Scammon youth breaks state record after catching 11 pound, 12.8 ounce largemouth bass in strip pit

On Saturday morning, Tyson Hallam was just one of many at a youth fishing derby.
By 2:45 in the afternoon, Hallam had put himself in the Kansas fishing record books.
Hallam, the 14-year-old son of Terry and Tammy Hallam of Scammon, was fishing in a Cherokee County strip pit as part of the West Mineral Eagles fishing tournament when he caught a 11 pound, 12 ounce largemouth bass — breaking the Kansas record held for 31 years by Kenneth Bingham of Topeka.
Throughout the morning, Hallam said that he figured that there would be a catch, but not nearly what he would pick up later in the day.
“I thought I would get about a four to five-pound fish which is about the usual we get out of there,” Hallam said. “You can catch some big fish but usually they are smaller.”
After fishing off and on for most of the day, Hallam’s fishing pole came alive in the middle of the afternoon.
Not only did Tyson have to get to work but his father also sprung into action at the helm of the boat.
“It happened all pretty quick and when he got that white-knuckle grip I knew I had to get my stuff together,” Terry Hallam said.
Tyson said that the fish was confirmed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks as being 28 inches in length and 19 1/8” in girth did put up a bit of a struggle before he succombed to being caught.
“It fought for a little bit and then it just gave up,” Tyson said. “I had to hold the pole with both hands and my dad had to pull it up before it could swim under the boat.”
Now, Tyson will have to wait the mandatory 30 days before the catch is certified by the state and that will give him plenty of time to think about his catch on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of a strip pit in Cherokee County.
“I have caught a fish that was about six pounds before and some channel cat that were about 14 to 15 pounds before but never a largemouth this big before,” Tyson said. “I just did not think that it was nearly that big. I thought that it was about nine pounds or something like that.”
It also gives his father, also an avid fisherman, something to think about too.
“I have fished my whole life and I have never seen a head that big on a fish come out of the water,” Terry said. “I am very proud of him but I am hearing a lot of slack too. It is just one of those things.”

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140