MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Matt Herren caught – and released – what was probably a world record bass during practice for the Bassmaster Elite at Bull Shoals/Norfork.
“My one chance at fame and glory,” Herren said. “I released the world record, man.
You work all your life to get in the record books, to catch a giant, and the only chance I had, I throwed it back.”
You probably would have “throwed it back” too. Herren caught an Ozark bass during practice Sunday at Norfork Lake. It’s closely related to a rock bass, also called a goggle-eye. Herren knew he’d caught something in the sunfish family similar to a rock bass or a warmouth. But he’d never seen one quite like this one, so he took a photo and posted it on his Facebook page.
That’s when he heard from Rick Pierce, a Mountain Home resident and president of BassCat Boats. Pierce knows all about this gamefish, which is found only in the White River chain of lakes – Beaver, Table Rock, Bull Shoals and Norfork.
The Ozark bass holds a special place in the annual BassCat owners’ tournament that Pierce’s company hosts each year.
“We always have a $1,000 wildcard prize for the biggest Ozark bass,” Pierce said. “We’ve set a new state record twice over the years. One year we took out a $25,000 insurance policy for a prize if someone set a new world record.”
The current world record is a 1-pound, 1-ounce Ozark bass caught by Dan Biery of Clinton, Ark., from Norfork Lake on May 12, 2014. Thanks to the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission website, there’s a photo of Biery and his world record Ozark bass.
“I think the one I caught was bigger,” Herren said. “It was a golly-whomper, son. That guy that holds the world record, he’s living a charmed life, because a dummy caught this one.”
Seriously, Herren, who is from Ashville, Ala., said he wouldn’t have kept the fish and gone through the official certification process even if he’d known exactly what he’d caught.
“A spotted bass, a smallmouth, a shoal bass, yes, but no, not for this one,” Herren said.