Crappie angler lands giant bass; 'I thought I was hooked on a log'

A 15-year-old Arkansas angler was casting for crappie earlier this month when his line became stuck on what he initially thought was a log.

But the log began to move and that’s when Logan Cernosek “realized it was huge fish,” he told the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

The largemouth bass, caught April 2 at an undisclosed location in Randolph County, tipped a portable scale at 12 pounds, 4 ounces. It placed Logan among an elite few in the state who have caught bass topping 10 pounds.

The AGFC Fisheries Division stated on Facebook: “The fish was weighed on a portable scale and then released to grow even bigger and hopefully be caught again someday. Logan said he never thought he would catch a bass this big in his lifetime.”

The Arkansas record for largemouth bass is the 1976 catch of a 16-pound, 8-ounce largemouth at Mallard Lake.

The world record is a tie at 22 pounds, 4 ounces, for catches in Japan (2009) and Georgia, USA (1932).