David Chong has caught plenty of big smallmouth bass before at Ontario's Lake Simcoe, but none compared to the brute he hooked into Oct. 24.
While fishing a jerkbait over 25-plus feet of water on a calm autumn day, Chong, an accomplished tournament angler on Canadian trails, thought he had a lake trout on when he first felt a hard tug on his line. It didn't take long for him to realize he had a behemoth smallmouth.
After netting the fish, Chong had to call a friend who was guiding on Simcoe that day so he could borrow his scale to weigh it. The digital scale read 8.2 pounds, the biggest smallmouth he'd ever caught. The fish was 23.25 inches long and had a girth of 19.75 inches.
Canadian outdoor writer Wil Wegman has all the details on Chong's catch. Click here to read about it.
