Wisconsin has a new state record smallmouth bass, and it came out of the waters of Green Bay off Oconto County.
Angler Austin Schiefer caught the fish Friday afternoon south of Oconto. He said the fight lasted only a minute or two, and that he first thought he had hooked a large drum before the fish came close enough to the boat for him to see its size.
The bass weighed 9.70 pounds on a certified scale, reported as 9 pounds, 11 ounces, and measured 23 and a half inches long. Two Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists made the record official on Saturday.
The catch beats the previous state record of 9 pounds, 1 ounce, set on an Oneida County lake in 1950. Schiefer said he caught the fish on a forked-tail plastic worm, a Deps Sakamata Shad.
Schiefer said he may have replicas of the fish made for himself and possibly for display at area stores.
