Pennsylvania bass angler Jim Brittenbaugh trailered his 21-foot Stratos bass boat 5 hours from his house earlier this week to west-central New York’s Cayuga Lake. He went there to apply fish on July 11 for a two-day staff bass match beginning on July 12. There was no method for him to know that whereas fishing along with his buddy he’d land what’s going to doubtless develop into the New York state document largemouth bass.
“I launched my boat and tried some spots not removed from the boat ramp,” the 38-year outdated angler tells Outside Life. “I used to be ready for my good pal [and top fisherman] Dave Ruark, who I used to be going to satisfy on the lake about 11 a.m. so we may fish collectively.”
Fishing alone, Brittenbaugh tried just a few spots the place he’d caught bass in earlier years. He was merely checking spots to in an effort to find the most effective areas to fish within the match. He caught and launched a four-pound bass and misplaced one other good fish. After assembly Ruark at a ship ramp at 11 a.m, the 2 anglers ran 10 miles run to a creek mouth space that Brittenbaugh wished to test however had by no means fished earlier than.
“I knew that in 2014 Greg Hackney had gained a Cayuga Lake match close to that creek mouth,” Brittenbaugh explains. “We received to the world and began checking it out in 20 toes of water. Utilizing my forward-facing sonar, we eased towards shore and began fishing alongside a deep coontail weed edge in about 8-feet of water.”
As Brittenbaugh moved the boat nearer to the creek mouth round midday, he seen a submerged level and caught a 6-pound bass off it.
“About 5 casts later with a Junebug coloration Senko wacky-rigged worm, I introduced the lure over the purpose, and proper on the boat I felt a success and set the hook,” he says. “It was so near the boat I used to be able to convey the lure up for one more forged earlier than the chew.”
Brittenbaugh says the bass dove deep, making an attempt to bore into the grass. However he stored heavy stress on the fish as his 7-foot spinning rod doubled over. He was fearful that his 2/0 TroKar hook, 20-pound braided line, and 12-pound check fluorocarbon chief might not maintain the highly effective fish.
“I stored rod stress on it and walked with the rod across the bow of my boat and the trolling motor,” he says. “Then it made a run out from the boat, close to the floor and we may see its again. On the finish of the run it rolled on its facet, and tail-walked on the floor simply 15 toes away from us.
“Once I noticed how massive it was my coronary heart stopped. I believed, Oh my God, I don’t know if I can get it in.”
However he stored stress on the fish, introduced it shut, and Ruark scooped it up within the web.
Picture by Jim Brittenbaugh
“We had been flabbergasted,” says Brittenbaugh. “We’d by no means seen something almost that massive. My greatest bass earlier than that was a 7-pounder from a farm pond. We knew it was not less than 10 kilos.”
They put the bass of their stay effectively for 5 minutes, then received on their telephones to lookup the present bass document for the state of New York. It stood at 11-pounds, 4-ounces, and was caught in 1987 by John Higbie from Otsego County’s Buckhorn Lake.
They weighed Brittenbaugh’s bass on two completely different scales they’d within the boat. Each scales confirmed it was over 12 kilos. Believing they’d a state-record bass, they phoned the New York Division of Environmental Conservation and organized to satisfy a few of their personnel at a ship ramp to test the fish.
Three DEC workers met them on the Union Springs boat ramp an hour later. Emily Zollweg-Horan, an aquatic biologist for DEC was in cost, says Brittenbaugh. They excitedly weighed and measured Brittenbaugh’s enormous largemouth.
“It formally weighed 12.35 kilos, and was 25 inches lengthy,” says Brittenbaugh. “It’s not but formally the state document, as a result of the scales they used need to be examined for accuracy, and paperwork for the document has to undergo channels at DEC.”
DEC additionally took scale samples from the bass to age it. They stated the bass had accomplished spawing, so it doubtless weighed greater than that when it was filled with roe.
Picture by Jim Brittenbaugh
After DEC’s work, Brittenbaugh and a fishing buddy Lenny Pace put the large bass again into Brittenbaugh’s boat’s livewell, and ran again to the creek mouth the place it was caught. They launched it there, and Brittenbaugh says he can solely hopeful that he’ll catch the fish once more throughout the match.
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“I’m nonetheless in shock about that bass,” says Brittenbaugh. “What a thrill. I wish to have a taxidermist make a reproduction mount of the fish. It’s the bass of a lifetime – no, the bass of 100 lifetimes.”