November 7,2022, father-son fishing duo Gregg and Grant Gallagher caught one of the largest smallmouth bass ever caught on Lake Erie.
“On November 3, my son Grant and I, both teachers, woke up with a surprise day off due to fog. The flat, calm conditions were the perfect situation for our Bass Cat boat to travel wherever we desired on the western end of Lake Erie,” Gregg wrote in a Facebook post.
“For many years, my son and I primarily chased the local popular species of walleye. Looking for something different, we spent several years trying a variety of techniques to catch walleye by casting and jigging and not with the preferred trolling methods. This eventually led us to spend more and more time specifically targeting bass.”
A good approach was fine-tuned by Grant through scouting and graphing.
Their livescope fish finder allowed them to target baitfish and smallmouth fish individually, and it worked. They found an unpressured spot on Lake Erie where baitfish and smallmouths were abundant.
“On what turned out to be the most memorable cast of my life, my bait got hit before it even hit the bottom, and my rod quickly doubled over,” says Gregg.
“I honestly thought I had hooked into a sheepshead and not a smallmouth. We quickly learned we had just caught the smallmouth of a lifetime. After [getting] a quick weight in the boat, we knew the fish was approaching at least 9 pounds.”
A video of the catch was shared on Bigwater Fishing’s YouTube channel. “Oh my gosh!” shouts Grant after netting the fish. “Dad, what did you just catch?” Watch the epic moment below.
After landing the trophy bass, contacting Ross Robertson of Bigwater Fishing to get it certified, and weighing in at 10.15 pounds which was bigger than initially thought the duo contacted Lake Erie Fisheries.
Program Administrator for the Ohio DNR Travis Hartman to take the steps to submit this fish for record consideration.
If approved by authorities, it will go down as the Ontario Province record smallmouth bass; currently held by Andy Anderson’s 9.84-pounder from 1954.
According to Wired2Fish.com, it would also be a Great Lakes record and the fourth-biggest smallie ever caught anywhere, measuring in at 23 ¾ inches long with a girth of 19 3/8 inches.
Sources: Fieldstream
