C
alifornia has
a rich history
of producing monster bass, even world
record size. It wasn’t
always the case, as
California bass originally
were northern-strain
largemouth bass. All
that changed in 1959
when a fisheries biologist
(Orville Ball) for the City
of San Diego successfully
transplanted Florida bass
fry into Upper Otay Lake.
Closed to the public until
the 1990’s, Upper Otay
Lake became the breeding
ground for pure Florida-
strain largemouth bass.
Biologists introduced these pure Florida-strain bass into other city lakes already containing northern-strain largemouth including Murray, Miramar, Lower Otay, Sutherland, El Capitan, San Vicente, Barrett, and Hodges. And from there the California Monster Bass era began.
FLORIDA STRAIN BASS
Florida-strain bass are notoriously fickle and are selective in their feeding habits. They are adapted to clear water and rely on their sense of sight more so than norther- strain largemouth bass, who are better adapted to limited water visibility by combining their lateral line sense for long range prey detection and sense of sight for close range attacks.
Florida-strain are sensitive to atmospheric changes that hardly phase their northern cousins. Along with other genetic differences these traits make Florida- strain are more difficult to catch, not to the liking of most bass anglers. What bass anglers love about Florida-strain is their rapid growth and immense size.
Largemouth bass were first stocked in California in 1873 with pure northern-strain largemouth bass imported from Michigan. After a century, the biggest caught northern
weighed 14-pounds and was caught in northern California at Round Valley Lake.
FLORIDA- STRAIN BASS START TAKING OVER RECORD BOOKS
Ten short years after the 1959 introduction of Florida-strain bass, a new state record bass was caught that shocked the bass world and began the California Monster Bass era.
The new state record of
15-pounds, 4-ounces was
caught from Lake Miramar.
Achieving 15-pounds of
growth in 10 years was
never seen, even in Florida.
The bass fishing world took notice and the race to catch a new world record began. San Diego was the epicenter and again produced the next state record of 16-pounds, 11-ounces in 1971 by Randall Danio reportedly fishing a spinner for trout on Lake Miramar.
What isn’t readily apparent is that many of the early Florida-strain monsters were caught by trout fishermen and not by bass fishermen. One wonders if this wasn’t an indication at the time that bass fishermen in California didn’t understand the differences between Florida and northern-strain bass. Trout fishermen use smaller diameter line since trout are also sight feeders, unlike bass fishermen
at the time typically using
heavy line that looks like
rope to a keen-sighted
Florida-strain bass.
I still have my 1972 issue of Bass Master Magazine which included an article about the monster bass explosion in San Diego. Fisheries Biologist Larry Botroff was interviewed by writer Chuck Garrison. Mr. Botroff was responsible for stocking the San Diego lakes with Florida-strain bass from the Otay brood stock. His work and that article inspired me to become a fisheries biologist. Then in June of 1973 Dave Zimmerlee put the world on notice by catching from Lake Miramar a 20.94
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Spring 2025
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