Texas lake produces yet another extraordinary bass catch
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.
Angler Nolan Sprengeler makes his big score with ShareLunker 644 from O.H. Ivie. She weighed in at 13.89 lbs. This is the 10th Legacy Class Lunker from O.H. Ivie and #12 for the season. Congrats Nolan and thanks for sharing your Lunker!#biggerbetterbass#sharelunker pic.twitter.com/SvXFpOpzKI
— TPWD Fishing (@TPWDfish) February 25, 2023
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.