When does catching a huge bass turn out to be a win-win-win situation? Well, here’s one example.
Jason Fails and his partner David Gordon hadn’t been doing much good in the Ashley Vidrine Benefit tournament on Indian Creek Lake Saturday morning, March 7. About 11 o’clock, they had been talking about the fishing and made a decision.
“We were talking about it and we said, maybe the good Lord will shine on us and let us catch a big one. And if we win any money, we are going to donate it back to the family,” Fails said. About five minutes later, they rounded a point and caught about a 3-pounder off the bed. They were feeling pretty good. But it gets better.
His next cast he caught an 11.97-pound largemouth that not only was the big bass of the tournament, but put them in first place and they won $1,300. They won the tournament, then they followed through with their promise and donated the money back to the benefit for another win. Then, the rest of the anglers who won prize money followed suit. Win-Win-Win.
“We were just so blessed to get to do that,” he said. “I wish I could do that every week. This is a family that really needed help right now and that big fish helped us help them.”
Lunker largemouth
When they landed the 3-pounder, that big fish just swam up in an open area on the grass and Fails saw it. He pitched his 4-inch watermelon red Lake Fork Ring Fry worm right in front of the fish and there was no waiting.
“As soon as it hit the bottom, I felt a little tick like a bream picking it up and I set the hook,” Fails said. “When I saw the fish, I thought it was a 4 or 5-pounder, but when she got hooked and came up, oh my Lord, it was huge.”
After a short battle, Gordon scooped it up with the net and they were super pumped.
“We were both shaking so bad, when I tried to take a picture of it, I couldn’t even hit the right buttons on my phone,” he said. “Finally we got some pictures and put her in the livewell. Every time after that that we caught a fish, I was afraid to even open the livewell lid because I didn’t want her to jump out.”
Fails and Gordon don’t fish Indian Creek very often, but they are glad they came to this tournament, which included about 70 boats. They planned on pre-fishing on Friday, but Fails had to work and Gordon had boat trouble. He spent all day getting it running.
Then came the tournament and the big catch. He caught the big fish in 5-6 feet of water, but a lot of good fish are also being caught up in 2-3 foot of water, he said. The 2,250 acre Rapides Parish lake has a lot of grass in it and that’s key to finding and catching the better fish, Fails said.
