Emory Carver, a 13-year-old from Vestavia Hills, went to a Henry County private lake on Friday, June 26 dreaming of catching a 10-lb. bass. What he caught instead was maybe the eighth largest bass ever from Alabama.

The youngster landed a largemouth bass that on hand-held digital scales weighed 15.4 pounds. Converted to pounds and ounces, that’s 15-lbs., 6.4-ozs., and it is less than a pound and 2 ounces from the Alabama state record fish that weighed 16-lbs., 8-ozs. caught from a private lake in Shelby County in 1987.

Emory’s previous largest bass was 5 pounds. The eighth-grader-to-be at Pizitz Middle School released the huge Henry County bass back into the lake unharmed.

“I was visiting one of my grandparents north of Dothan, and a 60-year-old man I know down there took me fishing at this private lake,” said Emory.

The youngster sure loves to fish—he was surf fishing on the beach when contacted by AON about his giant bass.

“My friend had fished the lake several times before. He told me where some good spots were, and he showed me a place he had never fished. I went to that spot.”

Emory said it was about 7 a.m. when he cast a 6-inch Texas-rigged Gary Yamamoto Senko in a spot and felt the unmistakable thump of a fish inhaling the bait.

“I set the hook, and it was hard to reel in,” he said. “It jumped about a foot in the air, and I thought it was 10 pounds. I didn’t know what a 15-lb. bass looked like.”

Using a stiff rod and 14-lb. test monofilament, Emory was able to manhandle the bass to the bank in about a minute, he said. With the big bass in hand, he almost had a story of the big one that got away.

Emory said the bass slipped out of his hand, but it was still hooked, and he was able to get ahold of it again. He said when he weighed the fish and it pulled the digital scales to more than 15 pounds, he was in shock.

“I never thought about keeping it,” he said. “I wanted to throw it back so someone else could catch it when it weighed maybe 16 pounds. I’m hoping someone can make me a mount from the picture.”

Emory’s is the first bass in 20 years to make the list of Alabama 10 Largest Bass.

Incredibly, Emory got the catch on video. He had a GoPro camera strapped to his chest. He was filming for his Youtube.com fishing channel.

He films all of his fishing trips on puts them online.

Emory said he has been fishing all of his life and got his start fishing with his dad and grandad. He sure set the bar high at a very early age with his bass of a lifetime.