The Big Bass Podcast

The first Oregon state record bass was caught in 1915 and that record stood for 66 years. Then, between 1981 and 2002, the record was broken seven times — an average period of every three years. In this episode of The Big Bass Podcast, we look at these records and also another fish that seems to have been forgotten to the record books. Mentioned in the show: https://youtu.be/Ou3nWh34YXs https://yo...

What’s the biggest bass of all time? Is it Manabu Kurita’s world record from Japan? Or maybe Dottie from California’s Lake Dixon? Or has there been a “bigger” fish in the annals of bass history? On this episode of “The Big Bass Podcast,” Terry and Ken go way back to the story of a bass so big it changed the world of sportfishing ... and it was caught on Independence Day! For more of The Big Bass P...

Bass live in 49 of the 50 United States, and state records are broken every year or so. But in Wisconsin, the state records for largemouth and smallmouth bass have been remarkably stable. The largemouth record was set in 1940, while the smallmouth mark was established in 1950. For nearly 75 years, the Badger State bass records have been untouched. For more of The Big Bass Podcast, look for us here...

Bass fishing and record keeping may have hit their stride in the 20th century, but there were lunker largemouths and sizable smallmouths long before that. In fact, there were claims of bass far bigger than anything we’ve seen or heard of in living memory. These are the tales of the biggest bass of the 1800s. For more of The Big Bass Podcast, look for us here: Website:  https://www.thebigbasspodcas...

Over the past decade, swimbaits have become part of the vernacular in bass fishing all over the world. That wasn't so only 15 years ago, let alone in the mid-1980s through the 1990s. Even with countless fish over 10 pounds from the West Coast, anglers outside that bubble were scared to throw them, and for obvious reasons; they're huge and intimidating. Today, the swimbait is thrown with co...

Join The Big Bass Podcast for our second live show. We are joined by fisheries biologist and big bass expert Steven Bardin, who answers your questions! For more of The Big Bass Podcast, look for us here: Website:  https://www.thebigbasspodcast.com YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@thebigbasspodcast Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thebigbasspodcast Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thebigb...

The history of Alabama spotted bass is the early history of world records. The first five world record spots all came from Alabama and all from Lewis Smith Lake. All of the world records since then have been direct descendants of Smith Lake spots. Mentioned in the show: https://youtu.be/AYi9Gq_d_Ks For more of The Big Bass Podcast, look for us here: Website:  https://www.thebigbasspodcast.com YouT...

When we started this channel, we promised the viewers this wouldn't be another big bass channel about California, Texas, or Florida. We were going to cover the records of every state and more. So far, outside of the three obvious states, we've covered Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Georgia. In this episode, we head back north; this time to the Buckeye State. When w...

The Big Bass Podcast did its first live show on YouTube Tuesday, May 16, 2023! Viewers/listeners were able to ask Ken and Terry questions about the show, big bass, and whatever else was on their minds. For more of The Big Bass Podcast, look for us here: Website:  https://www.thebigbasspodcast.com YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@thebigbasspodcast Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thebigbasspod...

David Hayes caught a giant smallmouth bass from Dale Hollow Lake in the summer of 1955. It reigned as the world record for more than 40 years. Then, in the mid-1990s, allegations of fish tampering surfaced, which led to the catch being decertified by the IGFA, the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, and the State of Kentucky. In 2005, Ken Duke decided to look into the story. Mentioned in the show: ht...

David Hayes caught a world record smallmouth bass from Dale Hollow Lake in the summer of 1955. In the mid-1990s, an outdoor writer and educator named Eldon Davis challenged the record. An affidavit from 1955 surfaced, alleging that the fish had been filled with 3 pounds of weights. IGFA, the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, and the state of Kentucky decertified Hayes’ catch. Mentioned in the show:...

David Hayes caught a world record smallmouth bass from Dale Hollow Lake in the summer of 1955. It remained the world record until 1996, when it was disqualified after allegations of wrongdoing. This episode details the catch and takes us up to the time when Hayes’ record was called into question. Mentioned in the show: https://youtu.be/AYi9Gq_d_Ks https://youtu.be/Rskprr6V2Po For more of The Big B...

On this episode of The Big Bass Podcast, we welcome back Steven Bardin, fisheries biologist for Major League Fishing and owner of Pro Lake Management. The subject for today’s show is how to stack the odds in your favor to catch your personal best. Ken and Terry talk with Steve about how to decipher the lakes in your area that have what it takes to produce the biggest bass in your city, county, and...

After George Perry’s 22-pound largemouth bass from Georgia in 1932, the quest for record bass was dormant for more than 40 years. Then a beginning angler in the San Diego area rocked the fishing world with a 20-pound, 15-ounce largemouth caught on a nightcrawler and push-button reel. Dave Zimmerlee’s catch jump-started California’s quest for record bass and led to a decades-long era of mania, frau...

No show about big bass would be complete without stories of the ones that got away. After all, it’s the ones that got away that help to make the ones we actually catch so precious and important. In this episode of The Big Bass Podcast, we hear stories about the ones that got away from legendary anglers Bill Dance, Shaw Grigsby, Skeet Reese, and 2023 Bassmaster Classic champ Jeff Gustafson. For mor...

It takes just the right combination of factors to produce a record fish of any species. Fisheries biologist Steven Bardin has dedicated his career to bringing better bass fishing to his clients and partners, including Major League Fishing. As the owner of Texas Pro Lake Management, he’s regularly called upon to evaluate and improve private waters, and he’s personally grown largemouth bass to 17 1/...

In the March-April 1997 issue of Sporting Classics magazine, the editor decided to play an April Fools' joke on his readership. An article in that issue — “Has Roy Greer Caught the New World Record Bass?” — told the fabricated story of a 22-pound, 7-ounce largemouth bass from South Carolina. For more of The Big Bass Podcast, look for us here: Website:  https://www.thebigbasspodcast.com YouTube...

The Bassmaster Classic is the biggest, brightest stage in competitive fishing, and every tournament angler dreams of holding up a giant bass as he walks across that stage. Preston Clark not only dreamed it, but he did it bigger and better than anyone in history. Here’s the story of the biggest bass ever caught in the Bassmaster Classic. Part 1: https://youtu.be/JFo9D3TFMvw For more of The Big Bass...

The Bassmaster Classic is the biggest, brightest stage in competitive fishing, and every tournament angler dreams of holding up a giant bass as he walks across that stage. Only a very few anglers have lived that dream, but ironically, it didn’t always pan out quite the way they imagined. Here are the stories of the biggest bass ever caught in the Bassmaster Classic. In the first episode of this tw...

The McMinn County Bassmasters tournament did not start well for David Presley. His outboard wouldn’t start. By the time he and his partner started fishing, it was almost two o’clock in the afternoon. Twenty-five minutes later, he had a bass that was not only big enough to win the entire tournament on its own, but also become a new state record ... or not, depending on what state he was in when he...

California was long thought to be the state that would produce the world record largemouth bass. First, it was the San Diego lakes that profited from the 1959 Florida bass experiment conducted by Orville Ball. Shortly after, Lake Casitas, in Ventura County, was stocked in 1968, as was Lake Castaic in 1974. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, these fisheries were producing record-class catches that...

Texas has been a destination state for big bass ever since the 1980s, when the Florida bass they introduced in the ’70s first reached teen status. But before Florida bass made their way to the Lone Star State, a bus driver from San Francisco held the top spot on the Texas lunker list, and he held it for more than 38 years. Mentioned in the show: Should Florida's State Record Largemouth be 20-02? (...

We dream of fame and glory if we’re fortunate enough to catch a world-record bass, but we want riches, too, and for decades we’ve been told that catching a world-record largemouth bass is worth a million dollars. Is it? And if a world record largemouth is worth a million dollars, what is a world record smallmouth or spotted bass worth? Mentioned in the show: Did this Comedian Catch the World Recor...

In 1923, using a Creek Chub Pikie, Fritz Friebel caught a 20-pound, 2-ounce largemouth bass from a natural lake in Pasco County, Florida. It was the first bass to be recognized as a “world’s record,” and it lasted for several years, eventually replaced by George Perry’s 22-4 in 1932 ... but there’s an argument that it should have lasted much longer. Mentioned in the show: H.W. Ross and his 23 1/2-...

This episode of The Big Bass Podcast features Billy Westmoreland, the greatest smallmouth angler of all time. Ken and Terry go into Westmoreland's life, how he started guiding at age 12 on Tennessee's Dale Hollow Lake, his two 10-pound smallmouths, his tournament career, and much, much more. It's a look back on a man who is the greatest trophy smallmouth hunter that ever lived.