Every angler dreams of catching the one. For Andrew Oestringer, that dream came true on a quiet day kayak fishing Lower Symes Pond in Vermont. He hauled in a smallmouth bass that was nearly two feet long and weighed a whopping 7 pounds, 6 ounces on his home scale — a full 10 ounces heavier than the official state record.
The problem? By the time anyone realized what he had, the fish had already been filleted for dinner.
According to Vermont Fish & Wildlife, because Oestringer didn’t weigh the fish on a certified scale before cooking it, the catch can’t be entered in the official record books. Instead, it goes down as an “unofficial record.”
“It’s rare but not unheard of for anglers who plan to keep a nice fish for dinner to grab an unofficial weight at home, realize their catch might have been a record, and reach out,” said biologist Shawn Good. “Even though Fish & Wildlife can’t accept the weight, we can all agree this is one heck of a fish story.”
For Oestringer, it’s still a dream come true. “There is no better place to fish than Vermont. Smallies, trout, pickerel, pike—Vermont has endless opportunities,” he said.
And that’s the kicker: Vermont is already nationally recognized for its incredible bass fishing, especially on Lake Champlain. But this monster wasn’t caught on a sprawling big-water hotspot. It came from a tiny pond, in a kayak, with simple gear. Proof that the next record could be waiting in waters you’d least expect.
So Andrew Oestringer will go down in fishing lore as the angler who caught and filleted what might have been Vermont’s new smallmouth bass record.
