On July 11, 2024, Jim Britenbaugh—a tournament angler from the Gettysburg, PA area—caught and released the new New York state-record largemouth bass. For almost 40 years, the record has been held by John Higbie’s 11-pound, 4-ounce largemouth, but during a day of tournament practice on Cayuga Lake, the 1987 record was dethroned by a largemouth bass that weighed a full pound and two ounces more.

Jim Britenbaugh lives approximately 5 hours from Cayuga Lake, which is home to some of the best bass fishing in the Finger Lakes region and, on a larger scale, in New York State. Cayuga Lake boasts a robust largemouth bass fishery and, for those who are keen to it, some giant, tournament-winning quality smallmouth bass. In fact, just over two years ago Cayuga Lake gave up the state-record smallmouth when an 8-pound, 6-ounce specimen was caught on a Berkley MaxScent Minnow; that fish still holds the record today. It’s no wonder the Bassmaster Elite series returns to Cayuga every few years.

Part of what makes Cayuga Lake such a rich bass fishery is the diversity of forage fish, which includes alewives, rainbow smelt, gizzard shad, and invasive round gobys, along with bluegill and pumpkinseed sunfish. Now, with two state-record bass on the charts, Cayuga holds the unofficial crown of New York’s best (big) bass lake.

By his own admission, Britenbaugh considers himself “a smallmouth guy at heart”, but he maintains his love for largemouth bass, too. “Any lake where I can target smallmouth and largemouth bass is an amazing opportunity. I enjoy them both for different reasons,” said Britenbaugh during an interview.

Britenbaugh was introduced to Cayuga Lake when he joined the Elite Force Bassmasters Club several years ago. The club, which is affiliated with The Bass Federation (TBF), was looking to add new members and Britenbaugh fit the bill. Joining the club opened him up to tournament opportunities on Lake George, Lake Champlain, Oneida Lake, and of course, Cayuga—all of which are much larger stages than his home waters on the upper Potomac River. But Britenbaugh had an affinity for Cayuga Lake even before it awarded him the state-record largemouth. “I love the lake for its quality of fish—and the quality of fish in numbers. I’ve been there a half dozen times and it’s just a special place,” Britenbaugh said.

With TBF Team Regionals beginning on Friday, July 12th, Britenbaugh planned to get an early start the day prior to allow himself ample time to practice. Based on his past outings on Cayuga, he was eyeing some grass patches on the north end of the lake, but he was also considering making a run to an area mid-lake, close to where Greg Hackney won the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2014. “Hackney was fishing deep hydrilla weedlines when he won,” said Britenbaugh. “So with water temperatures in the mid-70s and these fish in post-spawn, I figured they’d be lounging deep on the weed line to feed,” he said.

Under snotty weather conditions, Britenbaugh launched early at Union Springs on the 11th and decided to instead head for familiar territory in the north end of the lake. After a couple of hours, he returned to the launch to pick up his friend and fishing partner, Dave Ruark, and despite his gut feeling to stick to what he knew, he instead decided to run 12 miles south of Union Springs toward the area he had been eyeing. “I knew that if I didn’t go on this exploratory run now, I wasn’t going to even attempt to fish it during the tournament. It took a lot to take myself away from where I had been catching,” Britenbaugh admitted. Little did he know that his decision to explore would bring him the catch of a lifetime.

About 1/4-mile north of the waypoint he set, Britenbaugh started looking for grass in the 18- to 20-foot depth range. “We had the trolling motor in and LiveScope running just so I could keep us on the grass line, and that’s when I noticed that the grass kept edging in tighter to the bank until it met an underwater point. Using his trolling motor, Britenbaugh pushed them further out so they could work their way in shallow from the point. There also happened to be fresh water flowing in from a tributary which, in addition to dense vegetation and a submerged point, makes a recipe for a great spot. “I caught a 2.5 pounder right out the gate, and a couple minutes later, I caught a 6 pounder,” Britenbaugh said. His decision to try a new spot had already paid off.

After a bit more time, Ruark asked Britenbaugh if they should leave for another spot, to which Britenbaugh replied, “Probably, but let’s make a couple more casts.” As he worked his bait back through grass in 8 to 10 feet of water, he got bit right next to the boat. “I reeled down into it, and when I set the hook, it felt like I set into a cinderblock,” he said. “My rod was doubled over and I thought I was snagged for real,” Britenbaugh continued. “Then, all of the sudden, I felt these heavy headshakes, but I still didn’t think it was a bass.”

For a good minute, Britenbaugh said, he battled this fish as it tried to bury itself in the grass. Equipped with a 6’10” medium power rod with an extra fast action, he was slightly under-gunned for the task. “The rod is really made for finesse applications like ned rigs, so this fish was just kicking my ass,” he said.

After getting it out of the grass, the fish headed beneath the boat and around to the other side. At this point, Britenbaugh was on the bow, trying to keep the trolling motor out of the way. “That’s when the fish made its first run, pulling about 20 feet of line,” Britenbaugh continued. The fish then surfaced, which prompted Ruark to burn his bait in and grab the net for his friend. “When she surfaced,” said Britenbaugh, “she rolled on her side revealing her true size, and that’s when the attitude in the boat changed.” Britenbaugh knew that this would be, at the very least, his new personal best bass, and naturally, nerves set in. “After rolling on top, she jumped and proceeded to tail-walk about 15 feet in front of my boat. Thankfully, Dave is a hell of a net man, and at that point, I was able to keep her near the surface and basically direct her into the net,” Britenbaugh recalled.

Ruark flipped the net into the boat and looked at Britenbaugh in disbelief. “Neither one of us remembers what we even said in that moment. All I know is we had competitors close by, so we kind of kept it quiet and low key,” said Britenbaugh. In order to keep the catch under wraps in that moment, Ruark stood strategically blocking the livewell until they had enough space around them away from other anglers. “We pulled her out of the livewell and I figured it was probably a 10-pound fish, and definitely my PB,” said Britenbaugh. “It was freakish looking.”

When Britenbaugh saw the scale read 12.08, Ruark exclaimed “was that a 12!?”, and immediately looked up the record on his cell phone. “It’s a state record!” Ruark exclaimed. Britenbaugh couldn’t believe his eyes. “In that moment I’m thinking, ‘there’s no way this happened to me’,” he chuckled, as he recalled the catch during our interview.

“They were surprised to hear it was a 12-pound fish, because usually these state records are a game of ounces,” he said. New York DEC said they would send someone with certified scales, so the duo made their way back to the boat ramp. There, a crowd of around 15 people had already caught wind of the catch. “I only called my club president, vice president, and the DEC, so word must have traveled fast,” said Britenbaugh.

They put the trophy fish in a tournament bag and transported it to a scale on the DEC truck bed. The first scale, which measures in grams, read 5603 grams; the second, which measures in pounds, read 12.35, or 12 pounds, 6 ounces. In addition to taking weight and length measurements, the state collected scales to determine the fish’s age, which Britenbaugh is interested to learn.

With official catch data in the books, Britenbaugh and his fellow club member, Lenny Speed, put the fish back in the livewell and rode south to release her in deeper water near the site of the catch. The next day, he got a call from aquatic biologists with the DEC that said their scale was less than a gram off, so the fish was certified at 12 pounds, 6 ounces—a full pound and two ounces heavier than the previous state record.

“All my life I’ve wanted to catch a double-digit largemouth, and I always thought I’d have to do it south of the Mason-Dixon line. But, here we are, with a 12-pound bass in the northeast,” said an elated Britenbaugh. “I don’t know if we will ever see this record get broken again in our lifetime.”

Britenbaugh said he went on to place around 26th in the tournament, and even though he didn’t win in the eyes of TBF, he came away from Cayuga with a personal win that is more significant than any trophy or prize money: the New York State-record largemouth bass.