With the big dream of someday making the Bassmaster Classic, Jim Britenbaugh had no inkling bass fishing glory could come so suddenly, or in such an unlikely place.
Practicing for an event on New York’s Cayuga Lake, Britenbaugh, 38, of Fairfield, Penn., was about to yank up his bait when “it” bit. After a minute fight complete with tail walk, Britenbaugh directed the behemoth to club mate Dave Ruark, ready at the net. He scooped, and they scored big time.
After an ordeal running down state officials with a certified scale, the largemouth weighed 12.35 pounds. It eclipsed the 37-year-old New York record by more than a pound and will put Britenbaugh’s name in the record books.
“In all honestly, it was never really something that crossed my mind,” Britenbaugh said. “As far as a record, it was never on my radar. I never thought in a million years I’d be the guy to hold a state record.
“It was a very, very surreal day. I never knew they grew that big here.”
Score one for regular Joe, er Jim
Britenbaugh grew up outside Pittsburgh and attended trade school to become an electrician. He worked his way up the ranks and now serves as a facility manager for Evapco Inc., due south of Gettysburg in Maryland.
With a wife and two young children, he fishes a couple times a month, hitting regional fisheries like Raystown Lake, Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River for events with his club, Elite Force Bassmasters out of Downingtown, Pa.
Hauling his 2004 Stratos 201Pro XL to tournaments, Britenbaugh is the butt of running jokes because he almost always has the longest drive, making him almost always the last one there.
“I wear it well,” he said. “You got to sacrifice to do what you love.”
For the TBF Team Regionals on Cayuga, Britenbaugh was kept off the water for Wednesday’s practice as remnants of Hurricane Beryl hit.
“I went to my hotel room and scouted what I could, looking at maps, GoogleEarth and everything else,” he said. “The area that I caught this fish in, it was very interesting to me.”
Part of the area’s allure came from following the Bassmasters. He gave it credence because Greg Hackney won the 2014 Cayuga Elite there.
Going on a hunch
On Thursday, June 11, Britenbaugh launched by himself and revisited spots on the north end he’d fished a half dozen times. Around 11 a.m., Ruark had made it to town and called to see if Britenbaugh had an open spot on his boat.
“He’s a hammer, he knows how to catch them,” said Britenbaugh, who picked him up at Union Springs. “He asked, ‘What are we doing?’ Been north end all morning. I want to check a spot on the south end. I’ve been wanting to check it for some time.”
So, after a 10- to 12-mile run, they were fishing grass 20- to 22-feet deep. While approaching a creek mouth, Britenbaugh noticed the weed line cut in, and using live sonar he followed the edge.
“It was just a special spot because of where that weed line intersects with that underwater point with that quick access to deep water, which is what I thought attracted that fish,” he said. “We were casting across the point and dragging it through deep grass.”
Using a 7-foot JPD Custom rod his friend makes, Britenbaugh caught a 6-pounder with a wacky-rigged Yamamoto Senko in Junebug. About five casts later, almost exactly high noon, Britenbaugh got the bite of his life.
“I was actually about to lift my bait out of the water, and I felt this hit,” he said. “Oh, there’s one right next to the boat.”
Since Britenbaugh grew up fishing deep water on Lake Erie, he is well-accustomed to the rod-stopping tug of a trophy smallmouth. His best bronzeback was a 6-4, and his heaviest largemouth weighed 7-1. This one stopped him in his tracks.
“My rod didn’t even move when I set the hook with this fish,” he said. “It just instantly loaded up.”
In only 8 feet of water, the fish immediately swam under his boat, and he worked hard to keep it out of the weeds. Ruark asked if it was a good one, and the heft made Britenbaugh unsure it was even a bass. He told Ruark to hold tight, not burn in his bait to man the net.
“Just wait a minute,” Britenbaugh told him. “I actually have to step out on the end of my boat and walk it around the trolling motor. No sooner it makes a run away from the boat. It kind of came up to the surface. We would see the fish’s back. As soon as he saw it, he’s like, ‘It’s a 7-pounder!’ ”
That put Ruark into action, and the excitement intensified when the fish rolled, giving them a better idea of its size.
“Oh my God, we knew it might be a double-digit fish,” Britenbaugh said. “Then it gets its head up, and it tail walks back across the bow, 15 feet in front of boat.
“I kept pressure on, kept her on the surface. Dave, being the great net man he is, was ready for it. I kind of directed her into the net, and he was able to scoop her up. It all took about a minute.”
‘It’s gotta be a double-digit’
The two looked at each other incredulously, not knowing exactly what to say. With other boats nearby — one angler saw the 6-pound catch and had come closer to ask if it was a good one — they tried to be discreet, silently celebrating and quickly slipping it into the livewell.
It wasn’t five minutes before the other anglers dispersed and curiosity got the best of them. They had to weigh it. Both pulled out scales. It went 12.08 on Britenbaugh’s Rapala digital scale.
“We kind of came unglued at that point,” Britenbaugh said. “Whooping and hollering, fist-bumping, hugging and jumping up and down.”
On Ruark’s fancier scale, it read 12.25, prompting him to look up the state record.
“I think this is bigger,” said Ruark, who soon related the state’s best largemouth of 11-4 was caught in 1987 at Buckhorn Lake.
Realization of what just happened began to set in.
Whole lotta shaking going on
There would be no more fishing for Britenbaugh, who took to the phone trying to get an official to come weigh it.
“I’m shaking. I was a mess. I’m done for the day,” he said.
After a suggestion to try a grocery store scale – “I’m not walking this fish into a grocery store” – Britenbaugh had a conservation agent agree to weigh it at Union Springs. The scale he was bringing was used to certify the state smallmouth record 8-6 caught from Cayuga two years ago. It had been on a shelf since.
“He said we can weigh it, check it for recertification and go from there,” Britenbaugh said.
When Britenbaugh and Ruark made it in, there was already a gathering with many of their club members there to see the marvel.
“There was whole crowd around, everybody was getting crazy,” Britenbaugh said. “At that time, they did confirm the weight of the fish on their certified scale — unofficially in quotation marks, because they want to recertify before they deem it a record — was 12.35 (12 pounds, 5 1/2 ounces).”
Since the bass eclipsed the mark by a pound, the official told Britenbaugh he was confident it would become the state record. They also took scales to estimate the age of the fish. After festivities at the dock, Britenbaugh and club member Lenny Speed went out to release it, capturing it on video.
Champ before event even began
That night, club members feted Britenbaugh with dinner and celebratory drinks, then they all hung out in the hotel parking lot tying baits, reliving the day and talking about the tournament. Britenbaugh was jokingly asked for autogrpahs, called “Champ” and razzed that he had peaked.
“We’re all laughing about it, ‘You’re already done.’ Or, ‘I’ll bet the guy who is with you tomorrow is going to be happy,’” he said. “Well, the joke’s on him because I wasn’t really on that much. I just had that one spot from Hackney.”
After congrats, the standard line was he should have saved it for the tournament. An app tracking Britenbaugh’s weight had his four practice fish at 25.66. He beat that in the event, but it took two days. He had 14.01 then 14.85 to finish 20th on the boater side and 30th overall out of 84 anglers. Not bad, especially considering battery issues on Day 2.
“I had already won before the tournament started,” he said. “It’s pretty wild. I never thought I’d ever see a double-digit fish in the north, let alone something like that. It’s pretty surreal.”
Being the New York record-holder is still sinking in, and Britenbaugh’s next mission is to get a replica. He also said it’d be nice to appear in Bassmaster Magazine. (So, this is chopped liver?)
The catch has drawn plenty of attention from fishing media, and it’s sure to be a topic of conversation when the Elite Series hits New York to close out the 2024 season in August. Britenbaugh will be watching, with his incredible catch possibly reigniting his greatest aspiration.
“My big goal was always to just qualify to fish the Classic. That’s the pinnacle of my fishing dreams,” he said. “Even if I went and sucked, just to live that and experience that would be awesome.”
Britenbaugh continues to push for his club to join the B.A.S.S. Nation, where he’d have an actual path to that goal. For now, his record catch will keep him afloat.
“I’ll come down off Cloud 9 eventually,” he said, “but probably not any time soon.”