07-22-2009, 07:22 PM
Ray Scott, the founder of BASS, has called. Outdoor writers call now and then, but other than that, it's been unusually quiet around the International Game Fish Association headquarters since that 22-pound, 5-ounce bass reportedly was caught last week at Lake Biwa in Japan.
"I'm as keen to see it as you are," said Jason Schratwieser, conservation director in charge of world records for the Dania-Beach, Fla.-based IGFA. "It's been unusually quiet."
The angler, Manabu Kurita, a pro angler who represents Deps Tackle Co. in Japan, has been photgraphed, and there is a video showing him holding up the largemouth bass and discussing it. It's all in Japanese. He was fishing at Lake Biwa, one of the oldest lakes in the world, and the biggest lake in Japan when he hooked the bass, reportedly on live bait.
If it's approved by the IGFA, the catch would tie the most coveted fishing records in the sport, one set by George W. Perry on June 2, 1932 when he landed that 22-pound, 4-ounce bass on Montgomery Lake in Georgia.
Kurita's catch would merely tie Perry's mark because an IGFA-sanctioned world-record catch must exceed the previous record by more than 2 ounces if the record fish weighs less than 25 pounds.
I emailed Jon Storm of Bassfan.com to see what he had heard, but he said not a peep has come out of Japan this week.
Storm theorizes, and I believe he's dead solid perfect about it, that the Japanese media has closed the livewell on this catch and has the exclusive rights to the story. Storm has heard the name Lure Magazine.
In the meantime, we just sit back and wait.
What a contrast to the day Mac Weakley caught and released that 25-pound, 1-ounce bass at Dixon Lake in 2006. Weakley barely made it to his home in Carlsbad when I drove up his driveway and joined him and fishing partners Jed Dickerson and Mike Winn.
I remember dictating the story to sports editor Doug Williams as I drove to Weakley's house. I had just talked to Weakley via cell phone, confirmed the catch and told him I'd like to head up to his home for more information. He graciously accepted my request and said, "C'mon over."
When I entered the house, Weakley was on the phone, and he stayed on the phone for over an hour, talking to one national magazine writer or Web site writer after another. Within an hour of Weakley catching that bass, it was up on the Internet. The video and photo followed shortly after that.
I'll never forget when Mike Winn turned on the video and let me see the bass for the first time. I've seen a lot of big bass in 17 years as the outdoor writer here in the Big Bass Capital of the World, but I'd never seen a bass like that one. I had my doubts about the catch before that, but I became an instant believer after seeing Winn straining to hold the big old bass up.
After spending an hour or so there, I followed Weakley and his fellow anglers, Jed Dickerson and Mike Winn, back to Dixon Lake. I snapped a photo of the three anglers sitting on the dock, not far from where Weakley inadvertently foul-hooked the bass.
That snag kept them from pursuing the world record. They didn't go after it even though Jason Schratwieser of the IGFA explained that there is a provision in the rules for a fish that is "inadvertently" foul-hooked.
Had Weakley and his crew followed up on that, and if the IGFA ruled that the catch was worthy of the record, there would be no discussion about this Japanese bass.
We'll just have to see. These big bass stories often have a life all their own, and this one is barely a week old right now. The shelf life for these big bass tales is infinite.
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"I'm as keen to see it as you are," said Jason Schratwieser, conservation director in charge of world records for the Dania-Beach, Fla.-based IGFA. "It's been unusually quiet."
The angler, Manabu Kurita, a pro angler who represents Deps Tackle Co. in Japan, has been photgraphed, and there is a video showing him holding up the largemouth bass and discussing it. It's all in Japanese. He was fishing at Lake Biwa, one of the oldest lakes in the world, and the biggest lake in Japan when he hooked the bass, reportedly on live bait.
If it's approved by the IGFA, the catch would tie the most coveted fishing records in the sport, one set by George W. Perry on June 2, 1932 when he landed that 22-pound, 4-ounce bass on Montgomery Lake in Georgia.
Kurita's catch would merely tie Perry's mark because an IGFA-sanctioned world-record catch must exceed the previous record by more than 2 ounces if the record fish weighs less than 25 pounds.
I emailed Jon Storm of Bassfan.com to see what he had heard, but he said not a peep has come out of Japan this week.
Storm theorizes, and I believe he's dead solid perfect about it, that the Japanese media has closed the livewell on this catch and has the exclusive rights to the story. Storm has heard the name Lure Magazine.
In the meantime, we just sit back and wait.
What a contrast to the day Mac Weakley caught and released that 25-pound, 1-ounce bass at Dixon Lake in 2006. Weakley barely made it to his home in Carlsbad when I drove up his driveway and joined him and fishing partners Jed Dickerson and Mike Winn.
I remember dictating the story to sports editor Doug Williams as I drove to Weakley's house. I had just talked to Weakley via cell phone, confirmed the catch and told him I'd like to head up to his home for more information. He graciously accepted my request and said, "C'mon over."
When I entered the house, Weakley was on the phone, and he stayed on the phone for over an hour, talking to one national magazine writer or Web site writer after another. Within an hour of Weakley catching that bass, it was up on the Internet. The video and photo followed shortly after that.
I'll never forget when Mike Winn turned on the video and let me see the bass for the first time. I've seen a lot of big bass in 17 years as the outdoor writer here in the Big Bass Capital of the World, but I'd never seen a bass like that one. I had my doubts about the catch before that, but I became an instant believer after seeing Winn straining to hold the big old bass up.
After spending an hour or so there, I followed Weakley and his fellow anglers, Jed Dickerson and Mike Winn, back to Dixon Lake. I snapped a photo of the three anglers sitting on the dock, not far from where Weakley inadvertently foul-hooked the bass.
That snag kept them from pursuing the world record. They didn't go after it even though Jason Schratwieser of the IGFA explained that there is a provision in the rules for a fish that is "inadvertently" foul-hooked.
Had Weakley and his crew followed up on that, and if the IGFA ruled that the catch was worthy of the record, there would be no discussion about this Japanese bass.
We'll just have to see. These big bass stories often have a life all their own, and this one is barely a week old right now. The shelf life for these big bass tales is infinite.
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