World-record largemouth: Tied on a technicality

Manabu Kurita, 32, of Aichi, Japan, tied fishing’s most hallowed record–the one for largemouth bass–on a technicality, the International Game Fish Association announced Friday afternoon.

He caught the largemouth with a live bluegill from Lake Biwa, an ancient reservoir northeast of Kyoto, on July 2. IGFA received formal documentation in September and spent months researching the application.

The fish weighed 10.12 kg, slightly more 22 lbs 4 ozs. That tied the record (22-4) established by George Perry with a largemouth caught from Georgia’s Montgomery Lake on June 2, 1932.

Though it was a fraction of an ounce heavier than Perry’s, it did not meet the requirement of being at least two ounces heavier than the existing record.

The Japanese largemouth was 27.20 inches in length and an almost equal girth of 26.77.

The announcement was carried live on bassmaster.com.