Monster Georgia Largemouth Bass Weighed 15.88 Pounds!

A bass weighing almost 16 pounds is tough to keep secret, especially when it’s weighed in front of a group of tournament anglers at a boat ramp.

Derrick Watson, of Whitesburg, was fishing 300-acre B.T. Brown Reservoir in a West Ga. Jonboat Anglers tournament May 4 when he caught the bass of a lifetime. The monster largemouth weighed 15.88 pounds on uncertified tournament digital scales.

Derrick said, “At first I was thinking I’d rather just keep it quiet because that lake has been so good lately.”

We wished he had called GON right away—and now so does Derrick. Had the bass been weighed on a certified scale, one checked for accuracy by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, it would have put Derrick’s name and the bass forever on GON’s exclusive “Georgia’s Biggest Bass of All-Time” list. The digital weight of 15.88 pounds from the tournament scale converts to 15-lbs., 14.08-ozs. That would have ranked No. 17 on the prestigious list that is topped by George Perry’s world-record, 22-lb., 4-oz. largemouth from Montgomery Lake in 1932.

Derrick said when he and partner Tim Horsley began fishing the tournament on Sunday morning, May 4, they figured they would find bass on a postspawn pattern.

“We eased up on a flat, saw a 6-pounder bedding, and ended up catching it on a Trick Worm,” Derrick said.

They later added a 5-pounder to the livewell.

“We noticed some guys on a fish for about three hours,” Derrick said. “I guess they finally gave up. When we went over there, she was deep, in about 3 to 4 feet of water, but I knew she was at least 10 pounds.”

They tried to get the bass to hit, but she wasn’t hard on a bed and kept swimming off, so they left.

Tim said, “We were trying to win the tournament. We needed another good bass that would hit.”

With the 3:30 p.m. weigh-in time approaching, they decided to give the big bass another try at 3:10 p.m.

Tim said, “We eased up the last time, and she was locked on the bed. She was in a totally different mode.”

Derrick cast a Trick Worm rigged wacky style—on a spinning rod and a 1/0 hook—and the huge bass inhaled it. Then they had no time to waste.

“We got the bass in the livewell and started back,” Tim said. “We literally didn’t look at it again until we got it out to weigh-in.”

Their three-bass limit weighed an incredible 27.65 pounds, with the giant bass accounting for 15.88 pounds of that. Incredible!