IN PURSUIT OF `SOWBELLY' JOURNALIST INTERVIEWS ANGLERS FROM CASTAIC TO CUBA.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

With millions of anglers chucking plastic worms and swim baits at largemouth bass you'd think someone would have broken the record for the biggest bass by now. But that mark has lasted longer than Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, and the closest fish is a quarter of a Budweiser short - three ounces less than the record bass landed by a poor Georgia farm boy in 1932.

Monte Burke, who grew up fishing in Alabama and North Carolina, took a 10-month leave of absence from his day job in New York at Forbes magazine to report and write a book about the pursuit of the record bass. He interviewed and fished with bass anglers from Castaic Lake to Cuba.

The result - ``Sowbelly The Obsessive Quest for the World Record Largemouth Bass'' takes its title from an anglers' nickname for big bass with a pig-like gut.

``Sowbelly'' is at once a history of bass fishing and a study of the anglers who sacrifice career and family by fishing day-after-day trying to catch a bass bigger than 22 pounds, four ounces. (If you're going for the official record your bass needs to be two ounces bigger than that, at least 22 pounds, six ounces). While it's more of a ``why-do'' than a ``how-to'' book, you can learn a lot about fishing for big bass from Burke's lively account.

Reached by phone recently, Burke said it's difficult to say why the record has lasted so long. Some claim the record fish caught by George Perry wasn't a bass or it could be that fishing pressure has removed too many big fish from the bass gene pool. Burke does believe that a bigger fish is biologically possible, but he's glad the record stands because it makes his story more interesting. It's akin to the Boston Red Sox, who were more interesting when they suffered under the curse of the Bambino, Burke said.

Burke enjoyed retracing Perry's footsteps, seeing the spot where he caught the fish and the old shop where he brought the fish to be weighed. Burke couldn't see the world-record fish - after Perry weighed it he took it home, cleaned it and ate it. It fed six people for two days.

The smart money is on the next record fish coming from Southern California, according to Burke.

Lakes like Castaic, which has produced five 20-pound fish, including the second biggest, have been stocked with Florida strain bass. More important, the DFG trout stocking in Southern California lakes, which is as much a bass-feeding program as a put-and-take fishing program.

``The name of the game to get fish that big is forage and there's no better forage than rainbow trout,'' said Burke. ``They're a one-pound protein nugget.''

Burke said he's pretty hardcore about fishing, but learned from researching his book that he doesn't have the time, location or inclination to pursue the bass record himself. He does most of his fishing now in New York Bay for stripers and fly fishes or for trout in the Catskills. He said he also learned a lot about human nature and the lengths people will go to achieve a goal from writing his book.

``We're all searching for a direction in our lives, a sense of purpose,'' he said.

For some, that purpose is a really big fish.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, Mike Long, who fishes for big bass on San Diego lakes, displays a recently caught 14-pound bass. Below, John Kerr, shows off a 15-pound largemouth bass. The world bass record, 22 pounds, four ounces, has stood since 1932.

Photo courtesy of Monte Burke

(3) no caption (book: ``Sowbelly The Obsessive Quest for theWorld Record Largemouth Bass'')