Fate was on James Maupin’s side last Sunday when he became one of an elite few Texas anglers to have caught a largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more.
Maupin, from Cypress, intended to fish several days with his dad at Lake Amistad. But after their first day the lake was ordered closed because of concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So we packed up and headed to the nearest lake – O.H. Ivie,” Maupin said in a news release issued by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
O.H. Ivie, east of San Angelo, is a four-hour drive from Lake Amistad and Maupin had never fished there. But chances are strong that he’ll visit again.
He and his dad spent three days at O.H. Ivie and on Sunday, their last day, Maupin caught a largemouth bass that weighed 13.15 pounds and measured 27 inches.
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The fish was donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as part of its Toyota ShareLunker Program, which places giant bass in a selective breeding program designed to enhance Texas bass fisheries.
The ShareLunker program has three divisions beginning with the Lunker division for bass weighing eight-plus pounds.
Maupin’s bass earned a spot in the more prestigious Lunker Legacy Class division, for bass weighing at least 13 pounds caught during the spawning season from January through March.
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.”
Maupin, who caught his bass on a Texas rig in seven feet of water, said he thought it would top the 13-pound mark at first glance.
“I put her in the live well and called the marina immediately,” he said. “They had an official scale, so we got her weighed and measured, and the ShareLunker guys came out to get her.”
The bass is cataloged as ShareLunker 585. It’s the fourth and final Legacy Class entry of the 2020 donation season, which ended Sunday.
The largest was a 15.34-pound largemouth bass caught by Joe Castle at Nacogdoches Lake on Feb. 29.
–Images show James Maupin with his 13.15-pound largemouth bass (top), and Joe Castle with a 15.34-pound bass caught on Feb. 29. Credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department