A father-son fishing duo caught one of the largest smallmouth bass ever caught on Lake Erie on November 7,2022.
In a Facebook post, Gregg wrote, “On November 3, my son Grant and I woke up to a surprise day off due to fog. The calm conditions made it easy for our Bass Cat boat to cruise wherever we wished on the western end of Lake Erie.”
Several years ago, my son and I mainly pursued popular walleye species in our area. Looking for something different, we spent several years trying a variety of techniques to catch walleye by casting and jigging instead of trolling. In the end, we focused more specifically on bass fishing.
Through scouting and graphing, Grant refined a good approach.
They found an unpressured spot on Lake Erie where baitfish and smallmouth fish were abundant using their livescope fish finder.
In one of Gregg’s most memorable casts, his bait got hit before it even hit the bottom, and his rod quickly doubled over.
“At first, I thought I had hooked into a sheepshead, not a smallmouth. We quickly learned we had just caught a smallmouth of a lifetime. We quickly weighed the fish and discovered it was approaching 9 pounds.”
Grant shouts, “Oh my gosh!” after netting the fish. “Dad, what did you just catch?” Watch the epic moment below.
They contacted Lake Erie Fisheries after landing the trophy bass, contacting Ross Robertson of Bigwater Fishing to have it certified, and weighing in at 10.15 pounds, which was larger than expected.
Travis Hartman, Program Administrator for the Ohio DNR, will submit this fish for record consideration.
It will become the Ontario Province record smallmouth bass, currently held by Andy Anderson’s 9.84-pound catch from 1954.
With a length of 23 34 inches and a girth of 19 3/8 inches, the fish would be the fourth-largest smallie ever caught anywhere, according to Wired2Fish.com.
Sources: Fieldstream,
