Record Breaking Largemouth Caught At Lake Yonah

Sam Thomas, of Jefferson, recently caught a record-breaking largemouth from Lake Yonah that weighed 8-lbs., 2-ozs.

On the morning of March 30, Sam was fishing a Peach State Jon Boat Anglers tournament on Lake Yonah. By daylight, he was in his boat at the top end of the lake, but the fishing was real slow. He waited until 10:30 before a bass bit, which just happened to be the one that would later break the lake’s record.

“I was fishing an H2O XPRESS CRS crankbait in the chartreuse shad color,” said Sam. “She made a couple of hard runs at the boat, but I was fishing a heavy line, so it didn’t take long.”

Sam went on to win the tournament with a 9-lb., 15-oz. bag. After catching the fish, he took it to Burton Trout Hatchery where WRD Biologist Zach Moran weighed it, and it was official that Sam had beat the old record caught June 23, 2018 that weighed 6-lbs., 11-ozs.

This is not the first big largemouth Sam has caught. He also caught another largemouth weighing 10 1/2 pounds in a private farm pond.