Lake Yonah Largemouth Record

Trent Thomason, of Toccoa, has been going back to Lake Yonah for the past three years trying to catch the record largemouth for the lake. On June 23, he finally accomplished the feat when he landed a 6-lb., 11-oz. bass.

Trent said he goes to Yonah every Father’s Day weekend with his dad to fish, and this year he was able to catch a couple decent fish and decided to go back the following weekend to go after a big largemouth.

“I knew there was some bigger fish in there than what the record was, and I’ve been going up there trying to beat it,” said Trent. “I knew I was going to have to throw a big bait to do it.”

The Lake Yonah largemouth record is a “benchmark” record—a certified mark that is set for a listing that remained open for quite some time, so anglers have something to shoot for, which over time solidifies a lake record.

Lake Yonah is a small 325-acre lake on the Tugaloo River, separating Georgia and South Carolina. After the Tugaloo River flows from Yonah through the lower dam, the river feeds into Lake Hartwell.

After looking through his tackle box on June 23, Trent decided to go with his trusty Spro Rat lure.

“I was checking my surroundings and seeing things up on the bank to tell me what to fish with, so I kind of knew I needed to throw that,” said Trent.

He uses a Fenwick 7 foot, 9-inch rod, one big enough to handle big lures such as the Spro Rat. After fishing along the bank with the rat, he landed a nice 3-lb., 7-oz. bass. Not 10 minutes later, Trent cast out from his boat toward the bank and hooked the big one. After getting the bass in the boat, he knew it was close to the lake record and got it weighed on certified scales at the nearby Burton Fish Hatchery.

While he finally reeled in a lake record, Trent is still on the hunt for bigger fish because he knows the lake holds a few more monsters.

The previous Yonah lake record largemouth was caught in 2012.