“ All the big catches were made when I fished alone . Your concentration is greater then , and this is a contributing factor to my success . Learn to leave your problems at home or work . Enjoy the outdoors and concentrate on fishing techniques only .”
meet frank domurat
For nearly 20 years , a Connecticut angler held his state ’ s record for largemouth bass and smallmouth bass . What ’ s more , both fish came from the same 297-acre lake .
The angler ’ s name was Frank Domurat , a barber , entrepreneur and civic leader from Newington , a suburb of Hartford . Domurat was born in Connecticut in 1912 , and he was an avid angler . He pursued several species over many decades , but bass were his specialty , and he had things dialed in on his favorite body of water – little Mashapaug Lake .
Domurat ’ s gear wouldn ’ t impress anyone today , but it certainly got the job done . He fished from a 28-pound kayak that he built himself and used a Heddon “ Pal ” tournament casting reel mounted on a rod he cobbled together from an old Shakespeare handle and Silaflex blank wrapped with spinning guides . He spooled the Heddon with 4- or 8-pound-test braided nylon line , which he preferred to monofilament because it didn ’ t stretch . The braided nylon might have presented visibility issues for some anglers , but Domurat did most of his fishing at night or in the low-light hours around dawn and dusk .
And night fishing in that era usually involved the legendary Arbogast Jitterbug . Domurat liked the 1 / 4- and 3 / 8-ounce versions in black ( night ) or perch ( dawn and dusk ), and he threw the bait whenever the water was calm . The rhythmic “ plop , plop , plop ” of the Jitterbug must have been mesmerizing to both bass and bass angler . His standard retrieve was slow , with plenty of pauses .
But if the wind ruffled the surface , Domurat ditched the Jitterbug in favor of a 1 / 4- or 2 / 5-ounce red and white Dardevle spoon . He ’ d cast it out near heavy cover – usually brush or rock – and start a medium retrieve almost as soon as the lure hit the water .
Domurat was fishing the spoon late in the afternoon of September 24 , 1954 , catching just a few little fish when he moved his kayak into a small cove and cast to some rocks .
“ When I began the retrieve ,” he recounted , “ the spoon felt snagged , but then a lunker smallmouth jumped and identified himself .”
That fish weighed 7 pounds , 10 ounces and was Domurat ’ s first entry in the Connecticut record books .
Record no . 2
A little less than seven years later , on the night of June 5 , 1961 , Domurat was back on Lake Mashapaug in his kayak , fishing about 200 yards from where he took the giant bronzeback . This time it was calm , and he was casting the Jitterbug to some lily pads .
“ As the plug hit the water , I heard a tremendous crash ,” he said , “ as if someone had really fallen in along the shoreline .” When he finally landed the big largemouth , it weighed 12 pounds , 14 ounces and was the largest bass ever taken in the New England states until 1975 . It is still the Connecticut state record .
That lunker bested Domurat ’ s previous personal best – a Mashapaug largemouth weighing 9-2 that he caught in 1953 – by nearly 4 pounds ! By the way , his 9-2 was the previous state record . Domurat ’ s two-lure approach matched his fishery and covered both bass species that lived there . His little kayak got him close to the action without disturbing the fish , and Mashapaug Lake was obviously a big-bass factory in that era .
“ You don ’ t need a great number of lures to be a successful fisherman , just a few lures worked correctly ,” Domurat told an interviewer in the 1970s .
He maintained that anglers waste too much time changing lures and believing they need a different type , size or color when they ’ re probably just fishing in the wrong place .
Domurat was a big believer in fishing alone when targeting giant bass .
“ All the big catches were made when I fished alone ,” he admitted . “ Your concentration is greater then , and this is a contributing factor to my success . Learn to leave your problems at home or work . Enjoy the outdoors and concentrate on fishing techniques only .” Words to live by . For nearly 30 years , Domurat held both the largemouth and smallmouth bass marks in the “ Nutmeg State .” He lost the smallmouth record in 1980 to a fish that bested his smallmouth by just 2 ounces , but he still retains the largemouth title and no discussion of New England trophy bass anglers could be complete without paying tribute to this man who was also a skilled glider pilot and avid coin collector .
By the way , during much of the time that Domurat owned the Connecticut records for largemouth and smallmouth bass , he also held the state record for northern pike . He caught that fish from the Connecticut River in 1960 – between his record bass catches – and it weighed 16-11 . His pike mark was eclipsed in 1974 , so for more than a decade , the Newington angling phenom held three of the most coveted fishing records in the state . It ’ s a distinction that will likely never be equaled . Domurat died in Florida in 1995 at the age of 82 . Earlier , I mentioned that individual anglers held multiple bass records simultaneously in the same state more than once . Frank Domurat in Connecticut was the first of those anglers .
The other double record holder is another interesting story for another time .
APRIL-MAY 2022 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 27