It's official: catch ties a world record

DANIA BEACH — After nearly six months of waiting, Japan's Manabu Kurita is taking his place alongside Georgia angler George Perry in the International Game Fish Association's World Record Games Fishes book as a co-holder of the All-Tackle record for largemouth bass. Each fish weighed in at 22 pounds, 4 ounces.

The catches came 77 years apart. The IGFA approved Kurita's application for the fish caught from Japan's largest lake on July 2, 2009.

Kurita, 32, of Aichi, Japan, was fishing Lake Biwa using a Deps Sidewinder rod and a Shimano Antares DC7LV reel loaded with 25-pound Toray line when he pitched his bait -- a live bluegill -- next to a bridge piling. It was Kurita's first cast to the piling where he had seen a big bass swimming. He only twitched the bait a couple of times before he got a bite.

Matt’s Rant: When this catch first hit the AP wire it made the rounds on a lot of forums and was the scuttlebutt of a lot of angler water cooler conversations. Now that there has been more legitimacy brought to the catch, I feel better about posting this up.