Bass World Record Catch

The second he heard the news, Todd Riddleberger climbed into his red pick-up truck — number plate FISH 395 — and drove 2,500 miles (4,023 km) from his Baptist college in Virginia to southern California. “This is a blessing, a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Mr Riddleberger, 31, from his boat on Dixon Lake, a small reservoir outside the town of Escondido. “As far as fishing for bass goes, this is the pinnacle.”

The news that Mr Riddleberger, a seminary student, had read on the internet was this: at Dixon Lake, a 33-year-old casino worker called Mac Weakley had reeled in a largemouth bass that almost floored the scales at 25lb 1oz (11.61kg).

Anglers could barely believe it. Some speculated that the female fish — full of eggs and nearing the end of her lifespan at nine or 10 years old — must have eaten a couple of ducks for breakfast. Regardless, the “Dixon Beauty” was the heaviest bass ever caught, beating the world record set in 1932 by George Perry, a farm boy from southern Georgia.

But there was one big problem: Mr Weakley’s hook had snagged the monster near its dorsal fin, not in the mouth. That made it a “foul-hooked” fish which, under angling regulations, had to be returned to the lake. Mr Weakley, exhausted after hauling the fish from the water, was in no mood to lift the pot-bellied beast up for a souvenir photograph. Instead, his friend had the photo-opportunity of a lifetime.

Today, two months after Mr Weakley’s catch, Dixon Lake has been transformed from a 75-acre recreation area to a world-class fishing destination.

Professional anglers from across the country and beyond have loaded their gear into small boats and launched themselves on the lake in search of the bass and the huge financial rewards that would follow.

The park ranger station has been inundated with calls from anglers and reporters. ESPN, the sports TV channel, has broadcast from the lake’s edge. Business at local restaurants has increased by 300 per cent.

There are only a few days left before spawning season ends and the bass return to the bottom of the lake until next spring.

To some, the fish represents one of the most coveted records in American sport, right up there with Hank Aaron’s home-run record in baseball, or Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in basketball.

Yet there are more than just bragging rights at stake. When George Perry broke the record in 1932 — confirmed when he took the giant fish to a post office to be weighed in front of witnesses — he won the $75 top prize in a contest organised by Field & Stream. Today the catcher of the Dixon Beauty could expect at least $1 million in product endorsement deals.

For Mr Weakley, this is all too much to bear. He no longer talks to reporters and no longer visits the lake.

Sig Paczkowski, 52, was among the fortune seekers yesterday. “I haven’t fished since I was in high school,” the aerospace engineer admitted. “I suppose there’s a small chance we might catch the bass.”

Across the water James Hicks, 26, an estate agent from Tennessee, peered into the weed-filled reservoir for signs of a shadow. “If I’m not mistaken,” he whispered, “this is the exact spot where they found her.”

Mr Hicks’s personal record is a 9lb bass, caught in Florida. “When I heard about this, I got straight on a plane,” he said. No one is more dedicated, however, than Mr Riddleberger. He spends about 12 hours a day on the lake, searching for the million-dollar catch that would, he says, allow him to open his own outdoor Baptist camp for children.

He realises, however, that he might need a little help from above. “It’s like a jungle down there,” he said, casting his bait into the reservoir, which is up to 74ft (23m) deep. “She could be 5ft away from you, and you’d never know.”

BRIAN CLARKE
FISHING CORRESPONDENT

ANY fish record that stands for 74 years (Britain's salmon record has stood for 84) is going to take some beating. The fact that a potential world-record largemouth bass has been taken makes Mac Weakley's capture remarkable.

More remarkable still is the fact that the fish came from a small, heavily-fished deep-water lake. It is a shallow-water species, which means that it will have spent much of its time close to the margins and any high-points on the 70-acre bed. Lures and baits must have been raining down on its head for years and yet still it managed to survive, unknown. The fact that the fish was foul-hooked will be a downer for Mr Weakley — but the fact that the fish was returned alive will have the same effect on US anglers as a big carp has in Britain.

It will draw them to Dixon Lake as though magnetised.

When it is caught again, as it certainly will be given the vastly increased fishing pressure, the captor will win instant fame and wealth. Top bass anglers in the US earn millions in sponsorships each year, but the record-holder — whether a weekend worm-drowner or a dedicated pro — will out-earn them all.

The largemouth bass is the most popular sporting fish in the US and an industry worth $10 billion (£6 billion) a year has been spawned on the back of it.

Bass Has a Lure of Its Own
After a trophy fish gets off the hook on a technicality, anglers swarm a small lake in hopes of reeling it back in -- along with riches.

By Hugo Martín, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006

On a rainy June morning in 1932, a poor farm boy named George Perry decided to forgo plowing for the day to fish with a friend in Montgomery Lake, a muddy oxbow off the Ocmulgee River in southern Georgia.

After an hour of casting with a "wiggle-fish" lure from a handmade boat, the lanky 20-year-old farmer set his hook on fishing immortality. His lure snared something so heavy he assumed he had snagged an underwater root. But as he reeled in, he realized it was a gargantuan fish, the biggest largemouth bass Perry and his friend had ever seen.

"The first thing I thought of was how nice a chunk of meat to take home," Perry later told a reporter.

But first Perry drove to a nearby post office where the fish tipped the scale at 22 pounds, 4 ounces, breaking the previous world record by more than 2 pounds. Perry's catch earned him top prize in a Field & Stream fishing contest: $75 worth of outdoor gear.

In the 74 years since, the most talented anglers in the world using the latest gear have scoured the world's lakes for a bass to surpass Perry's mark. Some have sacrificed marriages and jobs in their pursuit.

But Perry's record has been intact for so long, some anglers started to wonder if it could ever be broken. Maybe, some suggested, largemouth bass don't grow that big anymore.

That kind of thinking ended March 20. Carlsbad casino worker Mac Weakley, 33, reeled in a largemouth bass at Dixon Lake in northern San Diego County that surpassed Perry's mark by more than 2 pounds. But Weakley had snagged the fish on the side instead of the mouth, and a fishing regulation forced him to return the giant bass to the lake.

Since then, fishermen from as far away as Florida, Texas and Mississippi have swarmed the tiny reservoir's docks and piers, jostling to be first on the water each morning while television crews and reporters stalked the shores, waiting for someone to yell: "I got it!"

So far, no one has.

Outsiders may find it difficult to understand all the excitement. But to freshwater anglers, landing the world record largemouth bass represents the conquest of one of the most sought-after records in sports, akin to Hank Aaron's career home run mark or Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. Whoever hooks that fish will become a fishing legend. And unlike Perry, who died in 1974, the new record holder could probably retire on the income from tackle endorsement deals alone.

So now, the chase is on.

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Dixon Lake is a 75-acre, deep-water pool, surrounded by chaparral-covered hills in Escondido. On a normal day, families enjoy picnics in the shade of oaks and pine trees while a dozen or so anglers cruise the lake, trolling for trout, bass and bluegill.

But nothing has been normal since March 19, when Weakley and two friends spotted a huge fish off Dixon Lake's picnic area, where another angler was fishing. Weakley and his pals rented a campsite so they could be the first ones on the water the next day. The following morning — an overcast Saturday — they slowly maneuvered their rental boat over a clearing in the shallow water — the bass' spawning bed.

At first, the men spotted a small male bass guarding the bed. Then they noticed a massive shadow lurking nearby — the larger female. They took turns tossing lures at it. After several attempts at getting the female to attack, Weakley reared back and hooked it.

After a two- or three-minute struggle, Weakley hauled the mama fish into the boat. It was so big that after landing it he didn't have the arm strength to hoist it up for a photo. His pal Mike Winn posed with the fish in the picture that later appeared on fishing websites and sports magazines across the globe. The photo shows Winn struggling to lift a bulbous fish, green as a watermelon with a belly like a cantaloupe and a mouth big enough to swallow a man's fist.

"It's just a monster, the biggest bass you'll ever see" Weakley's pal Jed Dickerson said later.

They put the fish on a hand-held scale and read the verdict: 25 pounds, 1 ounce. It easily surpassed Perry's fish, but Weakley couldn't claim the record. He had snagged the fish near its dorsal fin, instead of in the mouth. State fishing regulations say that a "foul-hooked" fish must be immediately released, which is what Weakley did.

Within hours, word of the catch spread to the four corners of the fishing world.

"We knew it was probably coming sooner or later," said Tom Mahoney, a tournament bass fisherman and president of the Bay Area Bassmasters in Tampa, Florida. "But to eclipse the record by a pound and a half: That was very surprising."

For now, that potentially record-setting fish, which many are calling the "beast" and the "Dixon beauty" — is laying low in Dixon Lake's murky depths.