By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

This makes four.

On May 3, Tyson Hallam, of Scammon, Kan., caught an 11.8-pound largemouth bass in a private pit in Cherokee County, setting a new Kansas record.

The old record was 11.75 pounds, said David Jenkins, assistant manager with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. That record had stood for 31 years.

The state presented Hallam with a certificate recognizing his record Friday.

It is the fourth state record taken from pits in Southeast Kansas.

Hallam, 14, caught the 28.5-inch fish on a rod-and-reel using a jig-and-pig. It was taken to Simone’s IGA in Weir and weighed and certified by wildlife officials. Hallam kept the fish and said he plans to have it mounted.

“I knew it was big, but I didn’t really think it was a state record,” Hallam said Friday.

The pits are earning a reputation for their lunkers and record-breaking regularity.

“My dad’s friend caught an 11.3-pound largemouth out of a pit north of Weir,” Hallam said Friday.

The Kansas record channel cat — 36.5 pounds and 38 inches long — was caught in the Mined Land Wildlife Area in Cherokee County in 2003 by Rick Barnow of Humboldt.

The Mined Land Wildlife Area is 15,000 acres of former coal mining land with strip pits in Cherokee, Crawford and Labette counties.

“The bulk of it is in Cherokee County,” Jenkins said. “It is 9,000-and-some-odd acres of public ground in Cherokee County.”

In 1988, the state record warmouth, a smaller species of bass, was caught by Vivian Bradley of Pittsburg. It weighed 1.11 pounds.