Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors Photo Gallery - Larry Kerns 19.03 bass. Success Lake Ca

HUGE BASS CAUGHT KICK OFF BASS SEASON -- Jim matthews column 31jan01

Success Lake has lived up to its name. One of the 25 largest bass of all time was caught this past Saturday when Larry Kerns of Exeter was slow-jigging a Silver Buddy in 32 feet of water at Success Lake in the western Sierra Nevada near the town of Porterville. The 19.03-pound largemouth Kerns caught is both a lake record and the largest bass caught in the nation this year. According to Bart Crabb, the author of "The Quest for the World Record Bass," the fish is the 21st largest ever caught by an angler. And, as usual in fishing stories, the bigger fish might have got away.

"I had one on 10 minutes before the 19-pounder that might have been bigger," said Kerns. "But I feel blessed. That's the fish of a lifetime for me." Kerns said his best fish prior to Saturday's fish was a mere nine-pound, four-ounce fish. Dave Taylor at the Lakeside Minnitt Mart in Porterville said that Kerns has "been on a roll lately. He's won or been in the money of every tournament since October -- and I keep track of three clubs in this area." The lake previous record at Success was 17-pound, 13-ounce specimen caught in February, 1997 by Johnny Juareca of Porterville, but it appears that Success is also on a big fish roll. On Monday, Buzz Carrillo of Porterville landed a 15-pound, 12-ounce bass while fishing a lure similar to the half-ounce Silver Buddy used by Kerns, a locally made lure called the Hazzard Shad.

Both lures are very similar to the widely-known Sonar, and all three can be jigged vertically or fished crank-bait style, but they get little use on waters much south of Bakersfield. Kerns and Taylor said that Success has become an excellent spot for trophy largemouths. "It is planted with trout, there are lots of crawdads, and it's got tons of shad. You can go across them and your meter turns black -- there are billions of them," said Kerns, describing his fish-finding sonar screen when going over a school of baitfish. He also said the two-fish, 15-inch minimum size restriction also assures too many fish aren't harvested from the lake. The huge largemouth will unofficially kick off the big bass season in California, when thousands of anglers will begin flocking to waters throughout the state in hopes of catching a world record largemouth bass, a fish that will weigh more than the 1932 catch made by George Perry in Georgia that weighed 22-pounds, four-ounces. Back then Perry merely ate the fish after weighing it. Today, anglers hope the fish will bring enough fame and fortune that it will feed them for the rest of their lives.

Where and when a bass bigger than Perry's fish will be caught, if ever, is a question of some debate. Twenty years ago, the bet probably would have been only a two-to-one bet after an 18-pound, 11-ounce fish and then a 21-pound, three-ouncer were caught just two months apart in early 1980. No one collected on that bet then, however. Ten years ago, the bet would have been even money that Castaic Lake would crank out a new world record. During a seven-day period in March, 1991, bass at 21 3/4-pounds and 22-pounds were caught. It seemed likely that a bass weighing four ounces more would be landed. But it wasn't. It looked like the record was broken March 1, 1997, when a huge bass was caught in Northern California's tiny Spring Lake near Santa Rosa. The fish weighed approximately 23 pounds before being released, but lack of a certified weight eliminated the fish for contention.

So where will a world record bass be caught today, if anywhere. Many anglers are looking toward a new reservoir near Hemet -- Diamond Valley Reservoir (formerly called Domenigoni and then Eastside). This reservoir is expected to be opened to fishing as early as next year and if growth rates of the bass already in the lake are any indication, Diamond Valley may indeed be the gem that finally topples the Perry standard. Mike Giusti, a Department of Fish and Game biologist in charge of designing and monitoring the fishery at this new reservoir, said nearly 6,000 juvenile Florida-strain bass were released into the rising water of the lake in 1999. Those fish are already 12- to 15-inches long and a mere 13-incher weighs a solid two pounds. The fish hatched in the spawn during the spring of 2,000 were from six- to 10-inches long in December, and Giusti estimates there are already over 250,000 of these fish in the lake.

Diamond Valley will be planted with over 100,000 trout each year, and it is packed with silversides, shad, sculpin, bluegill, green sunfish and crawdads. All of these things are great big bass chow. Anglers are expecting that in eight to 10 years, this new reservoir may indeed be home to the world record largemouth bass. Time will tell.