Bass – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Angler fishes after work, sets peacock bass record

A Florida angler has been granted a state record for his recent catch of a butterfly peacock bass weighing 9.11 pounds.

Felipe Prieto’s after-work catch at an unidentified Broward County reservoir beats a record (9.08 pounds) that has stood since 1993.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced the certification Friday afternoon, adding that Prieto’s peacock bass “supersedes the previous state record that has stood for almost three decades.”

Peacock bass, which are large cichlids and not true bass, are native to tropical South America.

Butterfly peacock bass were stocked in southeast Florida canals in 1984, according to the FWC, “to reduce the number of undesirable exotic fishes, especially tilapia.”

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The predatory game fish are the only nonnative fish to have been legally established in Florida. They’re prized by anglers because of their striking coloration and the challenge they pose to light-tackle anglers.

According to the International Game Fish Assn., “The butterfly peacock’s powerful, laterally compressed body and aggressive temperament make it pound for pound one of the hardest fish to handle on light tackle.”

FWC Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto added: “Anglers from across the country travel here to catch a peacock bass, which only adds to the tremendous economic impact fishing has in Florida.”

For the sake of comparison, the IGFA lists as the all-tackle world record a 12-pound, 9-ounce butterfly peacock bass caught on Venezuela’s Chiguao River in 2000.

In Florida, peacock bass inhabit mostly warmer waters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. But recent milder winters have allowed for some northward range expansion.

–Image showing Felipe Prieto with record peacock bass is courtesy of the FWC

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Angler ‘in shock’ after landing record smallmouth bass

A South Dakota angler who was practicing for a recent pro bass-fishing tournament said he was “in shock” after landing a state-record smallmouth bass.

Troy Diede, of Sioux Falls, hooked the 7-pound, 4-ounce smallmouth while casting an Eco Pro Tungsten Ned Rig in mid-July on Lake Oahe.

South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks recently approved the catch as a state record. Diede, who hopes to qualify for this year’s Bassmaster Classic, recalled his epic experience this week in a Bassmaster feature.

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Diede said he hooked the 20.75-inch smallmouth bass the morning after catching and releasing a 6-pound smallmouth that looked equally massive.

“I didn’t even make 10 casts and I hooked into another good-sized fish,” Diede told Bassmaster. “After about 90 seconds I realized it had the same similarities as that 6-pounder. It was fighting the same way, it’s taking me forever.

“I only had 7-pound Gamma line on. It started running out of gas after about two minutes and I didn’t realize how big it was until I picked it up. I belly landed it like a football and held it under my arm and I was in shock.”

Diede obtained several unofficial weights before he was able to deliver the fish, alive in an aerated boat well, to a certified scale.

After a Game, Fish and Parks biologist confirmed the catch, Diede released the smallmouth precisely where he had hooked the fish. He beat the previous South Dakota record by about an ounce.

For the sake of comparison, the International Game Fish Assn. lists as the all-tackle world record an 11-pound, 15-ounce smallmouth bass caught at Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee in July 1955.

–Images courtesy of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks

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Catch of enormous bass a boon for all Texas anglers

CJ Oates on Thursday was reeling his lure past a wooden dock when “I felt the slightest tick.” He reared back, inspiring a violent head shake, and realized that he had hooked an enormous largemouth bass.

“She was so massive that I could barely reel to get her in,” Oates, who was fishing at Lake Austin, Texas, told For the Win Outdoors. “She was built like a mini school bus.”

After a nighttime fight described as “madness,” Oates boated a bass that weighed 13.02 pounds, a milestone catch and a fish that could help boost fishing opportunities around the state.

It was the second “Legacy Class” largemouth bass to have been donated live to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 2021, marking a fast start to the agency’s seasonal Toyota ShareLunker Program.

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There are several divisions but only Legacy Class fish – those 13 pounds or heavier – are used in a selective breeding program that runs during the spawning period from January through March. Biologist encourage spawning and rear the young for future stocking opportunities.

“Congratulations, CJ, and thank you for your contribution to helping make bass fishing bigger and better in Texas!” Parks and Wildlife wrote on Facebook.

According to the ShareLunker website, “Out of the millions of bass anglers in Texas, only a select few have ever crossed the 13-pound threshold.”

Oates’ catch, on a football jig, occurred less than a week after Travis Moore landed a 13.44-pound largemouth bass during a tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

Moore, who used a Carolina rig, told San Angelo Live:

“This was one of the best days of my life. I’ve caught a few 12-pounders and handful of 10-pounders, but this one here is special for me. As a bass fisherman, this is what we fish for every time we go out on the water.”

Oates said he and John Davilla had fished several spots on Lake Austin without any luck before the the giant bass struck at 9:30 p.m.

“For a moment I thought I was hung up and then I felt her head shake,” Oates recalled. “At that point things started to get really serious. During all this madness we didn’t have time to turn the headlamps on so we didn’t have much of a gauge of how big she was.

“So I get her to the boat and she started jumping and splashing and it was hard for my buddy to to net her in the darkness, but he finally got her. He picks her up and and sets her in the boat and that’s when we turned our headlamps on. We couldn’t believe what we had done.”

–Images of CJ Oates (top) and Travis Moore are courtesy of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Angler lands bass with slithery surprise in mouth

In a year when it seems that anything is possible, a Tennessee angler has reeled in a bass with a live snake in its mouth.

“Be careful when you reach your hand in a fish’s mouth! You never know what might be in there,” the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency cautioned its followers Saturday via Facebook.

A photo showing part of the snake lodged inside the throat of the bass was supplied by Dan Boudrie, who caught the bass earlier this month near the town of Paris, after it had apparently snacked on the reptile.

Boudrie is quoted as saying, “The head was looking at me right before I took this picture. I thought it was cool but wondered how I would explain to an ER doc that I got bit by a snake from putting my fingers in a fish’s mouth.”

Bass fishermen commonly use a thumb and forefinger to hoist fish out of the water, in a practice called lipping.

Reads one of more than 100 comments on the TWRA Facebook post: “If I had lipped the fish and then saw the snake, I probably would have thrown the fish, snake and rod and reel across the lake! No pictures!”

Reads another comment: “Guess I’m done fishing for 2020.”

The snake was identified as a non-venomous water snake, according to McClatchy News. Water snakes are sometimes confused with venomous water moccasins.

Boudrie was said to have thrown back the bass with the snake still in its mouth.

Bass are opportunistic and have been known to eat snakes and lizards that venture too close to water’s edge.

–Image courtesy of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

Osprey nabs giant bass, and of course anglers are jealous

A Florida wildlife officer this week watched an osprey pull from the water a largemouth bass so big that it did not even attempt to fly off with its catch.

A Florida wildlife officer this week watched an osprey pull from the water a largemouth bass so big that the bird did not even attempt to fly off with its catch.

Of course, the catch became the envy of anglers from around the state.

“These birds catch bigger fish than I do!” one angler declared in the comments section of a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission post on Facebook.

The post shows three images of the majestic raptor standing on a riverbank with the lunker bass.

“Officer Davenport was in his patrol boat on the Santa Fe River when he saw the osprey wrangle a large fish out of the water! Since the bass was nearly as big as the bird, the osprey decided to dine right there at the water’s edge,” reads the description.

“Wish I could catch a bass that big,” another angler chimed in.

Yet another angler recalled watching a similar event that he once witnessed during a slow day of fishing.

“One of these pretentious [birds] spent a full five minutes circling the pier where we were fishing from while carrying a HUGE bass and screaming at us,” the comment reads. “Obviously he was making un of us for failing to catch anything.”

Largemouth bass are prized game fish in Florida, and among the many species of fish targeted by ospreys, which are found year-round in the state.

The birds of prey, with wing spans of up to six feet, catch their prey by plunging feet first into waterways with their talons.

Typically, ospreys will fly off and eat from the safety of a high perch. But in some cases, apparently, a riverbank will suffice.

–Images courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Enormous largemouth bass a dream catch for 13-year-old

With a video camera strapped to his chest, and unbridled enthusiasm, a 13-year-old recently made Alabama bass-fishing history.

With a video camera strapped to his chest, and unbridled enthusiasm, a 13-year-old boy recently made Alabama bass-fishing history.

While the 15.4-pound largemouth bass caught by Emory Carver on June 26 did not establish a new record, it became the eighth heaviest bass ever caught in the state, according to Alabama Outdoor News.

Moreover, the fish Carver reeled from a private lake in Henry County, if the weight was accurate, was shy of the 23-year-old Alabama record (16.5 pounds) by only a little more than a pound.

Carver, who is from Vestavia Hills, joins a relatively small group of anglers who have landed largemouth bass weighing 15-plus pounds. (The world record is a tie involving 22-pound, 4-ounce fish caught in 1932 and 2009.)

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

The young angler who long dreamed of cracking the 10-pound barrier recorded his catch and edited some of the footage into a 21-minute video (posted above) showing some his other exploits on the lake.

The giant bass is featured briefly at the start of the video, and from 4:50 to 8:40. “Ten pounder! Ten pounder!” Carver exclaims, while reeling from the shore. “Got to get it in!”

The fish was not released quickly, and at one point it was dropped onto the grass, but it was revived and set free.

“I never thought about keeping it,” Carver 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.”

Carver said he was visiting a grandparent near Dothan “and a 60-year-old man I know down there took me fishing at this private lake.”

The bass was hooked on a Texas-rigged Senko bait tied to 14-pound-test line. Carver’s heaviest bass prior to this catch weighed five pounds.

–Image courtesy of Emory Carver

Instant analysis: A true competition? Bills nab kicker Tyler Bass

With their first of two slated picks in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Bills added competition for Stephen Hauschka by selecting K Tyler Bass of Georgia Southern.

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With the first of two slated picks in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Bills added competition for Stephen Hauschka by selecting K Tyler Bass of Georgia Southern.

Bass finished his four-year career for the Eagles going 54-of-68 on field goal attempts (79.41 percent), with a long of 50 yards.

Bass was a semi-finalist for the Lou Groza Award in his junior season and ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper has him as the No. 1 kicker on his big board.

Bass was invited to play in the annual showcase Senior Bowl game in Mobile, Alabama, and caught the attention of NFL scouts in attendance. He shined in practices, booting a 55-yarder that would have been good from 60 yards-plus. In the game, he kicked field goals of 41 and 50 yards and was 4-of-4 on extra points.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Another Georgia Southern Eagle Tyler Bass having an impressive impact at the senior bowl. Matt Patricia couldn’t help but let him break it down! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeniorBowl?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#SeniorBowl</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/GATALifestyle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@GATALifestyle</a> <a href=”https://t.co/mEUDScorOv”>pic.twitter.com/mEUDScorOv</a></p>— Oliver Davis II (@I_Am_OD3) <a href=”https://twitter.com/I_Am_OD3/status/1220079783922499591?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 22, 2020</a></blockquote> https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Using a draft pick to select a kicker would indicate the Bills are willing to move on from Stephen Hauschka should the veteran struggle during camp and the preseason. There is no doubt, the Bills are expecting a fierce competition this summer. Since the Bills used a draft pick on bass, that indicates they’ll certainly be giving him a realistic look.

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