Twelve-Year-Old Tucker Bass Lands Wyoming’s First World-Record Largemouth

The original story by Mark Heinz for Cowboy State Daily.

When John and Tucker Bass moved from Tennessee to Wyoming, they weren’t convinced the Cowboy State could compete with Southern bass fishing.

Now they know better.

This summer, 12-year-old Tucker Bass reeled in a world-record largemouth at Lake Cameahwait in Fremont County — better known to locals as “Bass Lake.” The fish weighed 2 pounds, 4 ounces and has now been officially certified as the junior division 4-pound line class world record by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA).

It’s the first IGFA-certified world-record largemouth bass ever caught in Wyoming.

And soon, it’ll be dinner.

“We planned on eating the fish as soon as we got official approval of the world record,” said Tucker’s dad, John. “And now we’ll have a world-record dinner.”

Tucker already knows how he wants it prepared: deep fried.

The Bass family originally hails from Tennessee, where the largemouth fishing is legendary. Tucker has plenty of memories chasing bass there with his grandparents.

When they moved to Shoshoni, Wyoming, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I didn’t know if Wyoming had bass fishing,” he admitted.

That doubt didn’t last long.

“During one outing, I saw a bass chasing my lure and I yelled, ‘It’s a baaasss!'” he said.

Since then, Tucker’s been hooked on Wyoming fishing — bass, trout, perch, muskie, you name it.

Lake Cameahwait quickly became a favorite.

“It’s got trout, muskie and millions of perch,” Tucker said. “But best of all, it’s got largemouth bass.”

The world record wasn’t even the target that day.

On a bright, clear August morning, Tucker was actually fishing for perch, using a Northland tungsten jig — the kind usually tied on for ice fishing.

John said they’d discovered the jig worked great on perch year-round, so Tucker tied it on again. His setup was a Bass Pro Shops Micro-Lite rod paired with a Shimano Sahara 1000 reel, a gift from his grandfather.

Then came the hit.

“It was a sharp, powerful tug on the line,” John said.

Tucker did exactly what his dad had taught him — keep steady pressure on the fish. Too loose and the bass could shake free; too tight and the line might snap.

After a solid fight, Tucker landed the fish that would rewrite Wyoming’s record books.

John put the bass on ice while they sent in all the required IGFA documentation and waited. The confirmation finally came through a few days ago: world record, officially certified.

For Tucker, the whole thing still feels a little surreal.

“It’s pretty crazy to catch a world-record bass in Wyoming,” he said.

He hopes it won’t be his last big largemouth.

In the meantime, he’s happy to keep piling up perch. When he takes younger friends or relatives out, it feels like they’ve caught “hundreds” of them in a day.

“Perch fishing is fun for little kids,” he said.

John couldn’t resist teasing him:

“‘Fun for little kids? You’re the one who always wants to fish for them.’”

With winter closing in, the Bass boys are already thinking about ice fishing.

Tucker has a pretty simple rule for whether it’s fun.

“It depends on whether you’re catching fish or you’re not,” he said. “It’s not fun to be freezing your butt off if you’re not catching anything.”

“Amen,” John replied. “You can have fun fishing on a warm day, even if you’re not catching anything. With ice fishing, it’s not that way.”

World record or not, it sounds like the Bass family will be back out on Bass Lake — jigging perch, chasing bass and, every once in a while, landing a fish that makes Wyoming history.