SCIENTIFIC NAME

Micropterus salmoides

Is This The New World-Record Largemouth?

This just in from Japan: the world-record largemouth bass may have been bested. Here are the first photos.

According to some Internet chatter from California-based website calfishing.com, this bass, caught by angler Manabu Kurita, has already been certified as weighing 22 pounds, 5 ounces.

The fish was supposedly taken from Lake Biwa in Japan, the same lake where a 25-pound bass was reportedly netted earlier this year.

But here's the potential hitch: George Perry's world-record bass weighed in at 22 pounds, 4 ounces. By IGFA rules, any fish under 25 pounds that is a contender for world-record status must top the current world record by two ounces. It seems all this bass may do is tie. Stay tuned to F&S.com for more info as it unfolds.

If the weight of this catch is accurate, it wouldn't be the first bass to top Perry's record.