Big One Doesn’t Scare Them : Anglers From Across U.S. Believe Record Largemouth Bass Awaits in Castaic Lake

They will arrive any day now, all those good ol’ bass fishermen from Fish Fry, Ala., and Crawdad, N.C. They have swallowed the fact that the biggest largemouth bass in the world lives not in the backwaters of a swamp down South, but in an outdoor bathtub 40 miles from Hollywood, near a freeway.

The world record of 22 pounds 4 ounces has stood for nearly 61 years and outlived its owner, George Perry, who pulled it out of Montgomery Lake in Georgia on June 2, 1932.

The experts believe that the next world record for America’s most popular game fish will come from Castaic Lake, a V-shaped link in the aqueduct system along Interstate 5.

The proof is there in the International Game Fish Assn. record book, which shows all six largemouth line-class records now come from California--four from Castaic. And the admission has been there the last couple of years in the out-of-state license plates at the launch ramp parking lots.

“The world record does exist here,” said Bob Crupi, the 39-year-old LAPD motorcycle patrolman who owns three of the line-class records. “I know it exists here. It’s only a matter of time.”

When Castaic bass anglers talk about the Big One coming due, they don’t mean an earthquake. Crupi has come close. His best catches at Castaic have led the country the last three years: 21.01 pounds in 1990, 22.01 in ‘91--the second largest ever caught--and 18.58 in ’92. His fishing buddy, Danny Kadota, owns the 20-pound-test-line record at 19 pounds.

But the biggest one might still be swimming around down there, and some other locals can’t wait. A WON BASS tournament was scheduled at Castaic last week, but was canceled because of rain.

Rain? The 16 two-man teams that showed up simply put on slickers, threw $100 apiece into a pot, launched their boats and had an “outlaw” tournament, anyway. Jay Poore of Glendale and John Ed Wilder of Canoga Park won first prize of $800. The limit was five fish per team. They caught only two, but those weighed 10.3 and 8.03 pounds for a winning total of 18.33. Poore also won $160 for biggest fish.

“I’ve been fishing this lake since it was built in the early ‘70s,” said Poore, a service writer for an automobile dealer. “This is a fabulous lake.”

There’s only one reason he fishes it, and it’s not the scenery.

“I dream about it,” Poore said. “Every true bass fisherman dreams about it. You just go out there to do your best every time, and what comes, comes.”

The closest he has come is 13.9 pounds.

After the tournament, the anglers shed their slickers, but not their caps, and gathered at Patti’s 50s Clubhouse Cafe in Castaic. Surrounded by black-and-white photos of James Dean and the Honeymooners, with Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet” playing on the juke box, they munched Buffalo Bob double cheeseburgers and talked about the Big One.

“It’s in the lake, I’ll say that,” said Dan Warme of Northridge, who introduced the Tora Tube artificial lure last year and immediately placed first and second in tournaments. Warme’s biggest catch is 14.0.

“I’ve lost ‘em bigger,” he said. “I had one that hurt me.”

Hurt you how? a reporter asked, swallowing the hook.

“I dislocated my shoulder describing it later.”

He would dislocate both shoulders if he caught the record.

“A couple of things will determine whether it gets caught this year,” he said. “If the lake gets full by the end of February or March, there’s a good chance it won’t get caught. The fish will be spread out too much. The breaks aren’t in the usual places where the guys fish, and there’s a lot more water to cover.”

Crupi doesn’t entirely agree, but Crupi is an advocate of live bait--crawfish, or “crawdads.”

As the reservoir fills from the recent rains, Crupi said, “What it’s going to do is allow people to spread out. The story about 90% of the fish in 10% of the water holds true. These big bass still have their favorite spots. They don’t travel all over the lake.”

Ron Cervenka, who guides at Castaic and organizes bass tournaments, said anglers can thank the California Department of Fish and Game for all the big bass in the lake.

“It’s planted regularly with trout,” Cervenka said. “That’s what the large bass eat.”

Theoretically, the state plants the trout to be caught by trout fishermen, not as free lunch for the bass, but that’s the way it is. If trout fishermen consider that unfair, Cervenka offers this logic: “Every one of us bass anglers pays his $23 and change for a fishing license, and those monies support the hatcheries, (so) we’re paying for those trout.”

Mike Brozowski, weighmaster for most local tournaments, said the time is ripe for the world-record bass.

“It will come out of this lake, and there’s an excellent chance it will come out this spring,” Brozowski said. “There are some new types of bait that are better localized for this lake. They resemble trout so well, like the Tora Tube does, that the fish will go for that.

“(Also,) the guys who fish the live baits--crawdads, mudsuckers and things like that--have learned how to fish them very effectively. They’ll fish with currents. They work their live bait, as we work our plastic baits. They keep their line taut the whole time. They can tell when that bait’s being stressed by an attack of the fish. The people on the artificial baits, like (guide) Gary Harrison on jigs, have learned when those big fish hold--what times of year--and they fish the (best) spots.”

Perhaps no lake has felt the pressure from so much expertise as Castaic will receive in the next few months. And yet, the record might fall to a novice.

“Absolutely,” Warme said. “The fish don’t know who you are.”

“It could happen any day of the week,” Crupi said, “(by) a kid throwing out a spinnerbait from shore. Big fish have been caught that way. They do make mistakes.

“The 21-pounder I caught in ’90 had two separate fishing lines and hooks hanging out of the anal area--the packaged kind that are pre-tied that people use to fish with nightcrawlers and stuff like that. Obviously, the tackle that people were using was not up to par for landing a fish like that, and two times that fish got off.”

The Berkley company, creators of the Power Bait revolution, has offered $500,000 to the angler who gets the world record by June 1 using one of its plastic Power Worms or Finesse lures, as well as $10,000 to anyone who sets a state or Canadian record.

Surprisingly, some experts aren’t interested.

“My chances of catching that fish on a live crawdad is a lot greater than catching it on that plastic worm,” Crupi said. “And if I do catch it on the crawdad, I think my reputation has been established to the point where I could probably promote that fish into five times that amount of money.”

Late this summer, the anglers with the largest bass from each of 49 states--Alaska is excluded--will gather at an undetermined site for the Goodyear/Bassin’ fish-off, with $200,000 cash and $50,000 in prizes to the winner. Crupi has represented California the last two years.

The real key, Warme said, is to “work at it harder and spend a lot of time on the water.”

“I’m not going to change a thing,” Crupi said. “For 25 years, I’ve done the same thing over and over. The quest doesn’t change. The only thing I’m going to try and do is put more time in. I don’t know how much more time I can put in. I already put in 150 days a year. But that’s what’s going to give that one person the edge.”

They will be up against the Southern determination that if the world record is to be lost by the South, at least it can be won by a Southerner.

“Porter Hall came out from Florida and cornered Danny (Kadota) and me in the parking lot as we were coming in one day,” Crupi said.

“He picked our brains (about) the equipment, how to fish the crawdads. So here the guy in his first season (at Castaic) picks off 12 bass over 10 pounds, with his biggest 15-8.”

Apparently, Crupi told all. Many successful anglers aren’t as free with their secrets.

“If it was classified, we wouldn’t have released the videotape,” Crupi said, laughing.

A new 1 1/2-hour video reveals his strategies and techniques.

“You can catch big fish,” Crupi said. “It’s not just luck, and you can repeat your successes.”

That faith--”knowing you can go out and catch bigger fish, over and over again,” Crupi said--reinforces the ethic of catch and release by encouraging anglers to give up their trophy catches alive, confident that they will get others. Crupi released his 22-pounder after weighing, measuring and photographing it. All but four of 33 caught in last weekend’s informal tournament were returned to the lake.

With proper handling, there is a good chance the world record largemouth also will survive. The Texas state record, a bass named Ethel, has been swimming around in an aquarium for the last seven years. Crupi has a hunch that the record bass might already be one that got away.

“I just wonder how many times that fish may have been hooked already,” he said.