Monster Mash

The Great Outdoors

The talk of fairy tale fishing trips seemingly has no end out West, where O.H. Ivie anglers continue to reel in heavyweight denizens to shock the imagination. Several guides are in operation on the 19,000-acre reservoir near San Angelo. Some of their recent reports read like something straight out of a science fiction thriller.

To wit: On May 4, fishing guide Josh Jones made a Facebook post announcing that his boat had accounted for 55 over 10 pounds since January 1, 2023, all in 57 days of fishing.

That’s got to be some sort of record. If there is another angler out there who can best it, I haven’t heard about it. Most anglers go a lifetime and never catch one 10 pounder, much less close to five dozen in three months.

The total has been climbing ever since. On May 9, Jones reported another story book day while fishing with guide client, Derek Taylor. The two anglers boated numerous big bass that day. Their heaviest five weighed a whopping 50.57 pounds — an average of 10.1 pounds per fish.

Taylor reeled in three of the giants. Among them were a pair of 10-plus pounders and a 13.07 pounder that was weighed on a certified scale at Elm Creek Marina, Jones said. It’s the seventh time Jones’ boat has cracked 50 pounds on five fish at ‘Ivie this year.

Jones has quite the history at ‘Ivie. He claims he single-handedly caught 31 bass between eight and 13 pounds in a single day in December 2022. The heaviest five weighed 61.37 pounds on digital scales. Jones called it the heaviest five-fish catch from a public lake ever recorded cast-tocatch on video.

A crackerjack a sniffing out big bass in deep water with forward-facing sonar, Jones is the undisputed big bass champ of Texas. In 2022, he became first angler in the 37-year history of the Toyota Share-Lunker program to catch four Toyota ShareLunker Legacy Lunkers.

Amazingly, it only took him six months to pull it off. Fish must weigh 13 pounds or more and be caught between January 1 and March 31 to qualify as Toyota Legacy Lunkers.

Jones isn’t the only ‘Ivie fishing guide who has been a roll lately.

Jerad Pool of Kingsland runs Hill Country Hammer Guides and Outfitters. The operation is advertised as the premier guide and outfitting service in the greater Highland Lakes region.

Pool has had multiple boats on ‘Ivie since early April. Their clients have reeled in 21 bass over 10 pounds, including six over 13 pounds, he said.

Pool usually waits until April before setting up camp on ‘Ivie each spring. That’s when a high percentage of the big fish move shallow to spawn at the clear, West Texas lake. The spawning activity usually begins winding down about mid-May.

Hill Country Hammers’ guides are sight fishing specialists. Their boats are equipped with sturdy platforms that stand about three feet tall above the front deck.

The guide says a lot of the bigger fish at ‘Ivie tend to spawn in water that’s 6-12 feet deep.

The elevated platform provides anglers a good vantage point that makes it easier to see underwater spawning beds from a distance and ultimately avoid spooking the fish.

Pool’s team of guides do an outstanding job of documenting the big fish catches on action camera, hook set to the net. Some the videos illustrate just how dicey things can get when battling a double-digit bass around heavy cover.

On May 1, Pool posted a wild clip showing client Leroy Boss battling a giant bass through thick salt cedars near a rocky shore. When the bass got tangled in the brush about 20 feet from the boat, Pool turned up the customer service dial.

He wasted no time jumping in the lake to retrieve the fish before it shook the hook or broke the line. You can see the video at www.facebook.com/ watch/?v=960955001576868.

The effort was well worth the trouble. Boss’ bass was a whopper that weighed 14.85 pounds on digital scales. Just call it a fairy tale ending to what could have easily turned into a trophy hunter’s worst nightmare. ----- Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.