The New York Department of Environmental Conservation announced a new state-record smallmouth bass<\/a> on Thursday. The smallie weighed 9 pounds even, and it was caught Sept. 22 in the St. Lawrence River by local angler Dante Piraino, who was fishing in a bass tournament at the time.<\/p>\n The record-breaking smallmouth was part of a huge, 31-plus-pound bag that Piraino weighed that Sunday, the final day of the tournament. A judge weighed the fish on certified scales in front of a group of witnesses, and the whole crowd erupted when they saw how heavy it was. There was, however, some concern that the bass wouldn\u2019t qualify as a state record, because when Piraino contacted officials with NYDEC, they told him to put the fish on ice until they could verify it the following day. Piraino refused to kill the fish and released it back into the St. Lawrence instead. <\/p>\n Sept. 24, 2024:<\/strong> Dante Piraino already had a pair of 2-pound smallmouth bass in his boat\u2019s livewell when he hooked a heavy fish in 30 feet of water at 9 a.m. on Sunday. Piraino was competing in a qualifying tournament on New York\u2019s St. Lawrence River, and he needed some real weight to move up in the rankings. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI knew it was a good bass, but I figured it was only about 6 pounds,\u201d the 25-year-old tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get the fish up easily. It didn\u2019t jump, but it finally came up three or four times at the surface where I could see it was a giant. I had trouble getting into my net because it was so big.\u201d<\/p>\n Piraino was fishing alone that morning, the second and final day of a New York BASS Nation tournament. He worked the smallmouth into his net and saw how the massive the fish really was, but at the time, he was more concerned with his final score than the fish\u2019s actual weight.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Dante Piraino<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cI never thought about it being a record,\u201d says Piraino, who runs Deep River Technologies<\/a>, a marine electronics company. \u201cI just wanted to make sure I caught over 30 pounds of bass that day to quality for the next tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> The Biggest Bass Ever Caught<\/a><\/p>\n Piraino says he immediately \u201cfizzed\u201d the bass<\/a>, which entails using a special tool to pierce the air bladder inside the fish. This helps fish decompress and improves their chances of survival after being hauled up quickly from deep water.<\/p>\n \u201cI fizzed it and put it back in my boat\u2019s live well and the fish righted itself,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew then it was OK. I checked it 10 minutes later and through the morning and the fish was just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n The calm day got warmer, and Piraino knew he had to keep the fish alive and well. He still had a 75-mile boat run back to the tournament weigh station in Ogdensburg. Earlier that morning, he\u2019d run his 19-foot Skeeter up the St. Lawrence from Ogdensbug to an area known as Cape Vincent. He was familiar enough with the spot, and he\u2019d recently discovered a deeper flat that held fish using his Garmin LiveScope.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Dante Piraino<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cI never would have known there were bass on that flat without my LiveScope,\u201d he said. \u201cBut days earlier I had spotted some big fish, and I checked it during the tournament and started catching them. They were solo, and I\u2019d catch one every 20 or 30 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Piraino was using a 4-inch Berkley Flat Nose Minnow soft plastic lure in green pumpkin color on a 3\/8-ounce Ned Rig. His spinning outfit held 10-pound test braided line, connected to a 10-pound fluorocarbon leader.<\/p>\n He stayed on fish throughout the day. By the end of competition, Piraino had put together in an impressive bag with two 5-pounders and two 6-pounders in addition to the lunker he landed that morning. He wouldn\u2019t know how big that fish was until he made the hour run back to the weigh-in, where officials weighed his 31.4-pound bag on certified scales in front of a crowd of witnesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they said [the big bass] weighed nine pounds a lot of people started hooting and hollering and said it was a state record,\u201d Piraino says. \u201cI had no idea it was that big or could be a record until then.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo courtesy Dante Piraino<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n He then called officials with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, but they told him no one was available to come inspect the fish.<\/p>\n \u201cThey suggested I put the bass on ice and have the state folks weigh and measure it that Monday,\u201d Piraino says. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t going to kill that bass. So, we got its official weight, measurements, lots of photos and witnesses, and we released it, as we should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n Piraino\u2019s bass weighed an even 9 pounds, with an 18.25-inch girth, a 23.12-inch length. His bass easily tops the current New York smallie record<\/a>, an 8-pound 6-ounce fish caught in 2022.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> Tournament Angler Catches Same Record Smallmouth Bass Two Years in a Row<\/a><\/p>\n Proper paperwork and official verification of Piraino\u2019s catch is required before it\u2019s certified as a New York state record. Since it was weighed on the same certified scales used by BASS Nation judges, it\u2019s almost certain that will happen. But even if the record doesn\u2019t pan out, Piraino has earned the respect of the local bass fishing community, with countless anglers applauding his decision<\/a> to keep fish alive \u2014 even if it meant potentially sacrificing the record, and all the clout that comes with it.<\/p>\n \u201cGuess I got to look into have a replica mount made of that 9-pounder,\u201d Piraino says, \u201cbecause we sure don\u2019t see one like that every day.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was updated on Oct. 11, 2024 to reflect that the record was confirmed by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/new_york_record_smallmouth_bass_released_tournament_angler_3.jpg?strip=all&quality=85&w=1005\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/new_york_record_smallmouth_bass_released_tournament_angler_4.jpg?strip=all&quality=85&w=1005\")