Ethan Sims has identified a spawning area at the back of a creek in Toledo Bend’s mid-lake area, catching fish there in the past.
Surveying conditions, he started fishing the creek about 100 yards short of the spawning area in early February, catching only male fish. When he headed out the morning of Valentine’s Day, he headed back there, hoping that some big females were staging there on the way back in, what with 80-degree weather predicted for the week.
Boy, was he right, to the tune of 11.54 pounds.
Around 1 p.m. on Feb. 14, Sims, a 27-year-old fiberglass fabricator from Many, was working a section of the creek in about 10 feet of water. Sweeping his forward-facing sonar across the area in front of his Xpress boat, he came onto a big mark, which he thought at first was a bass, then changed his mind.
“I saw the fish, but it was so big I thought it was a stump, then when I was panning around, I lost it,” said Sims, who was fishing by himself.
Third times the charm
Holding out hope, Sims made three blind casts ahead of him with a custom, LSU-wrapped rod and a Lew’s Speed Spool carrying 14-pound Seguar fluorocarbon, with a piece of Texas-rigged plastic on the business end.
The third cast was special.
“She barely thumped it, but I knew it was a bit,” he said. “I set the hook, and she pulled me down right away; I thought it was a catfish, but a few seconds later, she came up and busted, and I knew it was a big fish – but not that big. She pulled me down a couple of times before I could get her beside the boat and lip her.
“After I grabbed her and put her on the scales, I couldn’t believe it. I put her in the livewell and went to the weigh station right away.”
At Living the Dream, a weigh station certified for the Toledo Bend Lunker Program, the big bass weighed at 11.54 pounds, measuring 25 inches long and 21 inches in girth. The fish was tagged and Sims helped release it alive back into Toledo Bend.
“What a good day; it was the fish of a lifetime,” said Sims, whose previous biggest bass was an 8-pounder. His fish qualified for the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program, so he’ll be receiving a free replica mount later this spring.
“That was so cool to let her swim away, back in the lake where somebody else will have a chance to catch her,” he said.
But first, Sims plans to try his luck again.
“It’s gonna be so warm this week, in the 80s, I think they will be moving into that place,” he said. “I am looking to go back and try to catch a few.”
