Guide Catches a Monster 16-Pound Bass While Giving His Client a Forward-Facing Sonar Lesson

Texas bass guide Austin Miles took out a shopper on Feb. 16 for a day of fishing at Purtis Creek State Park Lake. They began round 7:30 a.m. after launching Miles’ boat at a public ramp.

“It was about 45 levels and partly cloudy that morning, however by mid-day the temperature rose into the 70s with a lightweight wind,” Miles tells Outside Life. “We had been utilizing Alabama rigs with 6-inch tender plastic lures and caught some smaller bass that morning. My shopper caught a 6-pounder and 7-pounder, and I obtained one about 5.5-pounds.”

Miles says it was a “respectable morning” of fishing that obtained an entire lot higher within the afternoon. By 2 p.m., the water temperature had risen to round 55 levels. They had been specializing in flooded timber within the lake, and Miles was utilizing his forward-facing sonar to seek out fish.

“I noticed a bass on my sonar close to a fallen tree with limbs,” says the 31-year-old information from Forney. “There have been 4 or 5 bass within the tree, hanging 4 toes down in about 10 toes of water.”

One of many fish Miles marked was greater than the remaining, so he instructed his shopper to solid to it. The angler made three casts to the suspended fish, and the fish would comply with his lure however wouldn’t strike.

“On his third solid the bass pulled off the tree a bit so I made a solid to it with a Megabass 110 jerkbait to see if it might hit a unique lure,” says Miles. “I actually wished my shopper to catch that fish, which I knew was at the very least a 10-pounder. However when it got here for my lure, there was no solution to pull it away quick sufficient.”

The bass slammed Miles’ bait, and the bass battle of his life started.

“The fish got here up prime and shook its head, and I knew it was over 12 kilos. We had been surrounded by bushes and stumps, a number of timber, however I obtained it near the boat and my angler obtained the web below the fish and lifted it out of the lake.”

However the bass was inflexible and laid throughout your entire hoop of the web. Its head was on one aspect of the ring with its tail on the other aspect.

“It laid there for a second actual stiff,” Miles stated. “Nevertheless it lastly relaxed and folded over into the web mesh so we may carry it aboard.”

The anglers rapidly used a Bubba scale that confirmed the bigmouth weighing 15.89 kilos. Then they put it within the boat’s aerated livewell and referred to as the Texas ShareLunker hotline to report their catch.

“They despatched a group immediately to the lake to gather the bass for spawning of their Athens fish hatchery,” Miles stated. “My subsequent name was to my spouse Mary, and I instructed her to drop every thing, get our three youngsters, and convey them to the lake to see the bass I had.”

Miles’ household arrived in time to see his outsized largemouth formally weighed at 16.04-pounds. It’s the 27^th heaviest bass ever caught and recorded in Texas, in addition to a pending lake file, in line with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

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For donating his 16.04-pounder to the state’s ShareLunker program, Miles will obtain a free reproduction mount of his bass. He’ll even be notified by the company when the bass can be returned to the lake so he can get pleasure from releasing his fish of a lifetime.

“I’m retiring the lure I used to catch that bass, and I’m going to place it with the mount someplace in my home,” he says. “If that’s okay with my spouse.”