On a rainy morning in the spring of 1932, a farmer named George Washington Perry decided it was too wet to plow and went fishing instead. That day, a star was born in McRae, Georgia, when George landed the largest largemouth ever recorded—twenty-two pounds four ounces, to be exact. The fish has inspired and frustrated hundreds of also-ran anglers for decades. They’ve dedicated their lives to the pursuit of “Sowbelly”—a nearly mythical fish, whose swinelike girth holds the key to their dreams. Now avid fisherman Monte Burke captures their stories.
Sowbelly features a motorcycle cop from Los Angeles who came within ounces of besting the record, the tiny lake in suburban San Diego where competition has turned especially fierce, a biologist from Texas trying to produce the next world-record bass through scientific research, an Alabaman who has lost his marriage and his daughter to this futile pursuit, and even an excursion to Cuba. Tracking each story with an entertaining, stranger-than-fiction eye, Burke brings readers unprecedented access to the key players in this legendary race.
Published just in time for fishing expos and Father’s Day, Sowbelly reels in the ultimate catch for the eleven million fishermen pursuing largemouth bass.
