I’m sure anyone who follows bass fishing knows that the previous world record for bass caught by George Perry 77 years ago is being challenged by a Japanese angler named Manubu Kurita. The fisherman is sponsored by the Deps Lure company in Japan.
The IGFA, The International Game and Fish Association, is the decisive voice in this whole matter, and everyone is waiting to hear from them about certification.
“I’ve heard about it, but we don’t have any details,” said Jason Schratwieser, IGFA’s director of fisheries records and conservation. Schratwieser said the sea bass would have to weigh 2 ounces more than Perry’s catch to set a new record.
“It will tie it if that’s the weight,” Schratwieser said, noting that IGFA rules stipulate that for record fish weighing less than 25 pounds, the replacement record must weigh at least two ounces more than the existing record.
“It looks real,” said Mike Long, a San Diego County bass fisherman who is recognized as one of the best bass fishermen in the world. “The girth looks good. Everything looks good,” said Ken Duke, senior editor at BASS Publications: “It seems closer and more real than anything we’ve seen.”
Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, covering more than 259 square miles. It is also said to be one of the oldest lakes in the world. It is surrounded by mountains and is famous for its picturesque surroundings. Its crystal clear water is more than 300 feet deep.
The thing about catching this in Japan is that it really goes against most trophy hunters and bass anglers here in the US for many reasons other than that it was not caught in this country.
The first is that we already caught the world record in California a few years ago at Lake Dixon, which was 25.1lbs (on video), and it wasn’t certified on a technicality.
The other thing is Japan considers largemouth bass an invasive species and largemouth bass is taken out and eaten! The restaurant on this particular lake serves black sea bass on their menu!
And third, after spending thousands of hours fishing these bass in California with swimbaits and other delicate techniques that require a lot of patience and skill, seeing them caught on live bait would only add fuel to the fire, so to speak.
Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, covering more than 259 square miles. It is also said to be one of the oldest lakes in the world. It is surrounded by mountains and is famous for its picturesque surroundings. Its crystal clear water is more than 300 feet deep.
In recent years, Japanese officials reacted to the concerns of commercial fishermen there and tried to remove invasive species from Biwa, and largemouth bass or largemouth bass are on that list of invasive species. An unconfirmed report indicates that one of the commercial fishermen may have caught a 25-pound largemouth bass. The Lake Biwa Museum restaurant serves black sea bass on its menu.
The previous record Japanese sea bass weighed in at 19.15 pounds and was caught by Kazuya Shimada in Lake Ikehara on April 22, 2003 on a hook.
My personal take on this is that this sea bass was caught on live bait as first stated and when the angler suddenly realized what was going on and being sponsored by Deps lures decided to change his story a bit.
This bass is very likely to be IGFA certified at the very least, but I wouldn’t take any bets that it will stand for 77 years like Perry’s record did! I think as soon as spring comes to California in 2010, you’ll see a new world record largemouth coming out of Lake Dixon, probably from Mike Long, Mac Wheatly or Jed Dickerson.
