In search of the rare (to PA) 10

There's a largemouth bass that lives in my mind as vivid as just about any memory from my past.

It was a cool Spring evening in early June, sometime in the early 1990s.

I was fishing one of my favorite coves on Marsh Creek Lake from my hand-me-down, freebie, 1973 Skee Craft tri-hull.

The boat looked rough, but it floated and it was mine. It afforded the opportunity to explore parts of Marsh Creek Lake that I drooled over for years as I fished the shoreline in my waders.

On this particular June evening, I cast my spinnerbait to the left side of a line of cattails, where I had caught many largemouths in the past.

I reeled the lure so it was just under the surface, leaving a V-shaped wake behind it.

Suddenly, a huge swirl enveloped the lure as a fish attacked, but I didn't feel the weight of a strike.

Clearly, the fish had missed, so I instantly stopped reeling and let the bait fall toward the bottom.

Before it got there, I then felt the tug of a solid strike underwater.

I set the hook, and the rod bowed deep. It was a big fish.

It stayed deep and ran hard. I remember the boat spinning around 180 degrees as the fish pulled.

Eventually it tired, and I led to my hand the biggest largemouth bass I had ever seen. It's still the biggest bass I’ve ever caught.

I had no scale, no measuring tape, no camera and no intention of keeping the bass.

After admiring it for a while, I let it go.

How big was it?

It was well over 20 inches long and had a full, fat belly. My whole fist easily fit inside its gaping maw.

I have no verification of any kind if my guess is accurate, but I put that bass at over 8 pounds.

Could it have been a rare Pennsylvania 10-pounder?

As much as I’d like to think so – and let's be honest, time makes fish grow bigger – the odds are against that largemouth weighing 10 pounds.

Yes, there are plenty of places where 10-pound largemouths are common, but Pennsylvania isn't one of them.

When I watch my favorite YouTube fishermen catching 10-plus-pounders, they’re fishing places like Texas or Florida or California.

Not Pennsylvania.

It's not that we don't have the habitat or forage base for bass to grow to 10 pounds in Pennsylvania. It's that it takes so long for them to reach that size, they’re likely to die of something along the way.

"Very simply, southern locales have a longer growing season and thus bass can continue to grow to larger size, ultimately attaining larger size in a shorter period of time," said Bob Lorantas, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's Warmwater Unit Leader.

"Although Pennsylvania largemouth bass attain large size, it requires a longer period of time, and the vagaries of weather and the environment lead to mortality before attainment of the sizes attained by more southerly largemouth bass."

Consider this. The Pennsylvania state record largemouth bass stands at 11 pounds, 3 ounces. It was caught by Donald Shade of Waynesboro on Birch Run Reservoir in Adams County.

In 1983.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Pennsylvania state record largemouth bass being caught.

As popular as bass fishing is across this state, and as many bass that are caught every year, no one has broken that record in 40 years.

The Fish and Boat Commission runs a non-certified program that recognizes the largest fish caught in the state each year, as reported by the anglers who caught them.

Last year, the biggest largemouth reported weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces. In 2021, it was a 7-pounder.

Just three bass weighing at least 10 pounds, caught on Pennsylvania waters, were reported to the Fish and Boat Commission in the past 10 years.

And remember, none of these catches were certified.

The biggest bass reported weighed 10 pounds, 4.4 ounces. It was caught in 2012 by Joseph Zajko on Beltzville Lake in Carbon County.

Ken Gordon is the owner of Gordon's Sports Supply in Eagle, which is the closest tackle shop to Marsh Creek Lake. Gordon's has operated in Eagle for as long as I can remember.

On the shop's web page message board, Gordon posted in 2008 that there are no official records for Marsh Creek Lake, but the biggest largemouth he knew of in all his years in business, was a 10 pounder.

More evidence suggesting the bass I caught was not that big.

The Fish and Boat Commission biologists keep tons of data on weights, lengths and ages of Pennsylvania fish.

According to charts Lorantas sent to me, a Pennsylvania largemouth on average must measure at least 24 inches long to reach a weight of 10 pounds.

Zajko reported his 2012, Beltzville 10-pounder measured 24.75 inches long.

And in order for a Pennsylvania largemouth bass to reach 24 inches in length – again, this is on average – it must be 18-20 years old.

In the fish world, that's ancient.

Heck, even 5-pound largemouths are old in Pennsylvania. According to Lorantas, on average they’re 11 years old.

A bass has to survive in the wild, with all the angling pressure this state sees, not to mention predation by ospreys, eagles, muskies and whatever else eats bass, for 11 years just to reach 5 pounds.

According to several online reports, a largemouth in Florida is likely to hit 10 pounds at 10 years of age.

Warmer weather means a longer growing season, which means bass get bigger faster.

So what can Pennsylvania do to allow better opportunity to catch 10-pound largemouths on a more regular basis?

According to Lorantas, not much.

"Apart from a longer growing season, that is not possible to influence, angling practices where black bass are carefully handled and afforded opportunity to live a long life and grow to large size before succumbing to mortality would be an option," he said.

"Reaching that benchmark rests solely upon Pennsylvania anglers in fish handling along with harvest and release practices they employ."

Generally in Pennsylvania, anglers can keep per day up to four bass measuring at least 15 inches long from Jan. 1 through April 7 and Oct. 1 through Dec. 31; up to six bass per day measuring at least 12 inches long from June 10 through Sept. 30; and no bass can be kept from April 8 through June 9.

These rules apply on all waters except those governed under the Big Bass Lakes Program, which allows anglers to keep per day up to four bass measuring at least 15 inches long from Jan. 1 through April 7 and June 10 through Dec. 31. No bass can be kept from April 8 through June 9.

"The Big Bass program was initially directed to large and medium size lakes in the 1980's and results showed improved abundance of bass below the size limit and more larger black bass," Lorantas said.

"Since that time, area managers have recognized that where angling activity is influencing abundance or size structure, the size limit elevation imposed by the Program has benefited abundance and size structure of black bass in smaller resources often to the delight of anglers.

"Where angling activity is especially intense, truncation of size structure to the 15-inch mark is evident, but overall abundance is improved and creating more and bigger bass than under conventional regulations."

In Lancaster County, Speedwell Forge Lake is managed as a Big Bass Lake. Marsh Creek Lake and Chambers Lake, both in Chester County, also are part of the program.

These regulations help protect bass somewhat on the waters governed by them, but as Lorantas noted, they’re not overcoming the short growing season, or the long lifespan needed for largemouths to get to 10 pounds.

Given all the data and history I could find, is it likely the giant bass I caught on Marsh Creek Lake nearly 30 years ago was a Pennsylvania 10-pounder?

No.

But a man can dream.

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