World record bass caught
A TOOWOOMBA man has caught a world record Australian bass.
Daniel McCoy was fishing with a friend at Somerset Dam at the weekend, taking part in the Basstasstic Tournament when he caught a 4.455kg, 57cm Australian bass.
The tackle shop at Somerset used calibrated scales to weigh the bass, measured it and sent off an application to the IGFA World Record database, so it can be officially recognised as a world record.
According to the current database the record is held by Neil Schultz, who in 2005 caught an Australian bass at Lake Wivenhoe weighing 3.75kg and 55cm in length.
Mr McCoy said he was ecstatic with the size and weight of his catch.
“I knew I’d caught a big one but I didn’t think it would be record breaking. It’s pretty cool,” he said.
Mr McCoy has fished on and off for most of his life, but he only properly took it up about three years ago.
“I started getting really bad headaches and was told that I had a giant brain aneurysm on the right side of my head that doctors couldn’t operate on because it was just too risky,” he said.
“My doctor said the best thing I could do for myself was to take up fishing or something relaxing, so that’s exactly what I did.”
Mr McCoy has achieved a lot in his few years tournament fishing, he won the Bass Nation fishing competition at Lake Boondooma last August and was crowned Australia’s co-angler champion.
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