A FISH TALE rarely told of the relatively cold-water lakes in this state recently occurred at Lake Leland near Quilcene.
An unknown angler with a cabin on the lake hauled in a trophy largemouth bass earlier this month. But we aren’t talking a 5-pound specimen, this angler reeled in the bass of a lifetime, a fish weighing in over double digits.
While making his appointed rounds selling tackle to Puget Sound retailers, Quilcene’s Ward Norden, a former fisheries biologist and owner of Snapper Tackle Co., heard the tale and saw the fish in person.
“I stopped off at Ted’s Sports Center in Lynnwood to drop off lingcod jigs when [owner] Mike Chamberlain yelled at me to come and look at something in a cooler,” Norden wrote. “Before lifting the lid he told me it the fish came from Lake Leland. “Opening the lid and uncovering the fish, all I could yell was ‘Holy [expletive deleted]!’.”
Norden, an avid bass angler, knew exactly what he was seeing.
“What a privilege,” Norden said. “I have caught more than my share of 9-pound largemouth bass in my 60-year love affair with bass fishing, so I said it had to be 9.5. Mike calmly told me it is 10 pounds, 2 ounces.”
The state record, a 12.53-pound largemouth, was caught on Lake Bosworth in 2016 by Bill Evans of Bothell.
Norden said he believes the Lake Leland fish to be “the largest bass to be caught in Western Washington in 2019 and maybe even the state.”
“I have caught more 30-pound plus steelhead in the last 40 years than I have seen bass that large in the Northwest,” Norden said.
“To make the story even better, he caught it on a true classic bass plug not seen anymore except by collectors, a Bass Oreno. I love it.”
No smartphones around
Norden is an old-fashioned sort, not the type of guy to possess a phone with camera capabilities.
So I called up Chamberlain, a great source of information on fishing all over the state, at Ted’s (425-743-9505), to see if he had a picture on hand.
Strike two.
But Chamberlain did have some more insight on why this is such a behemoth of a bass and he said he’d reach out to the angler in question for me when he stops back at the store. So a photo may yet exist.
Chamberlain said he was joking with the angler when Norden walked through the door last week.
“Knowing how much he loves bass fishing, I was joking about it and saying, ‘I wish Ward would show up right now,” Chamberlain said.
Bass weighing more than double-digits are rare — especially in a smaller, shallow lake like Lake Leland.
“Pretty much all these trout lakes in Western Washington all have a few very big largemouth in them, but that’s a fish of a lifetime in Washington,” Chamberlain said. “Any bass over 5 pounds would be a trophy.”
The U.S. record for largemouth is a 22.4-pounder caught all the way back in Georgia in 1932 by George Perry.
Chamberlain and Norden each estimated the Lake Leland fish was likely more than 20 years old.
“Could be 20 to 25 years old,” Chamberlain said. “The growth factor in this climate provides such a short growing window — just 4 to 4 ½ months [each year].”
Norden said the angler kept the fish in order “to have it mounted by a true artist of taxidermy in the Lynnwood area.”
At its age, Norden and Chamberlain both said the bass had done its part to pass along its gigantic genes.
“A female that size is over 20 years old and has spawned a dozen times or more,” Norden said. “She would likely die of old age soon.”
“Chances are, it’s done its egg-laying part,” Chamberlain said.
“At that age, they are not quite as viable [reproductively].”
Norden said he didn’t begrudge the angler deciding to take the trophy instead of catching and releasing the bass.
“I hope to see that fish again someday in my travels,” Norden said.
“For the record, this is proof of what a true treasure we anglers have here on the peninsula.”
Pass along info
If anybody in Quilcene knows who caught this fish and can point me in the right direction, email sports@peninsuladailynews.com or phone 360-417-3525.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
