Lacassine Refuge gives up 11.5-pound lunker

Aaron Granger of Lacassine caught an 11.5-pound bass in Lacassine Refuge on May 14 while fishing a weightless fluke in California 420 color. After taking a few photos, he released the fish.

Granger caught the big fish around 7:30 a.m. on an Okuma Helios rod-and-reel combo while working the lure at a medium speed just below the surface near an island of grass. It was his third catch of the day. It was also his last catch.

“The fishing was a little slow. I had only caught two small bass before the big one hit. They were both about 8-inches long. After I caught the big one, I just couldn’t fish anymore. I was so keyed up from it, and I had captured video of it with my GoPro. I couldn’t wait to get home and watch the footage,” he said.

The angler, who works as a quality control lab analyst for Sasol North America, was fishing alone and said he wasn’t sure exactly how to land the fish. He initially grabbed his push pole by mistake before picking up his net and scooping the fish up.

Aaron Granger of Lacassine caught this 11.5-pound bass in Lacassine Refuge on May 14.
Aaron Granger of Lacassine caught this 11.5-pound bass in Lacassine Refuge on May 14.

Granger fishes Lacassine Refuge often. And he said it is full of trophy bass. He caught an even larger one last year.

“My personal best is an 11.88-pounder. I caught it about a year ago, very close to where I caught this one,” he said.

Granger's biggest bass to date is this 11.88-pounder he caught off the bed using a motor oil-colored lizard.
Granger’s biggest bass to date is this 11.88-pounder he caught off the bed using a motor oil-colored lizard.

 

About Brian Cope 213 Articles
Brian Cope of Edisto Island, S.C., is a retired Air Force combat communications technician. He has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of South Carolina and has been writing about the outdoors since 2006. He’s spent half his life hunting and fishing. The rest, he said, has been wasted.