Keith Lusher 08.11.25
Steve Jenkins thought he was having a pretty good tournament day when he hooked into what felt like a solid fish at Roosevelt Lake. He had no idea he was about to land what could be Arizona’s new state record largemouth bass.
The 55-year-old angler from Apache Junction was fishing a Southwest Custom Tackle Summer Slam tournament on Saturday, August 3rd, with his partner Mike Selvage. After their first few spots didn’t pan out, Jenkins decided to check an old honey hole he hadn’t visited in a while due to changing water levels.
“We actually just pulled over and stopped, sort of spur of the moment, and we started catching fish right away,” Jenkins said.
Using his forward-facing sonar, Jenkins marked several fish holding around structure in about 30 feet of water near a drop off. Around 7 a.m., he lost what felt like a big fish when it broke his line. After retying, he dropped a 6-inch Roboworm straight tail in morning dawn color back down on a dropshot rig with a 1/4-ounce weight.
“It was down there for maybe 30 seconds, and I just felt weight. I never even felt the fish bite,” Jenkins recalled. “But as soon as I set the hook, it started ripping drag.”
The fish immediately took off toward the east, pulling drag for 15 seconds before jumping. With the sun behind it, Jenkins and Selvage could only see the bass’s massive silhouette against the bright morning sky.
“Mike saw it for a moment and said, ‘Holy crap! It’s a 10-pounder!’” Jenkins said.
The two anglers chased the fish with their trolling motor as it made several powerful runs. After a careful fight on a 10-pound Berkley Nanofil main line and a 7-pound fluorocarbon leader, Selvage finally slipped the net under the giant bass.
Jenkins, who owns A-1 Auto Repair and has been fishing Roosevelt for 25 years, initially guessed the fish weighed around 12 or 13 pounds. He’d caught some big bass before, including a couple in the 9 to 10-pound range, but this one felt different.
With over four hours left until the tournament weigh-in, Jenkins’s main concern shifted to keeping the fish alive. He dedicated half of his livewell to the massive bass, which barely fit inside. The fish was so large that Jenkins “fizzed” it twice during the morning to prevent barotrauma and even stopped at a marina to get ice to cool the livewell water.
“It’s the biggest thing I’ve caught in my lifetime,” Jenkins said. “I didn’t want it to die.”
By the time they returned to the boat ramp for weigh-in, word had spread through the tournament field. Other anglers lined up with cameras and phones as Jenkins carried the fish with both hands to the certified scale. When the digital display showed 16.57 pounds, the crowd erupted.
The current Arizona state record stands at 16 pounds, 7.68 ounces, caught by Randall White at Canyon Lake in 1997. Jenkins’s fish would beat that record by more than two ounces.
Despite the potential record and all the excitement, Jenkins stuck to his original plan. After taking photos and weighing in for the tournament (where he and Selvage finished second with 26.07 pounds total), he released the bass back into Roosevelt Lake.
“The intention was always to release it. I would have hated to kill that fish,” Jenkins said. “She swam off strong.”
Jenkins has contacted the Arizona Game and Fish Department about certifying the record based on the photographs, video evidence, and witness testimony from the tournament. While it’s uncertain whether the agency will accept a catch-and-release record certification, Jenkins has no regrets about his decision.
“My goal was just to keep the fish alive,” he said. “If they don’t give me the record, then it is what it is. I just wanted to see that fish go back.”
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