14 1/2-Pound Bass Caught In Hart County

My name is Hunter King, and I am 14 years old. I live in Royston, and I caught a 14.5-lb. bass and an 11.2-lb. bass 30 minutes apart in a private 3-acre pond in Hart County on April 8.

My friend Ben Jones and I went to a brand-new pond that neither of us had ever been to before. So when we got there, I rigged up an HK Baits white-pearl Cigar Worm (one of my homemade stick baits).

An HK Baits Cigar Worm, the same one Hunter used to catch two bass that combined weighed more than 25 pounds.

We started to catch a good many decent-sized bass while fishing on the deeper side of the pond. We were catching a bunch of 1.5- to 2-pounders and were having an awesome time.

So as we worked down the bank, we found a small laydown in the water. After making several casts to this laydown and catching several fish off of it, I started moving the boat to the other side of it. At that point, we were up in the creek of the pond and were starting to get into some extremely thick grass mats. So I cast up in a small hole in the grass mat and worked my worm through the hole. I hit the edge of the grass and got a small amount of grass on my worm. So as usual, I started to reel the bait in, but after making about three or four cranks of my reel, I saw a giant wake behind my bait, so I stopped the bait immediately, and the fish hit the worm on top of the water.

At this point I had no idea how big this fish was, but I knew it was a good-sized bass. I set the hook as hard as I could, and the fish made a run for deep water. My drag started to go, and it was all I could do to keep the fish from breaking my line. As soon as the drag stopped going, I started cranking the reel. The fish came up near the top of the water and Ben started to freak out. He was repeatedly yelling, “Oh my gosh, that is a giant. That is the biggest fish I have ever seen!”

I replied to him as calm as I could say, “Yeah that’s like a 15-pounder!”

After playing the fish and wearing her down for about 20 more seconds, the fish finally got up next to the boat. I lipped the giant bass, and it was all that I could do to lift her up. I lost my mind and started to freak out myself. I was screaming at this point, “Oh my gosh! I just caught a 15-pounder! That is the biggest fish I have ever seen!”

Hunter King, 14, and his 14.51-pounder caught from a 3-acre pond in Hart County.

We put the fish on the stringer we had in the boat and paddled back to the little boat ramp. I called my dad and said, “Hey I need you to come down here, I just caught a 15-pounder.”

He didn’t believe me and said, “No you didn’t.”

I reassured him, and he said he would be down at the pond in a little while with a scale. When he got down to the pond, I asked him if he wanted to see the fish. I put both of my hands down into the water and picked the monster bass up. He smiled and said, “Good Lord that is a giant!”

When I got up on the bank, we stuck the fish on the scale and waited. The scale read 14.51 pounds, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was so excited that I had just caught a 14-pounder. We took measurements of the fish and put her back in the water. The fish measured 31.5 inches in length and had 17.5 inches of girth.

Everybody was amazed at what had just happened. So we figured why not just keep on fishing. We hopped back in the boat and started working up the shallow bank of the pond. Not 30 minutes later, I cast up near an old fence post that was in the water. I let my stick bait sink and lifted up my line. My line was slowly moving off to the right, and I set the hook. My rod bowed up and the fish jumped. The boat was positioned so that Ben was directly in front of where the fish jumped, so I could not see the fish. Ben started to freak out again and said, “Oh my gosh that is a 10-pounder!”

I just kept on cranking and got the fish up to the boat. I lipped the fish and picked her up, and I just looked and Ben and said, “This is stupid. This is insane.”

We weighed the fish, and it came up as 11.20 pounds. We put the fish back after a few good pictures. That ended the day with our best two fish weighing in at 25.71 pounds. It is by far the best day of fishing I have ever had.

Thirty minutes later Hunter caught this 11.2-pounder.

Editor’s Note: GON maintains many records, including Georgia’s Biggest Bass of All-Time, which keeps records of all bass that weigh at least 13 pounds. Record fish must be weighed on certified scales. If Hunter’s fish had weighed exactly 14.51 pounds when certified, he would be No. 48 on that list. Not being certified certainly takes nothing away from Hunter’s catch—congrats to Hunter on his bass, and for releasing it!