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Sowbelly: the Obsessive Quest for the World-record Largemouth Bass

By Monte Burke

A fascinating look at obsessed fishermen & their quest for fame, fortune, & the 72-year-old record for the heaviest largemouth bass. 5.5x8 inches, 272 pgs.

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Description

In 1932, a farmer named George Washington Perry decided it was too rainy to plow and went fishing. That day, George landed the largest largemouth ever recorded—twenty-two pounds four ounces. The fish has inspired and frustrated hundreds of 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.

From an L.A. cop who came within ounces of besting the record to an Alabaman who has lost his marriage and his daughter to this pursuit, Burke takes readers along for the ride in this legendary race.

In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, a fascinating look at obsessed fishermen and their quest for fame, fortune, and the seventy-two-year-old record for the heaviest largemouth bass.

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 swine-like 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.

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING:

"An artful narrative."
The Wall Street Journal

"In Burke’s hands, the biggest fish stories become human stories, at once optimistic and tragic, about what keeps us casting into the water of a dream."
Forbes

"A window to a very small universe where obsession, greed, and chicanery coexist with a strange nobility . . . Sowbelly is a fascinating examination of obsession even for readers who don’t fish."
—St. Petersburg Times

"Monte Burke is the Homer of America's fishing world as he takes us on an epic journey filled with great drama, colorful characters, & elusive largemouth bass." -Tom Brokaw

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Monte Burke
, devoted angler & outdoorsman, has written many articles for Field & Stream and other periodicals. He lives in New York City, where he writes for Forbes.

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