State-by-State Smallmouth Bass Records

The smallmouth bass all-tackle world-record is probably one of the most discussed in the history of record keeping. In 1955, angler David Hayes of Litchfield, Kentucky, caught an 11-pound, 15-ounce smallmouth on Dale Hollow Lake, Tennessee. It was weighed at a local marina, and measured to have a length of 27 inches, with a 21 2/3-inch girth.

Hayes submitted his catch to Field & Stream magazine, the freshwater record-keeper at the time. In 1978, when the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) took over freshwater record-keeping, it also granted Hayes’ fish all-tackle, world-record status.

In 1996, however, the IGFA reviewed an affidavit that had been submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by marina employee Raymond Barlow, and subsequently rescinded Hayes’ record.

The document, which claimed that roughly three pounds of metal had been inserted into the fish before it was weighed, had been sent to the Corps of Engineers the month after the catch, but had been filed and forgotten for 41 years.

In 2005, the tables turned once again. After another investigation, which included polygraph testing, the IGFA determined that the giant smallie had never been tampered with in the first place. The association reinstated Hayes’ fish.

It now stands as the all-tackle, world-record smallmouth on the IGFA books, as well as in the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame (NFWFHF) records.

If you’ve got the bug to target trophy smallies, check out the standing state records, as compiled by the NFWFHF.