Fisherman Caught 7.6 Pound Rare Hybrid Bass, Setting New World Record

Texas Fisherman has netted a place in the record books after catching a rare hybrid bass.

Wyatt Frankens caught a 7.6-pound hybrid smallmouth×largemouth bass while fishing with a friend at the O.H. Ivie Reservoir in Texas.

Guide service owner Frankens knows the area pretty well and was hoping to catch one of the giant large-mouth bass that he had heard were in the area, but the species had evaded him, he caught a rare hybrid bass instead.

Narrating how he caught the fish, Frankens said: “It was no secret that OH Ivie was popping off, so we got down there about a week after all the big fish were getting caught, and the fish weren't really grouped up anymore. So we just starting using Garmin LiveScope to scan down timber lines in 30-40 feet of water. It was overcast in the morning and the fish were scattered and roaming. As the wind blew me along, I spotted two dots about 60 feet out on the Livescope.”

“I casted a Megabass Magdraft Freestyle rigged on a 3/4 ounce Jenko Long Shank Swimbait Head past the fish. The wind was blowing me towards them and as I reeled it past them, one of the dots broke off and ran the swimbait down. It bit about 10 feet out from the boat and slacklined me. It was a special bite to see a big fish like that run it down and slam it so close to the boat. I jumped down on the deck and was able to lip her after what seemed like a 5 minute fight.”

Frankens told Fox News that he caught what he initially believed to be a small-mouth bass.

Back in March 1st when the fish was believed to be a smallmouth and not a hybrid bass, Frankens took to Instagram and shared a post captioned: “At a loss for words…. I just caught the pending smallmouth lake record at O.H. Ivie!! She was 23 inches long, had a 17 1/2 inch girth, and weighed 7.60lbs on a certified scale! An absolute beast of a smallmouth!”

He was thinking he had simply set a lake record initially. But after posting photos of the fish on social media, some commenters said that he might not have caught a normal small-mouth bass.

So he sent some of the fish’s scales he had saved to the Texas Parks and Wildlife for analysis.

Tissue samples from the bass were collected. And after a week or two, the result was out. Biologists confirmed that the bass was indeed a smallmouth×largemouth hybrid.

“The lab results are in,” Frankens posted on his Facebook page in March. “Just got off the phone with the biologist over at Texas Parks & Wildlife, and he let me know that she (bass) was in fact a smallmouth×largemouth hybrid! So not only is it a lake record at O.H. Ivie, it is a Texas state record as well.”

The result showed he had caught 7.6-pound hybrid smallmouth×largemouth bass. After speaking with an official from the Texas P&W, Franken realized he likely had caught a fish that was more than a lake record.

After the bass officially became the Texas record for the rare type of bass, proper paperwork and photos were submitted to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). They just notified Frankens is now the holder of the world record for the smallmouth×largemouth hybrid species, according to fishgame.

It turns out, Frankens had set a new world record after catching the fish. He says he just got the official notice from the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), which keeps track of the world records.

“I’m really at a loss for words,” Frankens said. “Who would’ve thought this small town guy from East Texas would be a world record holder?”

According to Franken, coming from a small town and making a world record was a big deal not just for him, but for the entire community.

What Is Smallmouth×Largemouth Hybrid?

The smallmouth×largemouth hybrid is a cross between a smallmouth bass (M. dolomieu) and largemouth bass (M. salmoides).

The smallmouth and largemouth basses belong to genus Micropterus which is a Freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) and order Perciformes.

According to Wikipedia, Black basses are found throughout a large area east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, from the Hudson Bay basin in Canada to northeastern Mexico. Several species, notably the largemouth and smallmouth basses, have been very widely introduced throughout the world, and are now considered cosmopolitan. 

Black bass of all species are highly sought-after game fish, and bass fishing is an extremely popular sport throughout the bass's native range. These fish are well known as strong fighters, and their meat is eaten, being quite edible and firm.