Big fish

I thought about George Perry the other day.

Maybe it was because I passed through his old stomping ground in Telfair County, crossing the Ocmulgee River in Lumber City, not far from where he pulled his legendary catch out of the dark waters.

Or may it was because the anniversary of his accomplishment – rolled across the calendar on June 2.

Or maybe it is because we seem so obcessed with such things. In a way, catching a record fish is dwarfed by bagging a big pig like Hogzilla.

On June 2, 1932, an aw-shucks country boy named George Washington Perry pulled a 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass from an oxbow lake off the Ocmulgee River.

He did not throw it back.

According to local lore, it was 31 inches long. It was caught on a $1.33 reel with a $1.35 lure. Perry was fishing for his supper while sharing a single wooden lure with his fishing buddies in a boat built from scrap lumber.

Perry had the fish weighed at the post office the same day he caught it. He then did what anybody else would have done. He took it home to feed his family. After all, it was 1932, the height of the Great Depression.

Perry died in a plane crash 33 years ago. He never made much of a fuss about the fish.

There is a state historic marker along Ga. 117 between Lumber City and Jacksonville commemorating his still-revered world record. It claims Perry "caught what was to become America's most famous fish."