IDAHO, USA — A fishing podcast host and his curiosity proved a 75-year-old Idaho fishing record and uncovered more accompanying details around the little-known largemouth bass record catch.
Ken Duke, co-host of The Big Bass Podcast, was tipped off Idaho's 10 lb 15 oz largemouth bass record credited to 'Mrs. W. M. Taylor.' The record held no other measurements, a list of the gear used or even an official date of the catch.
"So, that intrigued me. I wanted to find out a little bit more about it, or really what I wanted to find out was whether or not I could find anything more about it," Duke said. "I learned that her name is Mary Alice Hurt Taylor, and that she and her husband got married around the turn of the last century, and moved from Missouri to Spokane, in the early 1920s."
After learning her name, Duke found proof of the catch in Field & Stream magazine and their account of national contest winners.
"That was the first place that Mrs. Taylor's record actually showed up - not only with the matching weight of 10 pounds, 15 ounces from Anderson lake - but also what he discovered was the date of the catch being 1948," Idaho Fish and Game Sportfishing Program Coordinator Martin Koenig said.
The official catch date is recorded on October 22, 1948. Taylor was 63 years old. Fish and Game didn't recognize her record until the early 1960's, according to Koenig.
"Her record has persisted in the record books despite the mysterious missing details of that record. We still have yet to see a bass that's even close," Koenig said.
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