Andre’ uses Alabama rig to reel in 10.68-pounder on March 8
What started out as a weekend of quality fishing time braving cold mornings together turned into the bass-of-a-lifetime for a Livonia couple fishing the spawn at Toledo Bend.
Amy and Kyle Andre’ were fishing in Quiet Cove on a slow Saturday when Amy latched on to a 10.68-pound beauty after a passing boat pushed its wake in their direction.
“It was really slow on Saturday. We threw and we threw and we threw. During the wave, I thought that my bait would run well through the water right then,” she said.
After casting, Amy remembers starting a slow retrieve when her line suddenly went seesawing through the water.
Andre’ had an Alabama rig tied on with gray/pearl Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers on the hooks. Her A-rig was tied onto 14-pound Trilene mono spooled on a Curado reel with a 6 ½- foot medium action Shakespeare rod.
“She (the bass) didn’t slam it,” Amy said. “She just pulled.”
Amy recalls telling her husband that she “had a pig” on the line.
“It was like he was taking too long pulling his rig back into the boat to get the net. After working her deep for a while, the bass came up near the boat and wasn’t hooked well. Then she laid on her side so we could see that great white belly,” she said. “My husband said, ‘Oh my God!’
“I didn’t give that bass any slack.”
Amy said they almost lost her at the boat when she flipped in the net.
“The head came out but the gills were stuck,” Amy said.
Once the bass was on the deck of the boat, she and Kyle hugged and high-fived each other. But once she saw that the bass was full of eggs, Amy wanted to release her immediately back into the water.
“My husband convinced me to wait and explained there was a catch-and-release program that involved a free replica,” she said.
After weighing the big bass on a borrowed scale from an angler nearby, the couple managed a couple of photos and gently placed the fish into the livewell.
“We had to get this bass to Toledo Tackle,” she said. “Then we trailered the boat and took off for the 20-minute drive.”
When it was all over, Amy’s bass officially weighed 10.68 pounds and measured 24 ¾ inches in length, with a girth of 21 inches.
It was eligible for entry in the Toledo Bend Lake Association’s Lunker Bass Program where an angler receives a replica for bringing in a live bass weighing 10 pounds or better to be tagged and released back into Toledo Bend waters.
