Pennsylvania native Jim Britenbaugh was pre-fishing for a tourney on New York’s Cayuga lake on July 11 when he landed what will be the new state record largemouth bass. The behemoth northern-strain largemouth tipped the scales to 12.35 pounds during an official weigh-in by NYS Department of Conservation staff. The new record beats the previous one, which has stood since 1987, by about a pound.
HITTING THE ROAD FOR RECORD BASS
“My alarm went off at 3:30 am and I woke up with a pounding headache,” on the morning of July 10, Britenbaugh told Wired2fish. “I hit snooze and closed my eyes to grab a few more minutes, but I woke up at 7:30 am to my dog licking my face.”
Brittenbaugh hit the road with his 21-foot Stratos in tow, nervous about the late start thanks to the headache. He had only fished Cayuga a half dozen times, and none of them recently. Plus, an incoming storm threatened to keep him off the water even longer. Still, he was optimistic as he had been spending most of his free time reviewing the lake on Google Earth, looking for possible hot spots and dropping pins on his graph.
He had also been reviewing footage of the 2014 B.A.S.S. tournament on Cayuga. Mercury pro Greg Hackney scored big by working the lake’s weed lines, catching 85 pounds during the final regular-season event on the B.A.S.S. Elite Series schedule that year. Brittenbaugh believed he could work a similar pattern.
With the rest of the anglers competing in the tourney already out fishing on the morning of July 11, he arrived at the lake and launched by himself. He stayed near the ramp until mid-morning, when he would be joined by good friend Dave Ruark at the ramp. The pair would take the Stratos and Mercury combo for a 12-mile run down to the area near where Hackney had fished, and the pins Britenbaugh dropped.
The duo arrived at a weed line in 18 to 21 feet of water, and Britenbaugh lowered the transducer for his forward-facing sonar, an Elite 9 unit that complements the other Lowrance graphs onboard. “I’m still kind of old-school, so I just use the live view to follow the weed line,” explains Britenbaugh. “I don’t use it to look for fish.”
They methodically worked the grass in the 20-foot depths with some success. Britenbaugh was fishing a Senko, wacky-rigged on a 2/0 Trokar Neko rig hook with a weed guard. He fishes Senkos on a long leader to overcome braid’s buoyancy, about 20 feet of 12-pound test Seaguar AbrazX in this instance. He has his Daiwa Exceler spooled with 20-pound test J Braid and attached to a 6 foot, 10 inch Rainshadow Immortal rod, custom-built using a Batson blank.
“I eased us into a slightly shallow point and spot-locked us,” says Britenbaugh, after identifying a likely point in about 8 feet of water. Fishing improved quickly. “I caught a 5.96-pounder, and took note of the spot to fish later during the tournament. We even took a video of the fish when we released it.”
BIG BASS ON!
They continued to dissect the grass with the Senko when Britenbaugh got a solid but subtle hit. He set the hook, then nothing really happened. At first, he thought he might have been hung on the grass or snagged on some obstacle. “Then, I felt the surge,” says Britenbaugh. The fish felt heavy, but pulled differently than the other big bass he’d caught, even the 7.1 pounder that was his previous personal best. Maybe it was something else?
The fish began taking drag, going under the boat and back into the weeds. At one point, the big bass tail-walked across the surface, proving it was a largemouth and giving the anglers a hint toward her massive size. Ruark got a look across its back and thought it must have weighed at least 7 pounds, probably more. As the fight went on, the anglers tried to guess the weight. Could it be double digits? A 10-pounder is a great fish anywhere, but they are few and far between this far north. Still, they hadn’t had a battle with a bass quite like this before.
Time stood still for Britenbaugh as he inched the fish toward the boat. Each time the fish got closer it found some more legs and gained back the line taken from her. But eventually, she was close enough for Ruark to get the net under her. As the fish cleared the water, her size became apparent. The duo weighed the fish twice, first on Britenbaugh’s scale. The 12-pound reading seemed like it had to have been a mistake; fish this far north just don’t get that big. So they checked on Ruark’s scale, which had a similar reading.
They weren’t sure what the New York State record was, but they figured the big bass had to be close. A quick Google search revealed the previous record was 11-pounds, 4-ounces, caught in nearby Otsego County by John Higbie in 1987. A call to the NYS Department of Conservation (DEC) was made, and a biologist was dispatched to the ramp to weigh the fish. Emily Zollweg-Horan, fish bio with the DEC, met Britenbaugh and weighed the giant largemouth: 12.35 pounds. Zollweg-Horan also grabbed scale samples to later determine the fish’s age.
After the weigh-in, they carefully drove the big fish back to deep water where she was released. Thanks to the careful handling, and the G Juice treatment they had thoughtfully added to the livewell, the fish swam off strong and should be currently foraging around on the bottom of Cayuga.
A LIFELONG ANGLER
Britenbaugh has been fishing since he was four or five years old, mostly with his grandfather. His dad was often on the road for work, so he spent a lot of time on the water by his grandpa’s side, fishing for trout in rivers and bass in farm ponds throughout central Pennsylvania. Grandpa was an accomplished angler in his own rite, gaining notoriety for a giant walleye he caught on Lake Erie. While Britenbaugh enjoyed all types of angling, bass quickly became a favorite, and he chased them whenever he could.
After graduating high school, Britenbaugh went to tech school, continuing to fish during whatever chance he got. He also had other hobbies, including motorcycles. He spent time wrenching and riding until around his 22nd birthday, when he was involved in an accident that was so bad he had to be helicoptered to the hospital.
After a series of reconstructive surgeries, Britenbaugh was on the mend. A good friend of his had been fixing his motorcycle up after the crash, unbeknownst to him, and presented the repaired bike. But with the toll riding had taken on him, he couldn’t go back to it. He thanked his friend for all his hard work, but told him to sell it. He knew he had gotten lucky despite all the injuries, and decided he should spend more time fishing—he was less likely to end back in the emergency room after a day on the lake.
Britenbaugh’s friend purchased the bike from him, and Britenbaugh used the funds to buy a boat, a Ranger R81 with a 175-horsepower Mercury engine. Britenbaugh had other boats in the past, including an aluminum Sea Nymph V-hull that he installed floors and a casting deck in. But this was his first tailor-made bass sled, and he set about outfitting it with the best electronics of the day. He gained inspiration from the pros on the B.A.S.S. circuit as well, which gave him the urge to compete.
“Kevin VanDam was a big inspiration to me around that time,” said Britenbaugh. VanDam had been so dominant on the tournament trail then, and Britenbaugh was buoyed by the success of a fellow northern angler. “I was really pumped watching him compete. It made me really get after it; even when I wasn’t competing I was out there fishing hard.”
It seems like Britenbaugh’s drive has paid off, with the bass of a lifetime.
NEW YORK STATE RECORD LARGEMOUTH BASS
Britenbaugh later received a phone call from NYS DEC staff stating that both scales used to obtain the weight had been tested as accurate to within a gram, and the record would be certified. The official paperwork still needs to be completed, but this record should be in the books shortly. With that, Britenbaugh hopes to keep it in a special spot, with the yellowed newspaper clipping of his Grandpa’s citation walleye caught on Lake Erie many years ago.
