Biggest Largemouth Bass of All Time

I’m sure all of you regulars here have noticed a lot of posts about bass lately. I used to be a bass fanatic before I caught muskie fever five years ago. I still love bass fishing, but since I relocated to Nova Scotia all I have been able to catch are smallmouth bass. While smallies are some of the best fighting fish around, they don’t grow very big here - five pounds max, and all the ones I have caught have been under a pound. I spent two weeks in Georgia (the home of the world record largie) in May and spent most of my spare time chasing striped bass. I’m heading south again this week and I’ll be on the hunt for some largemouth at Thurmond Lake.

While the official world record bass is from Georgia, the unofficial largest bass ever caught on a rod and reel was caught in California. I’m not talking about Dottie either, I’m talking about this 24 pounder caught by Paul Duclos of Santa Rosa, California.

I first saw this photo in a bass fishing magazine in the late 90’s. I couldn’t believe its size. I was used to catching Ontario bass, which average around two pounds (the provincial record is 10.43 pounds). I never knew the full story behind this fish until today. We discussed record bass earlier in the week, but I didn’t have all the facts behind Duclos remarkable catch. The fish was indeed caught by the rules, but was weighed on an uncertified scale.

So he called The Outdoor Pro Shop in nearby Rohnert Park, and asked Ken Elie, the shop’s owner, to bring a certified scale to the dock. Unfortunately, there was no one to watch the store, so Elie had to refuse.

Duclos then called his wife, Shelly, and asked her to come down to the lake and to bring their scale-the bathroom scale, with its big dial. There on the dock he weighed himself — 180 pounds. Then he gently lifted the fish out of the water and weighed himself with the bass — 204 pounds.