Who Bought the World Record Largie?

And For How Much?

We all know that Manabu Kurita caught the new world largie, but did you know that he’s been trying to sell it? And he may have found a buyer, though no one’s saying who it is yet. Apparently Bass Pro Shops was interested, also Legend Boats.

Excerpts from a WFN article:

> Confidential offers…surfaced. A high-ranking tech company CEO’s interest was to purchase the mount and make it available to the industry via a promoter. The CEO was willing to do it for free… no cost to the exhibitor.

> The powerful camp of Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops, made several offers. Bass Pro Shops claimed…the additional cost necessary to promote such a fish would exceed $200,000. Bass Pro Shops was also willing to tour Manabu as part of the offer.

> A more impressive offer came from the owner of Legend Boats. Legend noted their interest in Manabu’s bass coincided with the increasing number of Japanese bass anglers inquiring about their boat. Although the specifics of the offer cannot be disclosed, it was a considerable package with residual benefits that would make any elite angler’s mouth water.

> Manabu has finally selected a company. The disclosure of the well known entity remains confidential for a couple of months. What we can tell you…it is “big.”

Uh, okay. The biggest question is, how much – because remember that for years all the talk was that the new world-record largie would be worth “a million dollars” to whoever caught it. We’ll see….