Tag: Largemouth bass

Bass fisherman reels in colorful surprise at Texas pond

The colossal fish caught by Jose Naranjo was a type of carp commonly used to decorate residential and community ponds.

A Texas angler was hoping to catch bass recently at San Antonio pond, but instead hooked and landed a giant koi.

“I’ve seen it there before and have wondered if anyone’s caught it before,” Jose Naranjo told My San Antonio. “It’s actually one of three that are in those ponds.”

Koi are a type of domesticated carp, considered ornamental because of their bright coloration. They’re used to decorate residential or community ponds and in Japan the fish represent love and friendship.

Naranjo theorized that the koi he caught on April 5 had been released there by somebody who no longer wanted the fish.

Naranjo was practicing catch-and-release fishing and set the koi free after posing for a photo. He estimated the koi’s length at 30-plus inches.

Interestingly, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department raises koi as forage for largemouth bass brood stock in hatcheries.

“They are easy to raise, grow fast, and lack sharp dorsal spines, making them easy for the bass to eat,” the agency explains on its website. “In an average year, the hatcheries will produce 15,000 to 20,000 kilograms of koi.”

Texas lake yields four monstrous bass in four days

The largest of the catches at O.H. Ivie Lake, weighing 15.82 pounds, is the 37th heaviest bass caught in state history.

A Texas reservoir this week yielded an astonishing four largemouth bass topping 13 pounds in four days.

The bass were caught at O.H. Ivie Lake and the largest – weighing 15.82 pounds – was landed March 18 by Kyle Hall of Granbury.

“I got on the water around 8 or 8:30 a.m. and really didn’t catch much until around 4 p.m.,” Hall said. “I reeled in a 10.20-pound fish and then about an hour later I did something random and ran up the river where I caught an 11-pounder.

“I then ran back down and by the dam I came across this fish. She about ripped the rod out of my hand.”

All four bass were kept alive and “loaned” to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for a hatchery spawning and stocking effort designed to enhance fisheries across the state.

The Toyota ShareLunker Program, as it’s called, accepts only “Legacy Class” bass weighing at least 13 pounds for the spawning portion. So far this year, 17 Legacy Class bass have been donated to the program.

Hall’s bass was the heaviest caught this year in Texas, and the 37th heaviest in state history.

According to the TPWD, Hall has donated Legacy Class bass in three consecutive seasons – all three of his catches coming at O.H. Ivie.

Said Natalie Goldstrohm, Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator: “This reservoir has established itself as a top destination for many trophy largemouth bass anglers and it is no surprise that Kyle Hall and others target these giants at O.H. Ivie year after year.”

The other Legacy bass caught at O.H. Ivie this past week included a 14.18-pounder by Bud Robey on March 17;  a 13.62-pounder by Larry Walker on March 20, and a 13.22-pounder by Scott Hines on March 20.

O.H. Ivie is on the Colorado and Concho Rivers east of San Angelo.

The 2024 Toyota ShareLunker Program will run through March 31.

Boy, 11, lands record bass that will help enhance Texas fisheries

Stetson Davis set out with his father hoping to catch his first double-digit largemouth bass. He achieved that goal and then some.

An 11-year-old boy shattered a junior angler waterbody record in Texas on Wednesday with the catch of a 13.31-pound largemouth bass at J.B. Thomas Reservoir.

Stetson Davis of Tuttle, Oklahoma, broke the record by more than five pounds and joined a small number of anglers of any age to have caught bass topping 13 pounds this year in Texas.

The massive fish was donated alive to the state-run Toyota ShareLunker Program, which accepts only “Legacy Class” bass weighing at least 13 pounds for its long-running hatchery spawning effort designed to enhance fisheries statewide.

“We are excited to recognize Stetson’s accomplishments through the Toyota ShareLunker Program and Angler Recognition Program,” Natalie Goldstrohm, program coordinator, stated Friday in a news release. “Getting young people hooked on fishing through these programs is important to creating a lifelong love of the sport.”

Stetson was in Texas with his father, Brodey Davis, with the goal of catching his first double-digit largemouth bass.

The kid had a good teacher; Brodey caught the seventh-largest “Legacy Class” bass in Texas history (17.06 pounds) in 2022 at O.H. Ivie Reservoir.

Stetson recalled his Wednesday outing to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department:

“We didn’t have much luck at the start but around 9:20 a.m. we spotted her. I made multiple casts her way, but she wouldn’t bite, and it was a little frustrating. I finally placed the bait close enough to where she saw and then she bit.

“I set the hook and instantly my dad went to go and grab the net. When the fish came to the surface, we knew it was a double-digit. It was a fairly quick fight, and we were able to secure it in the net and get it into the boat.”

Stetson is the 11th angler this year to donate a Legacy Class bass to the ShareLunker Program. Since 1986, Texas anglers have donated 611 Legacy Class fish to the program.

Top 10 bass lake in Florida features a rare golden largemouth

While conducting electrofishing surveys at Lake Tarpon, fisheries biologists made the rare discovery of an xanthic largemouth bass.

While conducting electrofishing surveys at Lake Tarpon, fisheries biologists made the rare discovery of a golden-colored largemouth bass with yellowish fins and tail.

Lake Tarpon, a 2,534-acre Fish Management Area in Pinellas County, Florida, is said to have an “excellent” largemouth bass population with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fisheries biologists rating it as one of the Top 10 bass lakes in the state.

Biologists regularly sample bass by electroshocking areas of the lake. They typically find bass among the weeds which rim the shoreline.

As for the golden largemouth, FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute described it as an xanthic largemouth bass.

“Xanthism, an uncommon yellow pigmentation in an animal, is typically a result of a recessive genetic mutation similar to albinism,” the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Facebook post states. “In this case, the black pigments (melanophores) are suppressed, allowing the expression of yellow pigments (xanthophores). Although this trait is fascinating, it can make these fish more visible to predators, which might explain why specimens like this, particularly of this size, are considered rare.”

Below is a photo of what the typical largemouth bass looks like:

The prized fish presumably was released back into the lake, which is the standard practice when conducting surveys via electrofishing.

Photos courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Wikipedia Commons.

Boy fishing from pool noodle lands big bass, but it ends in heartbreak

A boy caught the largemouth bass of a lifetime and cradled it like a baby as he kicked to shore, but the bass had other ideas.

A boy sitting on a pool noodle and fishing on an undisclosed pond caught the largemouth bass of a lifetime and cradled it like a baby as he attempted to kick to shore while also holding on to his fishing rod.

Alas, the video posted by Matt Busbice, presumably the boy’s father, ended in heartbreak. (You might need to click the link, as some servers won’t show the below video. But it’s worth it.)

As you see at the end, the bass did a strong kick and escaped the boy’s grasp. It got away, and the boy’s reaction is one of shock. Then the video ends.

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Years from now the boy will look back on this event and have a laugh, thankful that it was caught on video. Hopefully, the heartbreak will fade as the memory lives on.

Angler sets a women’s world record for largemouth bass

Four months after catching the largemouth bass of a lifetime, Lea Anne Powell can now officially say she is a world-record holder.

Four months after catching the largemouth bass of a lifetime, Lea Anne Powell can now officially say she is a world-record holder.

While fishing with a friend who is a fishing guide, Powell caught a 12-pound largemouth bass out of O.H. Ivie Lake in Texas on Feb. 28, and she confirmed to KETK on Tuesday that the International Game Fish Association verified it as a 12-pound line-class world record in the women’s category.

“I submitted everything in March and it was official on June 23rd,” Powell told KETK. “I had been driving them insane by calling. I’ve been very anxious you know, I wanted it. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Powell caught the bass on 10-pound Seaguar Red Label Line. But she said, “The way that line actually tests, it actually tests up to 12 pounds.”

It should be noted, though, that the IGFA doesn’t have a 10-pound line class. It has 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 and 20.

The weight of the previous record was unclear. Powell’s previous best was a 7½-pounder.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Angler didn’t know he hooked a fish; turns out to be rare catch, record

“The process [of submitting the fish for record consideration] was fairly intensive,” Powell told KETK. “I had to go online, fill out a whole bunch of paper work and then I actually had to mail in a line sample of the line that was used to catch the fish. All the paper work, photos and documentation that I have had to go through multiple panels and I believe internationally.”

Powell was fishing with Dalton Smith, owner of Dalton Smith Guide Service who had a few days off and invited her to go fishing, a sport she took up eight years ago.

“I lost both of my parents in 2015 and I actually found peace within fishing,” Powell told KETK. “A friend of mine kept asking me to come fish and I had a natural knack for it and it just stuck.”

Photos courtesy of Lea Anne Powell.

Crappie angler lands giant bass; ‘I thought I was hooked on a log’

A 15-year-old Arkansas angler was fishing for crappie earlier this month when his line became stuck on what he initially thought was a log. But the log began to move….

A 15-year-old Arkansas angler was casting for crappie earlier this month when his line became stuck on what he initially thought was a log.

But the log began to move and that’s when Logan Cernosek “realized it was huge fish,” he told the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

The largemouth bass, caught April 2 at an undisclosed location in Randolph County, tipped a portable scale at 12 pounds, 4 ounces. It placed Logan among an elite few in the state who have caught bass topping 10 pounds.

The AGFC Fisheries Division stated on Facebook: “The fish was weighed on a portable scale and then released to grow even bigger and hopefully be caught again someday. Logan said he never thought he would catch a bass this big in his lifetime.”

The Arkansas record for largemouth bass is the 1976 catch of a 16-pound, 8-ounce largemouth at Mallard Lake.

The world record is a tie at 22 pounds, 4 ounces, for catches in Japan (2009) and Georgia, USA (1932).

Texas lake yields 10th ‘Legacy Lunker’ bass of 2023

O.H. Ivie Lake in Texas has yielded 10 largemouth bass topping 13 pounds so far in 2023, and anglers statewide will benefit from the catches.

O.H. Ivie Lake in Texas has yielded 10 largemouth bass topping 13 pounds so far in 2023, and anglers statewide will benefit from the catches.

The 13.89-pound bass caught Friday by Nolan Sprengeler was No. 10 for the sprawling reservoir on the Colorado and Concho rivers.

It was the 12th “Legacy Class Lunker” donated since Jan. 1 to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for its long-running selective-breeding program. The others were caught at  Lake Nacogdoches and Lake Alan Henry.

The Toyota ShareLunker Program collects bass weighing 13 pounds or more. The big females are encouraged to spawn in a hatchery and their offspring are stocked throughout Texas.

Sprengeler’s catch comes two weeks after Jason Conn reeled from O.H. Ivie the eighth-heaviest bass in state history, weighing 17.03 pounds.

O.H. Ivie, which attracts anglers from around the world, produced Legacy Class Lunkers on four consecutive days in early February.

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According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the largest bass caught in Texas was an 18.18-pound largemouth reeled from Lake Fork in 1992.

For comparison, the world record is a tie at 22 pounds, 4 ounces. One bass was caught by George W. Perry at Montgomery Lake in Georgia in 1932. The other was caught by Manabu Kurita at Lake Biwa in Shiga, Japan, in 2009.

Any bass catch exceeding 10 pounds is considered to be exceptional.

Texas angler lands one of the largest bass in state history; video

A Texas angler is being celebrated for landing the eighth-heaviest largemouth bass in state history.

A Texas angler has landed the eighth-heaviest largemouth bass in state history.

Jason Conn caught the 17.03-pound bass Monday afternoon at O.H. Ivie Lake, which has yielded several giant bass this year. (See video posted below.)

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the largest bass caught in Texas weighed 18.18 pounds. It was landed by Barry St. Clair at Lake Fork in January 1992.

RELATED: Virginia angler strikes gold, as in ‘extremely rare’ golden bass

Six of the seven bass heavier than Conn’s were caught in the 1980s and 90s. The other, a 17.08-pound largemouth, was caught at O.H. Ivie in 2022.

Texas Parks and Wildlife announced Conn’s catch Monday via social media, describing the fish as “one of the largest Lunkers to hit the scales in Texas history!”

Conn, a pro angler and guide, stated late Monday that his accomplishment had yet to fully set in.

“I am now in the top 10 with biggest bass ever caught in the state of Texas and only 2 fish this size caught in the last 30 years,” Conn, who did not disclose the type of rig he used, wrote on Facebook. “So unreal and I am still in shock.”

Hundreds of followers posted congratulatory comments.

The bass was kept alive and donated to Texas Parks and Wildlife to become part of its long-running Toyota ShareLunker Program.

The selective-breeding program collects bass weighing 13 pounds or more. In a hatchery setting, the fish are encouraged to spawn and their offspring are stocked statewide.

The program, in its 37th year, runs from January through March.

For comparison, the world record for largemouth bass is a tie at 22 pounds, 4 ounces. One bass was caught by George W. Perry at Montgomery Lake in Georgia in 1932. The other was caught by Manabu Kurita at Lake Biwa in Shiga, Japan, in 2009.

Any largemouth bass catch exceeding 10 pounds is considered to be extraordinary.

Virginia angler strikes gold, as in ‘extremely rare’ golden bass

A Virginia angler caught and released an “extremely rare” golden largemouth bass recently while fishing on the James River.

A Virginia angler caught and released an “extremely rare” golden largemouth bass recently while fishing on the James River.

Jacob Moore was practicing for a tournament when he reeled in a bass that was so pale-yellow, at first, that he thought it was albino.

“I thought I had a saltwater fish on at first, but lo and behold, it was a largemouth – a very different largemouth, though,” he told the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. “I haven’t seen anything like that before. I’ve seen bass with black spots, but I’d never seen an albino one.”

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Largemouth bass are typically mottled green with pale bellies.

Alex McCrickard, DWR Aquatic Education Coordinator, explained in a news release that the bass Moore caught “is a product of a genetic mutation that alters the skin pigments called xanthism. Yellow pigmentation dominates in xanthism, as you can see in Moore’s golden largemouth.”

Photo of Jacob Moore with his golden largemouth bass is via the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources

McCrickard added: “Golden largemouth bass are extremely rare and most anglers have never seen them, let alone heard of them.”

A golden largemouth bass was caught by at Beaver Lake in Arkansas in 2021, prompting Jon Stein, a state biologist, to comment: “Josh needs to buy a lottery ticket, because he just caught one fish in a million.”

Stein was referring to the angler, Josh Rogers.

The bass caught by Moore measured 16.5 inches before it was released back into the James River.

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