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Largemouth Bass World Records

#1a Manabu Kurita

Manabu Kurita and his record setting largemouth bass in Japan.

Rank	Weight	Angler	Location	Date
1a	22 lb 4 oz	Manabu Kurita	Lake Biwa, Shiga, Japan	July 2nd, 2009*
1b	22 lb 4 oz	George Perry	Montgomery Lake, Georgia, USA	June 2nd, 1932*
3	22 lb 0 oz	Robert Crupi	Castaic Lake, California, USA	March 12th, 1991
4	21.75	Michael Arujo	Castaic Lake, California, USA	March 5th, 1991
5	21.688	Jed Dickerson	Lake Dixon, California, USA	May 31st, 2003
6	21 lb 3 oz	Raymond Easley	Lake Casitas, California, USA	March 4th, 1980
7	21 lb 0 oz	Robert Crupi	Castaic Lake, California, USA	March 9th, 1990
8	20.938*	Dave Zimmerlee	Miramar Reservoir, California, USA	June 23rd, 1973
9	20.86	Leo Torres	Castaic Lake, California, USA	February 4th, 1990
10	20.75*	Mike Long	Lake Dixon, California, USA	April 27th, 2001
11	20.25	Gene Dupras	Lake Hodges, California, USA	May 30th, 1985
12	20.25*	Johnny Garduno	Miramar Reservoir, California, USA	March 25th, 1990
13	20.125	Fritz Friebel	Big Fish Lake, Florida, USA	May 19th, 1923
14	19.7	George Coniglio	Lake Mission Viejo, California, USA	March 21st, 2006
15	19.5	Mark Balloid	Castaic Lake, California, USA	May 28th, 1990
16	19.5	Randy Crabtree	Lake Casitas, California, USA	April 9th, 2002
17	19 lb 8 oz	Keith Gunsauls	Miramar Reservoir, California, USA	March 7, 1988
18	19.438	Mac Weakley	Lake Dixon, California, USA	May 20th, 2003
19	19.25	Chris Brandt	Miramar Reservoir, California, USA	March 22nd, 1998
20	19.188	Steve Beasley	Lake Wohlford, California, USA	February 3rd, 1986
21	19.188	Arden Hanline Sr.	Lake Morena, California, USA	February 17th, 1987
22	19.15	Kazuya Shimada	Lake Ikehara, Nara, Japan	April 22nd, 2003
23	19.1	Bruce Knutsen	Lake Baccarac, Sinaloa, Mexico	January 17th, 1993
24	19.063*	Sandy DeFresco	Miramar Reservoir, California, USA	March 14th, 1988
25	19 lb 0 oz	Danny Kadota	Castaic Lake, California, USA	January 8th, 1989

*Manabu Kurita officially tied Perry’s record from 1932 but his fish did not weigh 2 ounces more than Perry’s so it did not officially beat it.

*Dave Zimmerlee – several anglers claimed to have seen Zimmerlee pull the dying bass from the water instead of actually catching it. Zimmerlee denies this claim.

*Johnny Garduno – anglers claimed that Garduno used his net to scoop his bass as it investigated his stringer of trout.

*Sandy DeFresco – weights were found in the belly of this fish but nobody could explain why. Defresco was awarded the weight of the fish minus the 2.5 pound weight.

*Mike Long – after an expose and in-depth report by Kellen Ellis titled The Dark Secret of “America’s Big Bass Guru” – all of Mike Long’s catches are now suspect.

Interesting Note:

Mac Weakley in California.

An angler from California named Mac Weakley actually caught the largest largemouth bass ever but it did not count towards any records because he foul-hooked it!

On March 20, 2006 Mac caught a 25.1 pound bass with a distinctive dot on the bottom of her gill-plate on Lake Dixon the US state of California.

Mac could have gone the way of controversy as a few of the angler above but did not. He released Dottie after a quick picture. She died of old age 3 years later.

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