Pennsylvania native Jim Britenbaugh was pre-fishing for a tournament on New York’s Cayuga lake on July 11 when he landed what would become a new state record largemouth bass. The behemoth northern-strain largemouth tipped the scales at 12.35 pounds at an official weigh-in by NYS Department of Conservation staff. The new record beat the previous one, which had stood since 1987, by almost a pound.
HITTING THE ROAD FOR RECORD BASS
“My alarm went off at 3:30 am and I woke up with a terrible headache,” on the morning of July 10, Britenbaugh told Wired2fish. “I snoozed and closed my eyes to get a few minutes, but I woke up at 7:30 am to my dog licking my face.”
Brittenbaugh rode his 21-foot Stratos in tow, nervous about the late start because of a headache. He had only fished the Cayuga half a dozen times, and none of them recently. Plus, an approaching storm threatened to keep him out of the water for much longer. Still, he’s optimistic because he spends most of his free time reviewing the lake on Google Earth, looking for possible hot spots and dropping pins on his graph.
He also reviews footage of the 2014 BASS tournament in Cayuga. Mercury pro Greg Hackney scored big by working the lake’s weed lines, landing 85 pounds in the final regular-season event on the BASS Elite Series schedule that year. Brittenbaugh believes he can create a similar pattern.
Since the other anglers competing in the tournament were already fishing on the morning of July 11, he came to the lake and launched alone. He stayed near the ramp until mid-morning, when he joined good friend Dave Ruark on the ramp. The pair would take the Stratos and Mercury combo for a 12-mile run down to the area near where Hackney fished, and Britenbaugh dropped the pins.
The duo reached a grass 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 on board. “I’m still pretty old-school, so I just use live view to follow the grass line,” Britenbaugh explains. “I don’t use it to find fish.”
They methodically worked the grass to a depth of 20 feet with some success. Britenbaugh was fishing a Senko, wacky-rigged on a 2/0 Trokar Neko rig hook with a weed guard. He fished Senkos on a long leader to overcome the buoyancy of the braid, about 20 feet of 12-pound test Seaguar AbrazX this time. His Daiwa Exceler is spooled with 20-pound test J Braid and attached to a 6-foot, 10-inch Rainshadow Immortal rod, custom-built with a Batson blank.
“I dropped us to a slightly shallow point and we got spot-locked,” Britenbaugh said, after identifying a likely point in about 8 feet of water. Fishing improved rapidly. “I caught a 5.96-pounder, and noted the spot to fish later in the tournament. We even took a video of the fish when we released it.”
BIG BASS ON!
They continued to split the grass with the Senko as Britenbaugh landed a solid but gentle hit. He set the hook, then nothing really happened. At first, he thought he might be stuck in the grass or caught on some obstacle. “Then, I felt the climb,” Britenbaugh said. The fish felt heavy, but pulled differently than any other big bass he’s caught, even the 7.1 pounder that used to be his personal best. Maybe that’s different?
The fish began to crawl, went under the boat and returned to the weeds. At one point, the large bass tail waddled to the surface, proving it was a largemouth and giving anglers a clue to its massive size. Ruark looked behind it and figured it weighed at least 7 pounds, probably more. As the fight continued, the fishermen tried to guess the weight. Can it be double digits? A 10-pounder is a great fish anywhere, but they are few and far between this far north. However, they had never had a battle with a bass like this before.
Time stood still for Britenbaugh as he hauled the fish toward the boat. With each approach the fish found a few more feet and regained the line taken from him. But eventually, he was close enough for Ruark to get the net under him. As the fish cleared the water, his size became apparent. The duo weighed the fish twice, first on Britenbaugh’s scale. The 12-pound reading seems to be a mistake; fish in the far north just don’t get that big. So they checked Ruark’s scale, which had a similar reading.
They weren’t sure what the New York State record was, but they thought the big bass had to be close. A quick Google search revealed that 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 a biologist was sent to the ramp to weigh the fish. Emily Zollweg-Horan, fish bio at DEC, met Britenbaugh and weighed the giant largemouth: 12.35 pounds. Zollweg-Horan also took scale samples to later determine the age of the fish.
After the weigh-in, they carefully drove the big fish back into the deep water where it was released. Thanks to careful handling, and the G Juice treatment they thoughtfully added to the livewell, the fish are swimming strong and should be currently foraging under the Cayuga.
A LONG-TERM ENGLANDER
Britenbaugh has been fishing since he was four or five years old, mostly with his grandfather. His father was often on the road for work, so he spent a lot of time on the water with his grandfather, fishing for trout in rivers and bass in farm ponds throughout central Pennsylvania. Grandpa was an accomplished fisherman in his own right, best known for a giant walleye he caught in Lake Erie. While Britenbaugh enjoyed all kinds of fishing, bass quickly became a favorite, and he chased them whenever he could.
After graduating high school, Britenbaugh attended tech school, continuing to fish any chance he got. He also has other hobbies, including motorcycles. He spent time wrenching and riding until around his 22nd birthday, when he was involved in an accident so serious that he had to be helicoptered to the hospital.
After a series of reconstructive surgeries, Britenbaugh recovered. A close friend of his was repairing his motorcycle after the crash, unbeknownst to him, and showed the repaired bike. But with the toll riding that has been done to him, he can’t get it back. He thanks his friend for all his hard work, but tells him to sell it. He knew he was lucky despite all the injuries, and decided to spend more time fishing—less likely to end up back in the emergency room after a day on the lake.
Britenbaugh’s friend bought the bike from him, and Britenbaugh used the funds to buy a boat, a Ranger R81 with a 175-horsepower Mercury engine. Britenbaugh has had other boats in the past, including an aluminum Sea Nymph V-hull to which he installed floors and a casting deck. But this was his first custom bass sled, and he started outfitting it with the best electronics of the day. . He also got inspiration from the pros on the BASS circuit, which gave him the urge to compete.
“Kevin VanDam was a huge inspiration to me at the time,” Britenbaugh said. VanDam had been dominating the tournament trail before, 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 though I don’t compete there I fish a lot.”
Britenbaugh’s drive seems to have 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 tested accurate to within a gram, and the record would be secured. The official paperwork still needs to be completed, but this record should be on the books soon. Because of this, Britenbaugh hopes to keep it in a special place, along with a yellowed newspaper clipping of his Grandpa’s citation walleye caught in Lake Erie years ago.
