I am sure that anyone who follows bass fishing at all knows that the previous world record largemouth bass caught by George Perry 77 years ago, is being challenged by a Japanese angler by the name of Manubu Kurita. The angler is sponsored by Deps Lure company in Japan. The IGFA, The International Game and Fish Association, is the deciding voice in this whole matter, and everyone is awaiting news from them on the certification. The bass reportedly weighs 22 pounds, 5 ounces, one more ounce than the previous record.
"I heard about it, but we don't have any details," said Jason Schratwieser, the IGFA's fishing records and conservation director. Schratwieser said the bass would have to be 2 ounces heavier than Perry's catch to establish a new record.
"It will tie it if that's the weight," Schratwieser said, indicating 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 like the real deal," said San Diego County bass angler Mike Long, recognized as one of the top big bass anglers in the world."The girth looks right. Everything looks right about it". said Ken Duke, senior editor for BASS publications:" It seems closer and more of a real deal than any situation we've seen."
Lake Biwa is Japan's largest lake and covers more than 259 square miles. It's also said to be one of the oldest lakes in the world. It is surrounded by mountains and famous for its scenic environs. Its crystal-clear water is more than 300 feet deep.
The thing about catching this in Japan is that it really goes against the grain of most hard core trophy hunters and bass anglers here in the United States for many reasons other than it wasn't caught in this country.
The first being that we already caught the world record in California a few years ago in Lake Dixon, which was 25.1 pounds, (on videotape), and it was not certified due to a technicallity.
The other thing is that Japan considers largemouth bass to be an invasive species and the bass are taken out and eaten! The restaurant on this particular lake serves largemouth bass on its menu!
And third, after spending thousands of hours fishing for these bass in California with swimbaits and other finesse techniques that require a great deal of patience and skill, to see it caught on live bait would just add fuel to the fire so to speak.
Lake Biwa is Japan's largest lake and covers more than 259 square miles. It's also said to be one of the oldest lakes in the world. It is surrounded by mountains and famous for its scenic environs. Its crystal-clear water is more than 300 feet deep.
In recent years Japanese officials have reacted to concerns by commercial fishermen there and tried to eliminate invasive species from Biwa, and black bass, or largemouth bass, are on that list of invasives. An unconfirmed report indicates that a 25-pound largemouth bass may have been netted by one of the commercial fishermen. The Lake Biwa Museum Restaurant serves largemouth bass on its menu.
The previous Japanese bass record weighed 19.15 pounds and was caught by Kazuya Shimada from Lake Ikehara on April 22, 2003, on a swimbait.
My personal take on this is that this bass was caught on live bait as first stated and when the angler suddenly realized what was happening, and being sponsored by Deps lures, he decided to change his story just a little bit.
This bass will most likely be certified as a tie at a minimum by the IGFA, but I would not take any bets that it will stand for 77 years as did Perry's record!! I think that as soon as the spring arrives in California in 2010, you will see a new world record largemouth come from Lake Dixon, most likely by Mike Long, Mac Wheatly, or Jed Dickerson.
In the meantime, we will just have to wait and see how all this turns out. All the most recent photographs and videos of this bass are available at Delaware Trophy Bass website at http://delawaretrophybass.com
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