Fishing Record Holds for 75 Years
Record breaking seems to be in the air this week (see blog on Catra Corbett). Outdoor Life ran a story in their newsletter today on George Washington Perry, the Georgia man that still holds the record for catching a 22 pound, 4 ounce largemouth bass using a single lure. Perry, then 20 years old, caught the fish on Montgomery Lake on June 2, 1932. This weekend will mark the 75 year anniversary of that feat, a record that has yet to be broken by any angler.
It is amazing that with the thousands of professional anglers, the sophistication of today’s fishing equipment and the increase in fishing knowledge that has been accumulated over the last 75 years, no one has surpassed Perry’s record. I bet Perry never thought it would last.
It is not that anglers are not trying. Thousands compete for the title every year. In 2006, Mac Weakley, a California angler nearly defeated Perry, pulling in a 25 pound bass from Dixon Lake. Weakley was disqualified however because the fish was foul-hooked (a no-no under International Game and Fish Association standards.)
I am pulling for Perry’s record to hold for 100 years myself. I am a little saddened when I see the records of the baseball and basketball greats shattered by today’s athletes. I guess I’m a bit nostalgic but I like to think that records like those were more appreciated by the holders back then. After all, rather than getting millions of dollars for product endorsements and his face plastered on every tackle box in America, Perry got a $75 gift certificate which he redeemed for a Browning automatic shotgun, a rod and reel, shotgun shells and outdoor gear and clothing.
You can read more about the bass anglers’ mission to break Perry’s record in the book, Sowbelly: The Obsessive Quest for the World-Record Largemouth Bass.
