Building The World Record Bass

[jhoffman]

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.  

 

I dont have the opportunity to shoot 200" deer either, because I dont live where 200" deer grow. See, its not resentment, I dont hold anything against anyone who does it on their own terms. Shoot one at a feeder that goes off every day at precisely 5pm and I dont have to like it or appreciate it.

 

Ive said before on here about having a buddy that grows captive whitetails. Its funny how people think you inject these deer with hormones and stuff to get certain features in a rack. Those deer are nothing but a product of breeding for the best genetics with sometimes line breeding and as much protein as you can throw their way.

[Brian Needham]

Yeap, I read #1 twice and kept reading it as those were the stocker ponds size.

 

Even though Lusk is not invovled, I still think it is worth noting the # per acre a body of water can carry..... as I understand it, it is not forge that is the issue at that point it is water quality.

 

take king fisher society for example.... it is one of the highest mantained lakes in the country, and holds a great number of # per acre, but it can get away with it because it has current and the water is always changing over..

 

so there are many, many factors besides perfect genetics.

 

I am very excited to see how it pans out, either way.

 

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
 

[Goose52]

Regarding carrying capacity...just a data point.  Dottie (25lbs) came out of Dixon Lake (70 acres).  Sure, lots of trout stocked in Dixon...but lots of fishing pressure too.

 

So, big fish can come out of small lakes. As has already been mentioned, it remains to be seen that even with prawns on the menu, does this new lake have the conditions (depth, water temp, etc.) to produce the record...

 

 

[aharris]

My personal views are that a "record fish" should only have credibility IF it's caught out of a natural environment...not some stocked "trophy pond". If you want to go catch a 10 pounder out of a trophy pond to show all of your buddies, that's fine but it shouldn't have any credibility when it comes to records.

[slonezp]

My personal views are that a "record fish" should only have credibility IF it's caught out of a natural environment...not some stocked "trophy pond". If you want to go catch a 10 pounder out of a trophy pond to show all of your buddies, that's fine but it shouldn't have any credibility when it comes to records.

Define a trophy pond and or a natural environment. There are manmade subdivision ponds that hold large bass in my area because there is ample food and little pressure. There are very skinny bass in these same ponds because they do not have the "genetics" to compete. Locally, I have a better chance of catching a 5lb bass out of a small subdivision pond than I do out of a large body of water. Are those ponds natural?

[Dead River]

_{I had the pleasure of fishing Ocmulgee PFA in Ga, which was a low stocking density female only trophy bass lake. The fish were stocked at 10 female bass per acre instead of 100. Many of the early stockings were F1s, but eventually FXs were introduced. The lake had a complex forage base comprised of lake chubsuckers, goldfish, shiners, threadfin shad, crappie, catfish, bluegill, shellcracker.}

 

_{The lake was 106 acres and hardly like fishing in the bathtub as many of you have alluded. Due to the stocking density being so low and there being so many easy meals for the bass to weight (they shocked goldfish that weighed 5 lbs) it was a one to two bite lake at best when full pool. Our catchrates went up during the prespawn that year as the water level dropped.}

 

_{i applaud the state for having a place like this for us to fish.}

 

_{caught 20 bass in feb 2012 for a combined weight of 170 lbs}

 

_{5 of them were over 10 lbs, biggest 12-4}

[Dead River]

i wouldn't want f1s in my pond unless it was female only, their offspring will be inferior...

[jeremyryanwebb]

Maybe we do like baseball did to Barry Bonds....if the world record fish is juiced up for that reason.  It would need to have an asterisk * beside it showing that performance enhancing baitfish took part in the catch.

 

World Record Largemouth : 22.5 lbs

World Record Largemouth : 26.3 lbs*

 

Hows that? lol

[Big Swimbait]

In reading the article & his comments in the Texas Fishing Forum, the computer designed, high volume aeration system made from unobtanium, will optimize the conditions for year round growth. Also, I've never seen a freshwater prawn until the pics - those thongs are HUGE, with foot long pincers LOL! 

[J Francho]

I guess you can probably put an asterisk on a lot of fish, though I think it's pointless. Just about every record fish has weird circumstances surrounding it's existence. Why? Well, they're different - they are records. World record German brown trout. Hmmm, Great Lakes fish that eats alewife and gobies. World record rainbow. Uhh, triploid (genetically modified) trout that never wastes energy on spawning, so gets huge. The lake Perry's bass came from doesn't exist anymore. Kurita's bass was from a group of fish he'd been feeding for a year. Even the NY record is fishy. Comes from a private lake. Oh wait, I thought they had to come from public waters - that's what the DEC site says. I guess they make exceptions for guys that catch a planted bass in a private lake.

Personally, how it got to be matters little to me. As long as it's caught legally, and in public water, then if it's the biggest ever caught, then it's the record. Period.

[Lund Explorer]

If the thought of someone catching a bigger fish, shooting a bigger buck, or having a better paying job bothers anyone, there is only one thing you can do.

 

Adopt Apathy!

 

If I am competing in a tournament against others where there is a level playing field, and you catch more fish or bigger ones, then I will give you all the credit that you're due.  On that day, that person did better than me and I will acknowledge that fact.

 

Outside of that, the only thing I'll do is to congratulate the person for attaining whatever personal goal they have set for themselves and finally reached.  However, as I was not personally involved in that effort, I could care less.  I wasn't alive when Mr. Perry caught his record LMB, and the only time I was in Japan was a two hour layover at Kadena AFB long before those fish were stocked in that country.  I don't live in Florida, Texas, or California, and it doesn't bother me in the least that the people who do live there have fish that are bigger than the ones swimming up here in the frozen north.  I'm not depressed because Flukemaster gets to fish a private lake with giant bass all the time, because if I did get to fish that lake as much as he did, I'd be the guy with a 5wt flyrod chasing those bluegills.  If this guy, or someone else figures out a way to raise a bass to world record dimensions, it doesn't mean I'm any less of a person.

 

I am who I am, and the only persons who I have to answer to on this crazy little planet, is my Mother and my Wife, and they can fight it out over who gets top priority in that department.  There's a book of world records that they publish every year and its full of people feel the need to be the best at something, no matter how crazy some of those records are.  Good for them!

[J Francho]

That's a pretty good summary, and fairly close to how I feel about it. I'd love to catch a record, but really, I'm busy with my thing. I've taken great satisfaction in the opportunities offered here. With that comes great responsibility knowing that many take what I post as gospel (even though it is far from that!) and trying new gear and techniques, sharing my personal successes and failures will hopefully take the edge off the tremendous learning curve that bass angling presents. I'm as satisfied by posts of big fish as I am of catching my own, especially when it's a new angler sticking a big fish using what they learned here. Those personal firsts are as good as my personal best in my book.

[PondHopper96]

Is the article available online?

[McAlpine]

Couple of good opinions here.  I would be interested in the input of one of the big bass chasers out there though.  Honestly; at the end of the day I live in Indiana/Kentucky so I'm certainly not chasing any world records and this has little to do with me.

 

However; what does Mike Long or some of the other guys that specialize in big fish have to say about someone growing a bass to sell someone else a shot at putting their name on a record that these guys have been fair-chasing and working hard at it for so long?

 

Be interesting.

[WRB]

I posted this thread right after reading it in Bassmaster and have not looked for any other threads on this topic, therefor have no idea what is being discussed.

Before the internet we all lived our lives in a smaller world, having contact with a much small group of people, isolated from regional bias. The more exposure you get from a wider group of people, the more opinions you receive, positive and negative. The internet expands exposure to unknown territory, good and bad.

With that in mind I will offer my opinion on the ethics of this topic.

FLMB were first transplanted in CA lakes back in 1959 or 55 years ago. The first lake to open to the public to fish with FLMB population was Lower Otay lake, followed by several other San Diego city lakes. Lower Otay didn't have a trout planting program, lake Miramar did. It took maybe 4 years of trying to catch the new FLMB that anyone figured out how to consistently catch these bass, they are so different from our NLMB we were used to catching. Live crawdads was they bait of choice followed by large Canadian night crawlers and hand poured 10" to 12" soft plastic worms. By 1970 the state records started to fall nearly every week. The NLMB state record was 14 lbs 7 oz, by 1973 the Miramar giant of 21 lbs 3 oz was set. It was the Miramar bass that changed how we fished for giant bass, realizing that stocked rainbow trout was the preferred prey for record size FLMB. The problem was we couldn't use live trout as bait, illegal in CA!

1983 was the year the first commercial available trout swimbait hit the market, the Huddleston wooden trout, followed by the AC plug. Before that time only a handful of anglers used Worm Kings 12" soft plastic boot tail swimbait. The world outside of CA now knew about trout swimbaits and trout because the key word associated with CA's giant bass; " trout fed fat giant bass" shouldn't be allowed or considered for records!! The bias continues to this day.

My opinion; I don't believe the Schwarts program will work to produce a world record, it may produce a bass in the mid 18's. FLMB should be a different species from NLMB regarding records. The largest NLMB I know of is less than 17 lbs.

[Shane J]

This guy may or may not grow a bass that big, but even if he does, and the new world record is set, then whoever catches one on either side of that record, can decide for themselves if their catch is more or less of an accomplishment than the other guy's. I do know one thing. Catching a fish of that size, no matter what records are on the line, has gotta be a crazy big deal! I've had some huge fish on the end of my line (two that rivaled the Tx state record), and it is no easy task fooling, hooking, and landing those fish. Good luck to whoever does it, is all I can say. A 23 pounder ain't no fool!

[Scott F]

Forgetting about claiming a world record for the moment, I want to see what this guy can do. Even if he never grows one that exceeds 23 pounds, he may add to the knowledge base on what it takes for bass to grow larger than they do now. He might learn some new techniques that could help state biologists manage their fisheries for more trophies.  

[Shane J]

That's true, too. Better than my high school science project!

[WRB]

The prawns being used are not native Louisiana fresh water shrimp, they appear to be Malaysian giant river prawns, farm raised mostly in China and Southeast Asia. Most states will not allow another invasive animal to be introduced. It will be interesting to watch how all this plays out. Schwartz is now in the aquaculture business! May be the Louisiana prawn farmers will put FLMB in their ponds!

Tom

[Jsinkic]

I think if places like this are being made there should be 2 records, one for "Wild" bass and one for "Farmed" (Thats what they are technically doing). This way everyone who has a pound could have a "Farmed" world record. Let's leave the "Wild" world record to bass that got that big

on there own alone and away from this farming record.

 

Only fair right?

[A-Jay]

The prawns being used are not native Louisiana fresh water shrimp, they appear to be Malaysian giant river prawns, farm raised mostly in China and Southeast Asia. Most states will not allow another invasive animal to be introduced. It will be interesting to watch how all this plays out. Schwartz is now in the aquaculture business! May be the Louisiana prawn farmers will put FLMB in their ponds!

Tom

 

When someone finally designs a jig trailer to imitative this thing, the jig will have to be Massive ! 

 

A-Jay

 

[Brian Needham]

brings new meaning to RAGE LOBSTER!!!!

[Brian Needham]

what I want to see is Huddleston makes a lobster swimbait..... say 8 inches long and 1/2 pound. That'll do it!!

[slonezp]

When someone finally designs a jig trailer to imitative this thing, the jig will have to be Massive ! 

 

A-Jay

 

Malaysian giant river prawns.jpg

Screw the bass. I'm hungry!!!

[Brian Needham]

I think if places like this are being made there should be 2 records, one for "Wild" bass and one for "Farmed" (Thats what they are technically doing). This way everyone who has a pound could have a "Farmed" world record. Let's leave the "Wild" world record to bass that got that big

on there own alone and away from this farming record.

 

Only fair right?

 sounds fair but lets really think about it....

 

1. your game and fish commision ever used a "slot limit" to encourage growth.... then you fish a farmed pond

2. ever enforced a creel limit... then you fished a farmed pond

3. ever fished a lake that been ferilized... then you fished a farmed pond

4. trout stocking....farmed pond

5. stocking shad or forge not native......then you fish a parmed pond

6. game and fish commission ever drained a lake to fix silted in spawning flats....then its a farm pond

7. FLMB or even NLMB ever been stocked or not native to your part of the counrty.... then you fish a farmed pond

8. fished a man made lake or even dammed river impoundment.......then is a farmed pond

 

the list can go on and on and on....... anything done to or changed in a pond other than the way nature put it changes it to a farmed point by "technecality"

 

solution to all of it...... go fish, be happy, and dont worry about it cause probably neither you or I are ever going to catch anything to be considered for the books anyway.

There has never been a cleat cut, without question record fish caught, and never will, there will always be questions of how, when and why.