Fritz worked on the tiny family farm and completed a few years of college . He was a short , stocky guy — standing just 5-foot-6 — but he was a terrific athlete who played golf and tennis . As a baseball shortstop , he was good enough to be offered a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds . He turned it down .
In 1917 , he enlisted in the U . S . Army to serve in World War I and rose to the rank of sergeant first class before being honorably discharged . When he came home , Fritz went to work for Knight & Wall Company – a hardware business – in Tampa . Over the next 40 years with the firm , he ’ d serve in a variety of roles , including clerk , bookkeeper , driver , traveling salesman , and sales manager .
He may have enjoyed his position as traveling salesman most . Fritz covered central Florida and always carried his fishing gear and clothes with him wherever he went .
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER the catch
June 17 , 1923 was a Sunday , and Fritz said he should have been in church . Instead , he was bass fishing with his brother-in-law and a new acquaintance . According to Friebel , they were on Moody Lake in Pasco County , which is now split in two by I-75 , but then covered about 200 acres . According to family and friends years later , Fritz and company were almost certainly on another lake and only referenced Moody to throw other anglers off the trail .
Friebel brought his own rowboat , and the trio found another boat at the lake . They split up – Friebel and the new friend in Fritz ’ s boat , and his brother-in-law in the other . The friend drew the short straw and started the day by paddling while Fritz got to fish . He was casting his favorite lure – a Number 700 Creek Chub Pikie – on a 4 1 / 2-foot casting rod . He fished for some time with limited success before reaching “ a kind of enclosed space surrounded by lily-pads . Just the place for the haunt of a big bass .”
Those words are allegedly Friebel ’ s and come from the 1925 Creek Chub catalog . The article , “ Smashing a World Record ,” has Fritz ’ s byline , but the purple prose makes it unlikely that he actually wrote it .
“ I made a cast to one of the boundaries of the pads ,” it reads . “ Without the slightest warning , and of a sudden , the water churned into an immense circle of suds , which led me to believe that an alligator had actually taken the bait .” Of course , it was no alligator . Fortunately , Friebel ’ s new friend had a cool head . He dropped the paddle and grabbed a handful of pads – the go-to shallow-water anchor of the 1920s – while the brother-in-law shouted encouragement : “ Hold him , boy ! Hold him !”
That was easier said than done . Reels of the day had no internal drag system , so Friebel jammed one thumb against the spool and the other pinned the line against the rod blank . It slowed the giant – a little – but it also cut his thumb in three places “ as though it had been a razor .”
Eventually , Friebel wore the fish down and got it near the boat . Once again , the new friend proved his worth . He put both hands on the fish ’ s jaw and pulled it into the boat , proving “ that he was equal to anything that might need a cool head in fish warfare .”
With the prize flopping in the bottom of the boat , they stopped fishing . After all , this was the biggest bass they had ever seen , and possibly the biggest bass anyone had ever seen . It measured 31 inches long and 26 5 / 8 inches around . On the spring-loaded scales that Friebel kept in his vehicle , the lunker weighed 20 pounds , 2 ounces just minutes after the catch .
“ At once we broke camp and drove the 12 miles to San Antonio ” to a general store run by Fritz ’ s brother . There , a few hours later – roads were rough back then – the bass weighed 19-10 on certified scales . It had lost half a pound .
A witness to the weighing accused Friebel of putting lead sinkers in the fish . So Fritz took out his pocketknife , cut the fish ’ s belly open , and told the man to put his hand inside . There was no controversy about the weight after that , and the record-keeping authorities were willing to accept the heavier weight recorded on the hand scales at the lake as the official mark .
a verified world record
Rightfully proud of his giant bass , Friebel had it frozen in a block of ice and kept on exhibition for several days in a shop window across the street from the Knight & Wall offices . After that , his family thawed the fish and ate it , the standard fate of any lunker in those days .
Even at the time of his catch , Friebel ’ s bass was generally regarded as the largest ever . Some newspapers reported that the fish surpassed an 18- 12 from Lake County , Florida , but no one came forward with a claim of a larger largemouth , and no bass had ever been termed a world record until Fritz ’ s .
He entered the catch in the annual Field & Stream Fishing Contest and , of course , won for the heaviest largemouth in the Southern Division in 1923 . That year and a year later , the magazine acknowledged it as a record for the species .
APRIL-MAY 2023 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 27