Texas bass anglers fishing in different tournaments over the weekend won their respective events based on extraordinary single catches.
Derek Mundy’s Friday catch of a 13.62-pound largemouth bass helped him win the Toyota Series Southwest Division Tournament on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, with an overall limit totaling 39 pounds.
Daniel Ramsey’s Saturday catch of a 13.07-pound bass at Lake Palestine buoyed his triumph at the Media Bass Tournament.
In Texas, 13 pounds is the magic number for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Toyota ShareLunker Program.
The program features several divisions to recognize noteworthy catches, but only the larger “Legacy Class” bass are collected for a selective breeding program that runs during the spawning period from January through March.
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Biologists encourage the spawning of these fish in aquariums for future stocking opportunities around the state.
The bass caught by Mundy and Ramsey were the third and fourth Legacy Class fish collected so far in 2021. That equals the number caught throughout the entire 2020 season.
“It was a really neat experience being able to donate the fish to the incredible ShareLunker program,” Mundy told KTLV. “It’s great that Texas Parks and Wildlife works this hard to put high quality fish in the lakes.”
Mundy said the 13.62-pound bass struck his crankbait on his third cast. He landed two bass weighing 7.5 pounds on subsequent casts to help seal his victory.
Mundy was so quick to place the larger fish into his live well that he didn’t realize it was such an extraordinary catch until taking a closer look after his day of fishing.
Ramsey hooked his large bass while casting an M-pack jig beneath a dock structure that yielded a 12.65-pound bass last year.
“I was within five feet of where I caught the 12.65-pounder,” he told KTLV. “I set the hook and got her to the boat and couldn’t believe what I had just done.”
The first two Legacy Class bass of 2021 were caught in mid-January by Travis Moore (13.44 pounds at Sam Rayburn Reservoir) and CJ Oates (13.02 pounds at Lake Austin).
After Oates’ nighttime catch, which he described as “madness,” he told For The Win Outdoors: “She was so massive that I could barely reel to get her in. She was built like a mini school bus.”
How rare are these catches?
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.”
–Images showing Derek Mundy, Daniel Ramsey, CJ Oates and Travis Moore (top to bottom) are courtesy of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department