Kacy Fisher’s monster is largest so far of 2015-16 Lunker Program season
Opelousans Kacy Fisher and Derek Pelloquin were fishing in Housen Saturday, where Fisher’s father Bobby had said the majority of Toledo Bend lunker bass were taken last year.
“We would joke throughout the day about catching ‘the big one’ – not really expecting to hook up with a giant bass,” Kacy Fisher said.
He might not have expected it, but that’s exactly what happened: the 31-year-old angler wound up landing the biggest Toledo Bend lunker of the 2015-16 season when he hooked into a gigantic 14.16-pounder.
All three anglers had launched early that morning from the Fisher camp near Pendleton Bridge. Bobby Fisher had scouted an area accented with hay grass in Housen Friday in advance of the arrival of his son and Pelloquin.
“The day was going pretty slow with a few keeper fish in the livewell along with a few short fish we released,” Fisher said.
By the afternoon, the anglers had only three keepers. Fisher was casting a Carolina-rigged watermelon-red Zoom Baby Brush Hog tied to 15-pound Trilene Big Game mono spooled to a Curado 200G6 reel. He was using an Abu Garcia Veritas 2.0 rod.
“We found an area with hydrilla in 7 to 8 feet of water where my father found fish the previous day,” Fisher said.
The anglers picked up another keeper and a couple of small bass then decided to move on.
But fishing a new area didn’t produce, so they returned to the area with hydrilla.
“I was bouncing the rig on the bottom when my line tightened and my rod bent,” he said.
“I set the hook and the fish felt extremely heavy. It started drifting slowly to my left.”
Fisher initially thought he had hooked a catfish because it was so heavy – then the fish rushed to the surface shaking its head.
“That’s when my adrenaline kicked in overdrive because I knew then I was hooked up to a real Toledo Bend monster bass,” Fisher said. “I knew I had to keep my cool and not horse the fish to the boat in order to land it.”
The big bass headed toward the back of the boat while pulling drag.
“I ran back to the back of the boat so as to make sure the line didn’t get tangled in the motor,” he said.
The fish put up quite a fight, and attempted a run under the boat first, then headed back up to the bow.
“She was really tired by now and with my dad holding the net near me, I was able to drag her right in it,” he said.
Fisher said all three anglers looked on in disbelief at the size of the huge fish.
“My dad’s scale was pretty accurate because it weighed 14.1 pounds on the boat,” he said.
They immediately placed the monster in the livewell and motored over to Fin & Feather Resort for an official weight and potential entry on Fisher’s bass into the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program.
At Fin & Feather’s scales, Fisher’s bass officially weighed 14.16 pounds, and was tagged and later released back into Toledo Bend waters. It is lunker No. 85 entered for the 2015-16 season of Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program.
Fisher will receive a free replica of this huge bass in May from the Toledo Bend Lake Association.
“You always read about other people catching big fish and never think it will happen to you,” he said. “I was one of those people.
“I’m just your average weekend warrior, so if it happened to me it can happen to anyone. I feel extremely blessed to catch such a great fish, and will remember that day for the rest of my life.”
