22 pounds… POUNDS! I can’t even wrap my head around it.
Fishing for largemouth bass is a favorite pastime for many anglers around the world, and for me here in Wisconsin… an obsession. I love smallies too (perhaps even more), but that’s a conversation for another time. Largemouth bass are native to North America and can be found in many waterways across the continent, from Canada down to Mexico. They have also been introduced to other parts of the world, including Japan, South Africa, Australia, and many European countries.
In Japan, bass fishing is huge, and the industry over there might be even bigger. A number of popular fishing brands are based in Japan. Shimano, Daiwa, Megabass, Yamamoto, Gamakatsu, Geecrack, Jackall, Evergreen… the list goes on. The JDM market is innovative, and you can argue in some ways, the real driver of innovation in the bass fishing world right now. Japanese techniques are also continuously making their way over to the States as well… the drop shot, Neko rig, Tokyo rig, free rig, even minnow shaking and the hot new “dice bait” and/or “fuzzy” bait technique are all examples of techniques that popped off in Japan before they became bass fishing staples over here. In fact, American brands are frequently accused to ripping off Japanese designs when it comes to lure making, but I won’t get into all that right now.
The point is… these Japanese anglers know what they’re doing, and are pushing the limits of bass fishing. Japanese angler Takahiro Omori just finished second at REDCREST this past weekend (being the great Jacob Wheeler), at Table Rock Lake. A bucket list trip for me right now would be to Kyoto, Japan, near the great bass fishery, Lake Biwa.
Lake Biwa, near Kyoto, Japan, holds the largemouth bass world record at a whopping 22 pounds and 5 ounces. Can you imagine reeling in a 22-pound largemouth bass? Up here in Wisconsin, a 5-pound largemouth is a tank, you can catch some 6 or 7 pounders, but those are extremely rare, trophy quality fish around here. A limit of 3 pounders can win you most local derbies. Of course, states like Texas and Florida regularly churn out double digit bass… some up over 15 pounds, but 22 is just unfathomable. However, it’s been done in the United States too. The longstanding world record since 1932 is a 22-pound, 4-ounce (32 inches in length) largemouth bass caught on Lake Montgomery, a tiny oxbow lake, in south Georgia… although there is some skepticism around such an old record with little documentation. That record stood alone for a long time… until 2009.
Japanese angler Manabu Kurita was fishing Lake Biwa when he hooked into another monster that tied the world record for largemouth bass. His bass actually weighed one ounce more at 22-pounds 5 ounces, however per IGFA certification rules, a fish must be 2 ounces over to take the sole possession of the record due to the margins of error on scales. So while he technically is a co-world record holder with Georgia’s George Perry, Kurita’s fish was an ounce heavier… and we have the video proof.
The video shows them lifting the massive bass out of their livewell and getting it on the scale. Nothing but smiles all around… just simple the joy of hooking and landing an absolute behemoth of a largemouth bass. Does it get any better? I don’t think so…
Check it out:
