Norsworthy’s lunker was taken on a hot pink Rat-L-Trap along the edges of submerged hydrilla
Jay Norsworthy had a couple of things to do last Friday morning after launching in Toledo Bend’s Sandy Creek area at 7:30.
The 40-year-old angler from Vidor, Texas set about testing a new fishing rod over-grip he designed and manufactured for his company, Scale Pattern Fishing. And he was testing his new lower unit while checking a few locations in the Six Mile area that had produced double-digit bass for him in the past.
“In one spot, I have taken an 11-pound bass, one at 10 ½ pounds and a 9-pounder,” he said.
Norsworthy was working edges of spawning locations, including a small flat with a slight depression saturated with patches of hydrilla.
“There was a large spawning area behind the depression, and normally I would fish it with a jerk bait just sitting in there,” he said. “I noticed the water clarity was off a little, so I was throwing a hot pink Rat-L-Trap dragging it through the sand then popping it once it hit the grass.”
Norsworthy’s Trap was tied to 12-pound Berkley 100-percent fluorocarbon spooled to a Shimano Curado I-series reel on a 7-foot-4-inch Quantum KVD cranking rod.
The angler’s first bass of the morning was a 3-pounder.
At 9:15, he felt a fish load up on the Rat-L-Trap when the lure hit the hydrilla.
“I would have thought I was hung up on something, but I knew the area I was fishing,” Norsworthy said. “I felt the head wobble and it started to swim off slowly.”
The angler started fighting the fish while thumbing the spool instead of using the reel’s drag system.
“I started working her on the starboard side of the boat and ended up on the port side,” he said. “I fought her for 3 ½ to 4 minutes while she kept a steady pull.
“She surfaced one time during the fight.”
Norsworthy was alone, but he managed to eventually lip the lunker aboard.
“I weighed her on two different scales I had on the boat,” he said. “One scale had her weighing 12 pounds, and the other – 11 ½ pounds.”
The angler placed the huge fish in the livewell with the aerator set on high.
“I left that spot and went to fish another flat at the end of Six Mile while the wind died down,” he said. “I didn’t want her beat up in the livewell while bouncing the waves due to the wind.”
After about 45 minutes, Norsworthy headed over to Fin & Feather Resort to obtain an official weight to enter his lunker into the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program.
The certified scales at Fin & Feather pegged the bass at 11.42 pounds.
Norsworthy’s fish is lunker No. 129 for the 2015-16 season of the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program.
The fish was tagged and released and the angler will receive a free replica courtesy of the Toledo Bend Lake Association next month.
