Ayden Sparks of Florien doubled his pleasure this past Thursday, June 5, boating an 11.02-pound Toledo Bend largemouth bass, then taking it to the bank for another $290.
Sparks, a 16-year-old rising sophomore at Florien High School, was prepping for an afternoon fishing trip with buddy J.D. Bolmarcich of Oakdale. On the way out, they wandered into Keith’s Toledo Bend Tackle to buy a few baits, when they noticed a guy shuffling a lot of papers.
“J.D. knew who he was,” Sparks said. “He was trying to get people to enter a tournament that day. We said, ‘What the heck; let’s go for it,’ and we entered.”
The tournament, which paid out for the biggest single fish in a boat, started at 4 p.m. and ended at 8:15. It was actually over around 6 o’clock, when Sparks ran into the biggest bass of his life in a brush pile on a mid-lake hump.
“We were going to have a fun day fishing,” Sparks said. “Then we walked into Keith’s to get some baits, and there was a guy that J.D. knew, signing people up for a tournament.
“It started at 4, and we rolled into our first spots and didn’t have any bites for more than an hour. Then, we moved to another spot.”
The area, according to Sparks, featured a few humps with brush piles on top in 22 feet of water. Fishing a Duckett rod and Shimano reel spooled with 15-pound fluorocarbon, he cast toward the target and was almost immediately rewarded.
“I was pulling it through some brush, and I popped it twice,” Sparks said. “It felt heavy; I felt a thump, and I set the hook. She started pulling drag, and I told J.D. to get the net; it was either a big catfish or a huge bass.”
Landing the fish
Sparks fought the fish for several minutes; it never surfaced to jump, just bull-dogged on the bottom.
“She was straight digging,” he said. “I had to be smart and give her some slack, not mess up. I brought her up, and J.D. missed her the first time with the net, then I reeled down and pulled her up and he got her that time.
“When we landed her, we didn’t know what to say, really,” Sparks said. “My biggest was a 10-2 – J.D.’s biggest is a 9-2 – and we have caught some 8s and 9s, but nothing near 11.”
The fish was brought to Keith’s and weighed 11.02 pounds. It was also 26 inches long and 19 inches in girth, and obviously several months removed from the stress of spawning. First place was worth $290 for Sparks and Bolmarcich.
“I think, full of eggs, she’d have pushed 13,” Sparks said. “She must have spawned a couple of months ago; her tail was healed up. She was a beautiful fish, one of the most beautiful I’ve ever caught.”
The weigh-in at Keith’s was convenient for Sparks. He had the fish registered for the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program, the second of the 2025-26 season after a 10.08-pound bass caught June 2 by Jared Primeaux of Florien.
“I don’t have any words for this,” Sparks said. “I’ve been fishing my whole life. I want to fish professionally. I told my mom before she passed away that I was going to fish pro.”
