By Brett French Billings Gazette

It could be a state record smallmouth bass, but Mike Dominick let it go.

“I’ve never seen a smallmouth that fat,” he said. “Not in my hands.”

So why did he let it go?

“Fish and game was surprised, but it was so old I couldn’t stand to kill it,” he said.

Dominick, an Alberton resident, has fished Fort Peck Reservoir for bass since 2007, even though it is a nine-and-a-half-hour drive from his home.

Driving a long way to bass fish is not unusual for him. He competes in several tournaments each year, so his trips also take him to waters in Idaho, California and Nevada, in addition to bass waters across Montana like Noxon Reservoir.

On Sept. 23, part of a three-day excursion, he was fishing with Miles City angler Kevin Sept west of Hell Creek. While tossing a drop shot rig, where the weight is on the bottom of the line with a plastic worm tied in above, they cast onto submerged rocky ridges seeking smallmouth. Dominick was fishing a light-action rod spooled with 8-pound test.

The duo had caught a few fish when around 10 a.m. Dominick hooked a much heavier smallie.

“It tried to jump twice, but it was too big,” he said. “It just stuck its nose out of water and wallowed around. It was ungodly fat, just an impressive fish.”

A scale in Dominick’s boat said the fish weighed more than the state record, but for a fish to qualify it has to be weighed on a certified scale.

Luckily, there was a tournament on Fort Peck Reservoir that day that would have a certified scale to weigh the fish. Knowing this, Dominick slid the fat smallmouth into his livewell, checking on its health frequently to ensure it was doing OK as his livewell’s pump continually circulated fresh water.

It was 3 p.m. before the fish was officially weighed at Hell Creek, tipping the scales at 7.51 pounds. The fish was 21 inches long and 19 inches around, “like a ball,” Dominick said.

The old record was set in May 2016 by Jacob Fowler who caught a 7.4-pound smallmouth while fishing off a dock in Flathead Lake.

Fort Peck could easily produce the next big bass, Dominick said. On his last trip he caught five fish over 6 pounds. One trip he and another angler caught 30 smallmouth over 3 pounds in an hour-and-a-half and never moved the boat.

For now, Dominick is waiting for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to approve his submission of the smallmouth as a state record.