Do you think George Perry's record is legit?

[RenzokukenFisher]

What are your thoughts on this world record? I am skeptical of its validity by doing a simple google earth search of the lake. It looks like it would be difficult for a DD to grow in it let alone a 20lb + fish. What is the evidence that this is a legit weighed record.

[Bassin' Brad]

 

[jimmyjoe]

   If you're a skeptic, no great depth of information exists. No certifiable photo of that day, no affidavit by Page and no other eyewitnesses.

   If you're not a skeptic, the man's reputation for reliability and honesty coupled with the weight on a certified scale at the Post Office are enough ..... at least enough for me.

  

   The real question is this: Is there any evidence of fraud or incompetence? I don't think so.

   Just because we don't totally understand how they built the pyramids doesn't mean they didn't do it.    ?

 

   jj

[jbsoonerfan]

I don't buy it for a second, but it is what it is. Even if it isn't a legit weight, it is crazy it has been that many years since it has been beat. I don't count Dottie or the Kurita fish either though. Just call me a skeptic. LOL

[WRB]

It’s grandfathered based on little proof.

Tom

[Smells like fish]

56 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

I don't buy it for a second, but it is what it is. Even if it isn't a legit weight, it is crazy it has been that many years since it has been beat. I don't count Dottie or the Kurita fish either though. Just call me a skeptic. LOL

With Kurita, is it the live bait?

[jbsoonerfan]

1 minute ago, Smells like fish said:

With Kurita, is it the live bait?

Yep

[Bluebasser86]

2 hours ago, RenzokukenFisher said:

What are your thoughts on this world record? I am skeptical of its validity by doing a simple google earth search of the lake. It looks like it would be difficult for a DD to grow in it let alone a 20lb + fish. What is the evidence that this is a legit weighed record.

Montgomery Lake is/was an oxbow lake that really no longer exist. They tend to be shallow and fertile though for their relatively short lifespans. They silt in fast but maybe for a minute while everything was right with it, it had the right stuff to grow a giant bass. 

 

IMO, Kurita's fish is heavier, so it's the record. I think it's silly that it's not "heavier enough", to be consider the stand alone record. 

[DitchPanda]

5 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Montgomery Lake is/was an oxbow lake that really no longer exist. They tend to be shallow and fertile though for their relatively short lifespans. They silt in fast but maybe for a minute while everything was right with it, it had the right stuff to grow a giant bass. 

 

IMO, Kurita's fish is heavier, so it's the record. I think it's silly that it's not "heavier enough", to be consider the stand alone record. 

I've always agreed with this. So a team wins game 7 of the world series but its only by 1 run...so now they aren't champs and have to play over because they didn't beat the other team by enough? To me more is more and a win is a win.

[schplurg]

I don't see why live bait should matter. A big fish is a big fish. Do other species require special bait for lake or world records? If not then neither should this one.

 

It probably has to beat it by 2 ounces or more to account for differences in scales, or other factors. Just a guess. In drag racing you have to back up your record run with a second one. At least that's how I remember it.

[Bluebasser86]

15 minutes ago, schplurg said:

It probably has to beat it by 2 ounces or more to account for differences in scales, or other factors. Just a guess. In drag racing you have to back up your record run with a second one. At least that's how I remember it.

But it has to be weighed on a certified scale, so there shouldn't be any accounting for a difference in the scales. Certified should be dead on the nose so Kurita's 22lb 5oz bass should be a full ounce heavier than Perry's 22lb 4oz bass ?‍♂️

[schplurg]

Maybe certified scales have some leeway. I doubt every scale is perfectly accurate regardless of certification. Two ounces seems like a lot though.

 

I figure my cheap digital scale is accurate within a few ounces. It has proven to be.

 

Perry's fish supposedly sat around for a bit and dried out some. You could weigh the same fish a few minutes apart and get different weights.

 

Just my thoughts, I don't know why.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, RenzokukenFisher said:

I am skeptical of its validity by doing a simple google earth search of the lake.

 

So you have seen satellite images of Montgomery Lake from 1932.

 

For those asking about a photo I have one question, how many cameras do y'all think there was in rural Georgia in 1932?

 

Most fail to understand we're talking 1932 in the depths of the Great Depression & they try to apply today's standards of verification.

 

[jbsoonerfan]

The Perry bass was also "supposedly" 32.5" long with a girth of 28.5". That puts it at closer to 26 lbs. It just doesn't add up in my mind.

[schplurg]

Easy solution: I'm gonna catch a 27 pounder and then Glenn and Irene can close this obsolete thread!

 

My last thoughts are that in my limited reading on this I didn't find any reason to doubt the story as told. I mean I don't think Perry is a fraud. The only thing that could be in question is the scale, and they had accurate scales back then. Postal scale though? Eh whatever.

 

Like I said, catch a bigger one, problem solved!

[Catt]

7 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

The Perry bass was also "supposedly" 32.5" long with a girth of 28.5". That puts it at closer to 26 lbs. It just doesn't add up in my mind.

 

The bass had been out of the water for quite some time before being weighted. 

 

Plus I've done the length x width x whatever & it has never matched any fish I've weighed.

 

[jbsoonerfan]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

Plus I've done the length x width x whatever & it has never matched any fish I've weighed.

 

I 100% agree with this!!!!

[David 7]

As far as postal scales are concerned, my grandfather caught the second biggest bass recorded in NYS in 1969 (for that year) on Cossayuna Lake. He took it right to the post office and they weighed it there, so that definitely was a thing long ago.

[WRB]

I studied the Perry bass for decades. 

Perry bass was photographed and weighed on a 100 lb postal scale. The photo sent to Field & Stream contest was never recovered. Perry’s partner the day he caught the bass was a drifter that nobody ever talked to. The postal scale weight wasn’t certified or witnessed. The Toledo 100 lb scale weight in 1/4 lb increments. Length and girth measurements never verified, method not disclosed.

I believe George Perry caught a big bass, sent a photo to Field & Stream to win lures. Perry never applied for a world record catch. IGFA didn’t have fresh water fish records until 20 years after the Perry bass was caught. The IGFA used Field & Stream contest data to establish the 1st set of fresh water records including The George Perry bass. 

The year before Perry died when his plane crash, Perry agreed to tell the story how he caught the bass and how it was weighed and who he fished with. He didn’t want anything

to do with the celebrity of the catch.

Several articles have been written on the Perry bass. Ken Duke of BASS researched this catch for years. Nothing adds up, it is what it is, a grandfathered Record from a informal fishing contest in 1932.

Tom

  

[Bluegillslayer]

Legit it or not, its a legendary story and I would like to think its true

[Tennessee Boy]

If I remember correctly,  the second biggest bass ever caught in Georgia was 18 lbs.  That’s a 4 pound difference!   I think the most logical explanation is he lied to win a magazine contest.  He won a shotgun if I remember correctly.  He had no idea that lie would turn into fame and a world record.
 

He has the IFGA record. That’s a fact.  Do I believe he caught a fish that big?  No

[roadwarrior]

Dotti  25.1 lbs.

https://fishwithjd.com/2013/05/14/top-5-biggest-bass-of-all-time/

[Catt]

6 hours ago, WRB said:

Perry bass was photographed and weighed on a 100 lb postal scale. The photo sent to Field & Stream contest was never recovered. Perry’s partner the day he caught the bass was a drifter that nobody ever talked to. The postal scale weight wasn’t certified or witnessed. The Toledo 100 lb scale weight in 1/4 lb increments. Length and girth measurements never verified, method not disclosed.

 

All completely normal for rural America during the Great Depression.

 

Again everyone forgets what life was like in rural America in 1932. Postal scales not being certified isn't abnormal for the time, not only was businesses in dire straits so was the American & state governments who would have been responsible for the certification.

 

@roadwarrior There's your World Record 

[the reel ess]

My question would be what was the record before his, if there was one kept? It was a huge fish and might have still been a record at the time even if it weighed a little less.

[Tennessee Boy]

4 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

My question would be what was the record before his, if there was one kept? It was a huge fish and might have still been a record at the time even if it weighed a little less.

There were no records at the time.  Field and Stream started keeping fishing records a few years later and at that point declared his fish as the world record.