COLUMN
FOR THE RECORD
COLIN
MOORE
I
t’s safe to say that before last fall
many, if not most, fishermen in this
country weren’t aware that bass lived
anywhere except the northern half of
the Western Hemisphere and a few
places in Asia and Africa. Turns out that
bass are a lot more international in their
range than we might have originally
thought, and it portends an interesting
future.
In October, 13 teams from around
the globe – including one from this coun-
try that was largely composed of FLW
Tour pros – took part in the 13th Black
Bass World Championships on the Vaal
River in South Africa. FLWFishing.com
audiences captivated by the tournament
must have been at least mildly surprised
when they learned that bass fishing has
such a foothold in the world. Teams from
Russia, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Spain and
Portugal joined the usual mix of competi-
tors such as the USA, South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Mexico.
Thirteen countries might not seem
like much of an international mix, but it’s
a start. Conspicuous by their absence in
the World Championships were other
countries that didn’t show up, but whose
teams probably would have done well
there: Canada, South Korea, China and
Japan in particular.
To recap, South Africa won the event,
followed by the United States in second
and Italy in third. The South Africans
were due, having finished runners-up
the past two years. They’ll return to
defend their title in 2018 when Mexico
hosts the World Championships.
Who knows where this will all wind
up? Presumably, wherever there are
bass, there are avid anglers who want to
LES W
12
bass Have Gone Global
fish for them. That takes in a lot of terri-
tory. FishBase.org, an online source of
information about all things fish and fish-
ing, claims that largemouth bass of the
northern or Florida strains are present in
63 countries now and, in most cases,
have become well established.
In Japan, for instance, bass were
stocked in Lake Ashino in 1925 by a busi-
nessman named Akabishi Tetsuma sim-
ply because he enjoyed bass fishing
when he was in the States and wanted
to have access to it in his own land. It
worked. Today Japan is known for its
world-class bass fishermen, exceptional
fishing tackle and Manabu Kurita, who
caught the world-record-tying large-
mouth from Lake Biwa in 2009.
FishBase.org notes that largemouths
were shipped to Belgium and France in
1877, making them the first foreign
countries where the fish were stocked as
far as anyone can determine. Two years
later, England became home to large-
mouths, followed by Germany in 1888
and Italy in 1897 – the same year Hawaii
waters got bass.
The Phillipines followed in 1907; then
Japan in 1925, and South Africa and
Cuba in 1928.
And so it goes; bass and bass fishing
aren’t anything new to the anglers
across the seas. It’s just that most guys
on our side of the Big Pond probably
didn’t know about it. In fact, foreign
anglers have also dabbled around the
edges of the American tournament
scene for decades.
Zimbabwe was the first country out-
side the U.S. to affiliate with The Bass
Federation, back in the early ’70s. One of
In 2017, South Korea’s Hyo Chul Kim became the first International Division representative to fish
the Forrest Wood Cup.
FLWFISHING.COM I February-MarCH 2018