State Record Largemouth Bass: Every US State Record Listed

Georgia holds the largest state record largemouth bass at 22 lb 4 oz, the same fish that stands as the official world record. Every other state’s record ranges from about 8 to 21 pounds, largely tracking climate and growing season, with warm-water Southern and Western states dominating the top of the list.

Which State Holds the Biggest Largemouth Bass Record?

Georgia, by a wide margin, and only because its state record and the official world record are the same fish. George Perry’s 22 lb 4 oz largemouth, caught in Montgomery Lake in 1932, doubles as both Georgia’s state record and the IGFA all-tackle world record, a distinction no other state shares. Outside Georgia, California holds the next-largest state record at 21 lb 12 oz, followed by Texas and Mississippi, all warm-climate states with long growing seasons and, in California and Texas’s case, a history of stocking Florida-strain largemouth specifically to produce trophy-sized fish.

Why Do State Records Vary So Much Across the Country?

Climate and growing season explain most of the spread. Largemouth bass in warm Southern and Western states with long growing seasons and mild winters, Georgia, California, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, put on weight faster and for more months of the year than bass in short-season Northern and mountain states like North Dakota, Minnesota, or Montana, where records tend to cluster in the 8 to 11-pound range. Stocking history matters too: California and Texas both have decades of deliberate Florida-strain largemouth stocking specifically aimed at producing trophy fish, which helps explain why both states punch above their native range in the record book despite largemouth bass not being originally native to much of the West.

Which States Have the Oldest Unbroken Records?

Georgia’s 1932 record is the oldest on the list by a wide margin and, given that it is also the world record, is realistically unlikely to ever be broken at the state level. Several other records have stood since the 1960s and 1970s, including Connecticut (1961), Missouri (1961), Massachusetts (1975), and Ohio (1976), suggesting either genuinely difficult ceilings to beat or, in some cases, simply less trophy-bass fishing pressure and stocking investment in that state compared to the South and West. On the other end, several records have fallen recently: New York’s record was broken in 2024, and Kentucky’s and Wyoming’s records both date to the 2010s, showing that state records are still actively changing hands in states with growing bass fisheries.

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