dead in the lake in 2008.
But despite the efforts of the record-chasers in Southern California, it just seemed like the record would fall another way.
You know, by another George Perry.
And the odds would have favored it, too.
After all, while the record-chasers are good and dedicated, there are just a lot more weekend warriors out there.
Then this curve ball.
Kurita, a 32-year-old who lives in Aichi, Japan, meticulously documented his catch, including weighing it on a certified scale and shooting lots of photos and video.
The fish, which was 27.2 inches long and had a girth of 26.7 inches, actually weighed just a touch under 22 pounds, 5 ounces. But IGFA rules stipulated that any new record had to top the standing record by at least 2 ounces, hence the official tie.
Despite the solid documentation, it took the International Game Fish Association nearly six months to approve Kurita's record application.
Supreme Court justice appointees have been approved after less scrutiny.
Contributing to the slow process was the mountain of mail and e-mail sent to the IGFA, plenty from anglers who simply refused to believe that a bass that size could come from Japan.
And, of course, there were the rumors that the fish was caught illegally because no one can break a high-profile fishing or hunting trophy record without there being such rumors.
Eventually the IGFA asked Kurita if he would take a polygraph test.
He did in mid-December, and the results showed he was being honest.
Approval came shortly after.
This won't end the quest, of course. If anything, it may fuel the obsession with the record.
There are bigger bass out there. There must be.
One of those California fanatics may catch one.
But that wouldn't be dramatic enough.
When the record falls or is tied again, it seems destined to happen in unexpected fashion.
Which seems fitting for a fish that so often impresses us by doing the unexpected.
