Mason Cummings caught this 16-pound-plus monster largemouth in February 1993, tying the South Carolina state record. (Photo courtesy of South Carolina Wildlife Magazine)
February 19, 2021
By Ken Duke
Getting a lot of bites in the chilly waters of February can be tough, but the bites you get will likely come from larger-than-average bass.
Across the country, seven state largemouth records have been taken in February, including the top bucketmouths from Louisiana and Tennessee, plus a fish that tied the state mark in South Carolina.
On Feb. 6, 1993, Mason Cummings used a purple plastic worm to tie the longstanding South Carolina record of 16 pounds, 2 ounces. He caught the fish from an Aiken County farm pond, and trophy chasers should take note of that.
Small bodies of water—like farm ponds—will typically warm faster than large lakes and reservoirs, activating the big bass sooner.
Greg Wiggins set Louisiana's largemouth record on Feb. 12, 1994, using a black-and-blue jig-and-craw trailer on Caney Lake. His giant weighed 15.97 pounds. The record Wiggins broke had been caught the previous February from the same body of water.
The most recent southern record taken in February was caught on Feb. 13, 2015, by Gabe Keen from Tennessee's Lake Chickamauga. That bass, caught on a castable umbrella rig, weighed 15 pounds, 2 ounces, and bested a mark that stood for more than 60 years in the Volunteer State.
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