Dante Piraino enjoyed a successful day of tournament bass fishing last Sunday in New York, logging a five-fish bag limit totaling 31.4 pounds.
One of those fish – a 9-pound smallmouth bass – is a pending state record.
Piraino, who was participating in a New York Federation B.A.S.S. Nation Tournament in Ogdensburg, landed the smallmouth while casting a soft-plastic lure on the St. Lawrence River.
He told Wired2Fish that he hooked the fish at about 9 a.m. and figured it weighed six pounds.
9-pound smallmouth bass on display near live well. Photo: Dante Piraino
But when he lipped the smallmouth with his thumb and index finger to hoist it into his live well, he realized that it was “heavier than expected.”
At 9 pounds, heavier than any largemouth bass caught on the same day, the catch eclipses the state record of 8 pounds, 6 ounces, set at Cayuga Lake in 2022.
Piraino, however, is still waiting to hear from the state regarding his potential record, a process that can take weeks.
For comparison, the all-tackle world record for smallmouth bass stands at 11 pounds, 15 ounces. That fish was caught at Tennessee’s Dale Hollow Lake in 1955.
