I wouldn't be shocked if the next world record came from Spain. Yeap, that's right, I said Spain.
Back in the 50s, the rivers and lakes in Spain were dead, too much industrail waste. General Curtis Lemay started a program to get the waterways cleaned up, when this was accomplished he flew Northern Pike, several diffrent Carp, some type of Eel and Flordia Black bass in and stocked the Ebro River. Later several dams were built on the Ebro creating some outstanding lakes. When the areas were flooded, villages, graveyards, grape and olive orchard along with anything left behind was flooded.
I lived in Spain for almost five years. Had a hard time getting approval to build a boat and get a motor (Sears 9.9HP, couldn't have anything larger than a 10HP) Rods, reels and other items could only be obtaind by ordering from Bass Pro Shop. Several of my American friends also got it togeather, and we had formed a BASS Club.
Just about anytime you went out, you would catch a boat load of fish over seven pounds. The largest I seen was a 14 pounder, I heard rumors of Spainards catching larger fish. The conditions there are excellent to produce large fish and friends who are still there tell me today they are catching fish on a regular basis that go over nineteen pounds. Few of the spanish fish for bass, they had rather have Carp or Eel.
Ray Scott (BASS) spent a cold (if I remember correctly) January day fishing with us. That was about 1976. It may have worked out great, he didn't catch a fish so there was no advertising in "Bassmasters".
If I ever win the lottery, I'm gonna get approval to ship my old Sketter and pick-up over there and spend a month or two chasing them spainish basses, I'm sure there are some monster there.