Japanese angler Manabu Kurita with his largemouth bass reportedly weighing 24 pounds, 5 ounces. Kurita’s hair is bleached, in case you are wondering. (Associated Press Photo)

The near-silence is surprising, even confounding.

A largemouth bass supposedly a tad bigger than the venerable world record has been caught, and there is no shouting from rooftops. It is mentioned on some Internet sites.

How much did it weigh? 22 pounds, 5 ounces. When was it caught? July 2. Where was it caught? Are you ready? Japan.

OK, we groaned, too. This fish has not been certified as a new world record, but the International Game Fish Association is studying it and – we’re not making this up – considering calling it a tie with the 77-year-old existing world record for largemouth bass.

The IGFA said that according to its regulations for record fish weighing less than 25 pounds, the new record must be at least two ounces more than the existing record.

Converting the Japanese metric weight to pounds and ounces, the fish caught recently is just short of 22 pounds, 5 ounces. It was 73.5 centimeters long, nearly 29 inches.

The fish was caught by Manabu Kurita, 32, an experienced bass fisherman, according to sketchy information gleaned from several sources.

Kurita caught the fish on Lake Biwa, largest lake in Japan. He used live bait, either a bluegill or a Japanese fish similar to a bluegill. His equipment was Japanese – Deps rod, Shimano Antares reel and 25-pound test Toray fluorocarbon line.

Lake Biwa is huge, 259 square miles, a natural lake on the main island of Honshu. It is near the city of Kyoto and west-southwest of Tokyo. The lake is 300 feet deep in places. It is fed by several small rivers from nearby mountains and is the water supply for some 15 million people.

Even though certification as a world record or as a tie for the world record is yet to come, the Japanese catch is already stirring controversy and taking unusual turns.

Example: Kurita made his amazing catch in a lake where the Japanese government is trying to eliminate largemouth bass. It’s a non-native fish, an invasive species, and Japanese leaders want it removed, along with the bluegill that were brought in as a forage fish for the bass. Restaurants near the lake offer largemouth bass on their menus.

Kurita is not a greenhorn, apparently. Information from Japan is that he’s been fishing for 18 years and that he previously caught a largemouth bass weighing 18-plus pounds, also in Lake Biwa but with a swim bait lure.

The existing world record is one of outdoor sports’ most enduring symbols or landmarks.

It was set in 1932 by George Perry, a 19-year-old farm boy, on Montgomery Lake, an oxbow off the Ocmulgee River in southern Georgia. Perry used a Creek Chub Perch Scale Wigglefish, the only lure he had. The fish was 32 1/2 inches in length and 28 1/2 inches in girth. The weight and measurements were taken and notarized in Helena, Ga., and Perry’s only reward was $75 in merchandise as first prize in Field and Stream magazine’s fishing contest.

Perry took the fish home and his family ate it — remember, 1932 was in the depths of the Great Depression.

A largemouth bass weighing 25 pounds, 1 ounce was caught in 2006 in California but did not earn certification as a world record. An angler named Mac Weakley caught this one, but it was foul–hooked – snagged in the side. Weakley and two companions weighed it on hand-held scales, took photos then released it back into the water before the arrival of California Game and Fish Department officials.

Another bit of irony: Largemouth bass are not native to California, like they are not native to Japan.

Any number of hazy stories about huge bass can be found. One of the more interesting is that of five fishing buddies in southern Georgia, not far from Perry’s stomping grounds, who made a bet on who could catch the biggest bass over a period of time. This was in the 1950s. One of the bunch supposedly landed a fish weighing 24-15, and another caught one weighing 25-7, both weights taken on hand-held scales. The five swore secrecy and did not attempt to verify the fish.

Arkansas’ record for largemouth bass is 16 pounds, 4 ounces, set in 1976.

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Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com.