Angler Lands Record Bass

[Phil Lilley]

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/r...08/01_31-03/OUT

With one just one fish, you might say 26-year-old Justin Riley of Woodbine broke five Maryland bass records. His 11-pound, 2.88-ounce fish taken from the Potomac Saturday is the biggest largemouth taken since records were first kept in the late 1950's. It also ranks tops in both the state's freshwater and Chesapeake Bay divisions, and add to that it's the biggest taken in any tournaments in Maryland - including the BASSMaster's Classic held out of Baltimore 20 years ago. And, though records aren't kept for ice fishing, Justin is surely atop the heap for a bass caught under the ice, which was the way his hog was reeled in from the frozen Potomac at Marshall Hall between Blue Plains an the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Maryland side of the River. It wasn't meant to be that way.

Justin was fishing a tournament in the Winter League of Anglers Choice with his dad Edward - and skim ice covered much of the river which of course made it impossible to cast everywhere he wanted. After leaving the docks he sliced through the thin ice with his bass boat's big motor, but once fishing and with not much success, he tried something different. With his bow motor he broke open ice to cast - and as he proceeded, via his electronics, he noted fish under the newly broken ice.

He began casting a half-ounce XPS blade bait of a mixture of lime and chartreuse and it wasn't long before the lunker grabbed it, then made a beeline under the ice. The whole scrap of about 10 minutes was fought under the ice. He landed his record at 8:30 a.m. and kept on fishing. By day's end, the father-son team had won the lunker award, most pounds in aggregate (20 pounds 2 ounces) and everything else.

Big fish are no strangers to Justin, who at times has fished the BASSMasters circuit. From the mouth of the Mattawoman he has taken a 9-pounder and four more largemouths of 8 pounds or better.

The .88 ounce made the difference between the largest tidal water bass and a tie with Rodney Cockrell of Calvert County, who on Oct. 4, 1983 cranked in an 11-pound 2-ouncer from Bowens Pond, a private fishing spot in Calvert County. It tops by a couple of pounds the biggest catch I made on one cast at that pond. About 25 years ago while fishing with Ebbie Smith of Prince Frederick at Bowen's, I cast a large propeller bait into a shady shallows and had a curious strike.

There were two jolts within a second, And when I got the fish to the net it turned out to be two bass, twins - each of 5 pounds, one at the forward hook and the other at the tail hook. Bass of 5 pounds or more weren't unusual at Bowen's.

For Justin, things aren't that close in the tidewater bass division, the record was a 9-pound, 1-ounce fish taken from the Pocomoke by J. D. Noell on Sept. 13, 1975. Record keeping is curious under DNR's tournament system. Cockrell will keep his record, but Noell has lost his. Fishing In Maryland, a fishing annual which set up the original record system, lumps fresh and tidewater bass together, so Justin's fish rules all for FIM honors. What's the difference; now we all know who caught Maryland's best largemouth.

Justin was in the dark for a while. On the boat, his scales, because of the cold weather showed different weights each time he tried to weigh his fish.

When he got ashore at the weighing station and he realized he might have a record, the fish was quickly taken to a market to be weighed on certified scales, but it couldn't be put on the scales - sanitary rules nix anything on market scales that are alien to what the store stocks in commercial fish, meat, vegetables and fruit. So he hurried to Bass Pro Shops in Hanover where the fish was weighed and still remains.

On the way to Bass Pro, Justin covered the fish's eyes and used a mix of fish preservative to keep it alive, then it was put in a quarantine tub where it was touch and go for a couple of hours. A soon as quarantine time is over, it will join the other fish on display in the big tank at Bass Pro for everyone to admire. It's a legitimate hog and came only three days after another record bass.

On the Wednesday of last week, Fred Barnes of Chesapeake, Va., caught a striped bass of 73 pounds at Cape Henry off the mouth of the Chesapeake to set a record for Virginia.

Justin's half ounce XPS lure is a look-alike of the popular Silver Buddy, but he did a little tinkering with it. He figured the treble hook was too long so he changed to a shorter one. He says it makes a difference, and who can argue with a man who has the record?

The Silver Buddy is among my favorite cold weather bass jigging artificials though I prefer it in silver. I was introduced to it by George H. W. Bush in 1992 when on a frigid and windy March day he pulled one from his tackle box as we were fishing the Potomac several miles upriver from where Justin scored. It didn't catch much that day; what with all the press and security boats around, but the president took a bass of about 9 inches, I got one of 10 inches - and on my wall is an autographed dollar bill.

[gonefishin]

Interesting but, is it just me or does that bass look a little small to be over 11 lbs??

[Trav]

It looks like an 11 pounder to me. It definately is a fat squatty 11. Not as long as some 8 pounders I have seen but what a head on that thing.

I do believe that a Potomac Bass would be considered a northern fish. Northern fish tend to grow slower, thier body mass is more dense. So a fish from southern waters can actually be longer and weigh less than thier northern counterparts.

Take a look at some of the fish on the Lunker Page in BassMaster Mag. Some of those I question.

This is definately over 10.

[taxidermist]

Nothing to measure by.

Fish can be the same size and weigh a lot different. Fish they have lived their life in moving water can out weigh slow water fish by a lot. the faster water make for more muscle and muscle is more dense than fat. Plus what rav says may hold some fact. I have seen fish of the same size weigh twolbs and many ounces different, largemouth and small mouth bass.