As of July, 2009 its official – we have a new world record bass. A 22 pound, 4.95 ounce bass caught in Japan last July was certified this past Friday by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) as a tie for the world record.

Way back in 1932 a Georgia boy fishing in a small oxbow lake off the Ocmulgee River landed a huge bass. He took it to the post office in Helena, Georgia and weighted it, then entered it in the Field and Stream big fish contest. That fish weighing 22 pounds, 4 ounces held the world record status for 77 years.

The reason the new bass is considered a tie is the IGFA requires a new record to beat the old record by at two ounces. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that new scales are more accurate then older scales. Also, a spring loaded scale will usually show only pounds and ounces, not pounds and tenths and hundredths of ounces, that the new ones show.

When George Perry landed the big bass in south Georgia, bass fishing was a simple sport and was more for food than sport. Rods and reels were primitive by today’s standards, as were line, hooks and lures. And bass fishermen could not even dream of depth finders, you stuck your rod tip into the water to see how deep it was.

Even when I started bass fishing in the 1950s, 25 years after Perry landed his fish, most of our time was spent in a wooden rowboat sculling with a paddle to move around. We fished with a knuckle busting casting reel that had no free spool or level wind, or one of the new fangled spinning reels. Line was a form of braid since monofilament line was just hitting the markets.

Manabu Kurita, the young Japanese fisherman that now holds the record, was using some of the best rods and reels available and casting a swim bait on high tech line. The swim bait is a very new type bait that has been on the market just a few years.

It took the IGFA months to review the application and make sure all rules were met. They even required the fisherman to take a lie detector test to verify he caught the fish legally and was not fishing in an off limits area as some gossip claimed. And the scales were carefully tested to make sure they were accurate.

The reason for all the care in certifying the record is the fact it will probably be worth millions of dollars to the fisherman. All that endorsement money has caused many false claims of world record bass, none of which have been verified.

A few years ago a bass weighing 25 pounds was caught in California and pictures were taken of it. But the fish was released and no application was made for the record because the fisherman snagged the bass in the side. While trying to get it to hit while on the bed he hooked it in the side and the rules of the IGFA require the fish be caught in a sporting manner.

Is there a bigger bass out there? Maybe. And this record may be beat at any time. But it may stand up for 75 more years, just like Perry’s record.