BONUS MATERIAL
Largemouth bass caught in Japan ties IGFA All-Tackle World Record
Freshwater fishing’s “Holy Grail” now has dual holders: the 22-pound, 4-ounce bass caught by Japan’s Manabu Kurita matches International Game Fish Association record held for 77 years by Georgia’s George Perry.
The largemouth bass was caught from Lake Biwa, which is an ancient reservoir northeast of Kyoto.
Kurita, 32, of Aichi, Japan, was fishing Biwa that July day using a Deps Sidewinder rod and a Shimano Antares DC7LV reel loaded with 25-pound Toray line when he pitched his bait, a live bluegill, next to a bridge piling. It was Kurita’s first cast to the piling where he had seen a big bass swimming. He only twitched the bait a couple of times before he got bit. After a short, three minute fight he had the fish in the boat.
Kurita was quoted as saying “I knew it was big, but I didn’t know it was that big.”
But big it was. Using certified scales, his fish weighed 22 pounds, 4 ounces. The fish had a fork length of 27.2 inches and a girth of 26.7 inches. The IGFA only has line classes up to 20 pounds for largemouth bass, so Kurita had no chance at a line class record as well.
Kurita’s fish ties the current record held for more than 77 years by Perry who caught his bass on Georgia’s Montgomery Lake, June 2, 1932, near Jacksonville. The behemoth won Field and Stream’s big fish contest, and 46 years later, when the IGFA took over freshwater records from Field and Stream, it became the All-Tackle record, now one of more than 1,100 fresh and saltwater species the IGFA monitors.
In North America, the largemouth bass, and especially the All-Tackle record, is considered by millions of anglers as the “Holy Grail” of freshwater fish because of its popularity and the longevity of Perry’s record.
Waiting for a record breaker
For more than 77 years, the record stood as bass fanatics theorized when and where the record would be broken. Over the years there have been rumors and unsubstantiated reports of bass that could have tied or eclipsed Perry’s record, but nothing ever passed IGFA criteria. Some anglers came close, however.
IGFA Conservation Director Jason Schratwieser said the closest came in 1991, when Robert Crupi caught a 22-pound bass in Lake Dixon, Calif., that still reigns as the 16-pound line class record and the third heaviest approved bass record in IGFA history.
“Most people thought that the next All-Tackle record would come from California,” said Schratwieser. “Until Kurita’s tie the seven heaviest bass records behind Perry’s came from California lakes. Although not native to California, it appears transplanted bass have adapted quite well to the deep, clear lakes and reservoirs and the abundant trout forage found in some of them.
“Little did people know that introduced bass grew big in places besides California, and that there are true monsters swimming on the other side of the world in Japan.”