Building The World Record Bass

[Master Bait'r]

Ah yes... because bass fisheries in California and Japan are so "natural". Make that any bass fishery west of the Mississippi. If "nature" had its way, half of the US wouldn't even be bass fishing right now. The existing world record fish, or ones close to their size aren't in a "Natural" habitat by any means. Throw in trout stockings and is there really much difference?

 

He is breaking no rules as they are defined by the IGFA.

 

 If it were so easy for someone to raise world record sized largemout bass in an aquarium or private pond then show me these world record fish. The fact of the matter is that even with perfect conditions it is still hard to make a world record. Yes you can go to a "bass resort" and catch 10 lbers all day. Please show me a resort where people are catching 20lbs on a regular basis.

 

Even IF he can grow a fish to be of world record size, someone still has to catch it according to the regulations of the IGFA, A bass is a bass is a bass.

 

Would it be the same accomplishment as catching a world record in the "wild"? No, but is still an accomplishment. There is not just money involved. There is a lot of time, research, and labor put into this endeavor - one that not many other people are attempting.

 

I think the results of this private operation can only benefit the rest of the fishing world. If his work succeeds, DNRs all over the US will have new strategies to improve bass fisheries for everyone.

 

 

 

The part that I think he really doesn't get is the part that you so eloquently stated- it's nature.  He could have a whole lake of 20+ ers in there and still never catch one.  Irony is the great equalizer of the universe after all, so whatever.  Let millionaires try to buy their place in history all they want, just don't expect me to care.       

[MO_LMB]

 just don't expect me to care.       

 

Is that what multiple posts on a topic represent, apathy?

[hoosierbass07]

My friend is actually writing a paper for English class about this topic, whether it is ethically correct or not. I know it's not the way I wanna see the record get broken...

 

 

 I read/scanned the article in Bassmaster magazine.  That's a good point - is it ethical?  I say if you catch a world record bass in a pond that was specifically made like the article, I say it should not count.  That would be like going to a zoo and shooting an elephant then saying on facebook - I went hunting and shot a giant elephant!  

[FrogFreak]

Man, great arguments on both sides here. I read the article last night and I have to say, good for him. If he wants to spend a lot of money to grow a world record bass, I say fine. I personally don't like the idea of shooting a deer on a hunting ranch, killing a pheasant that was just released from a cage or standing next to the stocking truck to catch trout but it's a difficult thing to articulate. I suppose if it doesn't feel like fair chase to me, I dislike it. I also don't like hunting over bait. I want to work a bit for it. Now, I'm not saying it still won't be work to catch this lunker, I'm sure it will be. It just doesn't feel right to me. I can see all the holes in my opinion so go ahead if you'd like. It's my opinion. I say grow a 40 lb bass if you want. I always dismiss the lunker pictures I see in the back of bassmaster when it reads "private pond" as well. Just me though. Each to his/her own.

[Master Bait'r]

Is that what multiple posts on a topic represent, apathy?

Actually yeah.  I don't want people thinking I'm some high and mighty jerk so I re-explained myself a little better.  Not to even insinuate that I think I'm worthy of deciding for anyone but myself, I am no expert by anyone's overestimation.  It's just an opinion and the question has been raised, so I shared my two cents.   

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

Just read my issue in the mail. Sounds like "fish in a barrel" to me.

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

Now I want to go fish that pond Hi Salenity fishes. :-)

[gulfcaptain]

If I was to "raise a record", I wouldn't tell anyone, move to Texas, find a nice piece of land that could hold hold large pond and do it S. Cal style.  Stock trout in the winter, tilapia in the summer, get a good stock of FI as well as pure strains and let nature take it's course as well as selective culling and a healthy bluegill population which my son would be more then happy to fish for everyday......just saying, if you can grow teen fish in a 1acre public park pond, I'm sure you could get bigger in a larger private pond

[jhoffman]

Maybe its high time an oranization is formed like P&Y or B&C is for animals where there are rules to who can be in the book. If it was similar, your name might be in for a P&Y level bass at 10lbs but it would tke 20lbs to make BC. P&Y could be like fly fishing and B&C like everything else. It still would require fair chase.

 

As it sounds to me IGFA doesnt care if you catch one in a trash can if he opened his mouth before you set the hook.

[craww]

More power to him. Many have tried. Haven't read the article, but TX/Mexico are hindered by the shorter life spans of their LMB compared to areas where big bass can spend a portion of their time in cooler water. Lord knows texas has been proactive in trying to promote trophy fisheries. I suppose if you had a way to regulate water temps and absolutely poured the coals to them with the feed it's possible.

 

With that said I can't help but wonder what's swimming in the depths of lake biwa....

[F14A-B]

IGFA Rules need to change now and address this..also really very difficult to control weather.. Disease... More importantly and as it pertains to this mans attempt at the world record....Pollution

[PondHopper96]

I don't think you can really accurately compare shooting a caged animal to catching a monstrosity of a bass in a pond. I say that only because you're much more likely to shoot that animal than catch that fish, will you most likely catch some enormous fish, yes. Catch the record, no. By no means do I think it should count as the official record, but I do believe that is an accomplishment to be remotely proud of, just because of all the work put in and I don't believe there's a single person on this website that would be less than ecstatic to catch a bass of that caliber. Putting it up for the record is another story!

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

A world record is one in the "wild" not in "captivity". I can feed a bass and get it vet check ups, vitamins, etc and in a few years set the hook on a monster. But that would be cheating. Find the beast that nature made and call it a record. My .02 cents.

[WRB]

Everyone should read the article. The deer are not in a pen, they are raised in the wild albeit on private managed property. The bass are also in the wild, albeit private managed lakes.

The bass have proven to be difficult to catch, pure giant FLMB are not easy to catch. Schwartz arguably made a mistake to introduce F1's into this first lake thinking they would increase catch rates, it may have deluted the pure strain population. I don't buy this on the short term as the pure FLMB stay pure until they die off and that is a longer term issue.

What did catch my attention was a statement about fast growing pure FLMB strain......what is that? This strain is being introduced into the new lake which is deeper and constructed from scratch to optimize growth.

The bass are technically wild as long as they haven't been genetically altered!

Tom

[hoosierbass07]

If the guy can figure out how to produce giant bass on a regular basis and then figure out how to do that in Indiana lakes and ponds, then I say good luck to him! Share the knowledge. Although he will probably sale the knowledge.

The article mentioned poachers in Florida. I was wanting to know more about that. You think people knew about the giant bass and snuck to the lakes/ponds to catch them so they could claim to catch a giant bass? Or did they simply want to sabatage and murder those bass to be mean?

[Brian Needham]

Gene does guide at King Fisher....... where average bass is 5#. I maybe wrong, but I haven't heard of a slew of double digits coming out of there.

 

Also, he shoots MANY, if not most of his videos at that private lake, where those bass are feeder trained.

 

[K_Mac]

It wasn't too long ago there was a post on this site talking about how easy and unfair it was to use all of the new sonar technology to catch more and better bass. The argument was that it took away from the "sport" of fishing, giving an unfair advantage to those who could afford all of the new bells and whistles. That argument is much the same as the one being made here. In either case whether it is fair or not doesn't really matter IMO. The technology is now available to find and identify fish more clearly than ever before, and it is here to stay. If the technology is available to produce monster bass that will shatter the old records then shattered they will be.  

[slonezp]

Everyone should read the article. The deer are not in a pen, they are raised in the wild albeit on private managed property. The bass are also in the wild, albeit private managed lakes.

The bass have proven to be difficult to catch, pure giant FLMB are not easy to catch. Schwartz arguably made a mistake to introduce F1's into this first lake thinking they would increase catch rates, it may have deluted the pure strain population. I don't buy this on the short term as the pure FLMB stay pure until they die off and that is a longer term issue.

What did catch my attention was a statement about fast growing pure FLMB strain......what is that? This strain is being introduced into the new lake which is deeper and constructed from scratch to optimize growth.

The bass are technically wild as long as they haven't been genetically altered!

Tom

Define genetically altered. If they take the row and milt from genetically superior fish(I didn't read the article and don't know if this is a factor), like they do breeding animals, is that not genetically altering? The DNR and fisheries biologists have been doing similar things for years. Transplanting fish in different regions, genetically altering fish and whatnot. There are still IGFA records for such fish. Tiger Musky and Saugeye do occur naturally but it is a rarity and it is more common to catch stockers which are sterile. Chinook Salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes by man to control the alewife population, and are stocked on an annual basis. Only about 10% reproduce naturally. These are recognized as potential record fish even though they are technically an invasive species. By this definition, a FL strain LM bass stocked in Mexico or Texas are invasive    

 

I honestly don't care one way or another. It's not like the bass are being raised in someone's aquarium.

[Basseditor]

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. has some small lakes filled with offspring of ShareLunkers. They are highly managed lakes with the same intent—to grow world record bass. I don't know if TX has the climate to make this all work, either on state managed or someone's private lake.

But the scientific knowledge gained could be useful for future fish stocking.

The ranch in this discussion is South Texas. In May till Oct. the air temp will be more than 100 every day. Will it shorten the life span of these fish so they don't live long enough to reach 22 pounds? Maybe.

[Brian Needham]

I look forward to read the article....... and interested to see how big the "ponds" are.

 

I have read Bob Lusk say before even under perfect conditions, lakes can only grow so many #s of bass per acre.

[fishinthedacks]

A lot of the management on that lake is centered around overcoming the fact that the water chemistry is not the most ideal to grow monster bass. Is it cheating? Sure, but not like you think. I've fished there with him, you have to figure them out. Also, this while catch them off the feeders thing is bunk. Those fish are waiting for kibble, and the bite literally dies at feeding time.

The fish are smart, strong, and very healthy. Fishing there was one of the most memorable experiences.

 

 

He isn't kidding. My friend and I found a private stocked pond in our early teens. We fished every bait you could imagine to no avail. It was private property and as an adult I know it was wrong for us to try. But the owners walked down snickering at us with a coffee can in their hands. They asked if we had any luck and if we realized it was private property. Of course said no. They said this is why you can't catch these fish and took handfuls of fish food and tossed them into the pond and the pond turned BLACK! These bass from 5" youngins to 10lb lunkers swarmed to feet on their kibble. So anyone who can catch in this environment good luck. We would throw in anything from a worm to a crank bait and the bass would swarm it then swim away. So anyone who entices these fish that are fed like this is TRULY skilled or lucky.

 

Imagine how frustrating it is to throw in a school of hundreds of bass for hours and never get a nibble during prime bass fishing season at 4-6 pm. I think people need to try it before judging because to catch kibble fed bass or bass that are used to feeding on only one thing for their entire lives. Good luck trying to switch them. You really have to get in touch with their wild instincts. It's like getting a person who has been on welfare for 40 years off it. When you're used to being spoon fed you will probably NEVER change. They won't take a job for the same amount of money as they get for sitting around doing nothing. You have to offer them triple that. Seems like a weird analogy but it's true. These bass really need you to REWIRE their brains back to the basics to nibble. That or hope you find a bass who has been bullied away from feeding.

[WRB]

I look forward to read the article....... and interested to see how big the "ponds" are.

I have read Bob Lusk say before even under perfect conditions, lakes can only grow so many #s of bass per acre.

Read post #1, 90 acres and 60 acres. The original lake is 90 acres with 7 miles of shoreline, like several ponds interconnected with channels to maximize shoreline area. The second 60 acre lake is new lake and filling a year ago, shoreline mileage not disclosed.

Lusk isn't involved as far as I know, Jones is the lead biologist.

Tom

PS, genetic engineering involved the U of OK and the Texas Share A Lunker program to gene splice a new strain of FLMB tolerant of temp extremes, outcome unknown. Don't want to speculate what a faster growth pure FLMB may be?

Tom

[tatertester]

From what I got out of the article , the feed for the bass was a critical factor.....The prawns were what helped to put on more weight , not unlike the California bass that get the rainbow trout diet.......Doubt that most waters have the right food available to grow the bass to that record size.

[SirSnookalot]

The IGFA does not take records lightly, if it is good enough for them it's good enough for me.  Some of the resentment here may be do to the fact that if these fish grow to be record size, not everyone will have the opportunity to catch one.  

[Bluebasser86]

Now I want to go fish that pond Hi Salenity fishes. :-)

You can do that on a lot of lakes in Kansas. Our bass fishing sucks, but the channel cat fishing is outstanding. A lot of lakes have feeders that go off several times a day and the water is whipped to a froth by the big catfish trying to get the easy meal. There's several lakes that I fish where 2 people catching 50 or more channel cats from 5 to up to 20 pound isn't even very difficult during the summer months.