Rock Star Here; Ho-Hum at Home by Jim Sheperd 2-23-2011
gengberg February 23rd, 2011
Rock Star Here; Ho-Hum at Home For the past week, Manabu Kurita might think he’s been living in an alternate universe.
Kurita’s the man who pulled a largemouth bass from Japan’s Lake Biwa and tied the longstanding world record for largemouth bass. Actually, Kurita’s fish bested the record, but not by enough weight to be declared the sole record holder. So, he’s the co-holder of the record. That sticks in his craw, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Since landing his big bass, Kurita has moved from the obscurity of a single-minded angler Japanese angler obsessed big bass to near rock star status with bass anglers.
Manabu Kurita signing yet another life-sized cardboard version of his world-record bass. Jim Shepherd photo.
At last week’s Bassmaster Classic in New Orleans, Kurita was a celebrity, despite an inability to carry on conversations with the anglers who brought cardboard replicas of his record-setting bass to him for autographing. With a translator standing by his side, Kurita patiently answered questions in what could only be described as a decidedly Japanese sense of decorum.
When I asked him about his impression of the Bassmaster Classic and the fans that had flocked around him -and the actual mount of his world record fish, he said he was “happy to see how much the people knew about his fish.”
Questioned on what it took to catch a world record, his observation was more pointed, but equally succinct: “Time. Money. Luck.”
When it came to interviews, Manabu Kurita’s game face could have given Kevin VanDam a run for his money. It was when he was free of the spotlight that you could see his enthusiasm. During the weigh-ins on Friday, Kurita came streaming into the VIP section, accompanied by a translator and several fishing friends. Sitting there, watching the procession of anglers weighing their catches, he didn’t look any different from the other fans watching the fifty elite anglers competing for the $500,000 first prize.
His smile was the genuine article, and that’s when it became easy to imagine the soft-spoken Kurita heading out onto Lake Biwa for twelve years before landing his big bass.
That’s right, he fished the lake an average of 10 to 25 days per month for twelve years, constantly searching for the big bass. And he’s decidedly not impressed with only sharing a world record. Kurita, you see, says he’s seen bigger bass, he’s just not managed to boat one of them - yet.
“I have seen several fish better than the one I caught,” he told me, “it will take some time, but I am going to catch one of those bigger fish.”
So where does one get the money to fish 25 days a month? If you’re Kurita, the answer’s simple: “I borrowed it.” And he works equally hard to keep the money flowing.
He might be wearing a fishing jersey, but being a bass angler in Japan’s not quite the same as being a tournament angler in the United States.
In fact, his accomplishment is probably an embarrassment to the Japanese government. The bass is not a native Japanese fish. In Japan, non-native species are a no-no.
Bass are not only welcome, they’re marked for eradication.
Consequently, the government probably wouldn’t mind if Kurita took every bass, big or little, out of Lake Biwa. In fact, catching a bass and putting it back -in any Japanese waters- would lead to a stiff fine.
“If you broke the world’s record,” I asked Kurita, “would that soften the government’s attitude toward Japan’s bass?”
Shepherd holds Kurita’s record-tying mount. It’s as close as most of us will ever come to a bass that big.
“Regrettably,” he answered, “it would not.”
Despite the government’s position toward bass, Manabu Kurita says he will fish on.
As an angler, it’s not difficult to understand that it’s not public recognition nor sponsor dollars that drive him out onto Lake Biwa. His, like most of ours, is a solitary quest for the gigantic big bass he knows is lurking out there.
The difference is that Kurita has already accomplished something that would satisfy most of us. For him, a tie’s simply not enough.
–Jim Shepherd
- Fishing , Conservation , Bass , Berkley Fishing Wire , Tips , Largemouth Bass , Photos , The Fishing Wire , Websites
