Michigan’s venerable state records pose quite a task for FLW anglers

June 15, 2001 • Jeff Schroeder • Archives

For competitors looking to snag a million dollars in the Visa $2 Million Challenge at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event in Detroit, one thing is certain: If somebody catches a state-record bass out of Lake St. Clair, it will be the fishing achievement of a lifetime.

Michigan holds one of the oldest smallmouth bass state records in the nation. In 1906 an angler named W.F. Shoemaker pulled a 27-inch, 9-pound, 4-ounce smallmouth bass out of Long Lake in Cheboygan County. In almost a hundred years, no one has been able to catch one larger despite the fact that Michigan is one of the more productive smallmouth havens in the country.

Hundred-year-old records can be hard to break, to say the least. But when it comes to the state largemouth bass record, at least FLW anglers will be up against a little less formidable half-century of history. The Michigan largemouth bass record stands at 11 pounds, 15 ounces – not huge by national standards, but big enough to hold onto the mark for the last 42 years. In fact, two identical largemouth records stand in Michigan.

Jack Rorex caught his record bucketmouth in 1959 at Bamfield Dam in Oscoda County, but he merely tied the 11-pound, 15-ounce largemouth record first established by William Maloney in 1934 at Big Pine Island Lake in Kent County.

They are two records of equal weight – and even weightier significance in terms of their longevity: It’s not easy to catch record-sized bass in the state of Michigan.

In contrast to the southern bodies of water that the FLW Tour tends to frequent, Michigan’s climate is generally not suitable for big-bass stocking programs. So while states like Louisiana, Texas and California that employ vigorous Florida-strain stocking programs have played leapfrog with their state bass records over the last decade or two, Michigan hosts a bass population that simply remains steady.

Particularly in Lake St. Clair, where the cold water spilling from Lake Huron turns over and refreshes the pool in about a day, it can be especially tough to land a record lunker.

“It’s an all-natural (bass) population,” said Bob Haas, a research biologist with the Mt. Clemens Research Station, a division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources that oversees water management on Lake St. Clair. “Lake St. Clair is quite productive, but the fish grow fairly quickly. That tends not to lend itself to record-size bass.

While Haas says that it’s not uncommon for anglers to catch smallies in the 4- to 6-pound range, a 7-pound smallmouth is something to talk about. A 9 1/2-pound record-breaker? Haas says the odds are “probably not great.”

“I guess you could say the fish live fast and die young,” he said.

And every pro bass angler knows that if you’re going to fish St. Clair, you’re going to have to target smallmouth. There is a largemouth population in the lake, but it is 1 percent the size of the smallmouth population. Consequently, Haas says, it would be even less likely to catch a record largemouth during the FLW tournament.

Still, as always, there is a chance. This is fishing, after all – world-class tournament fishing – and anything can happen.