There’s a stump in the north end of Toledo Bend that’s likely to get a visit from Bryant “Brother” Martin whenever the 23-year-old LSU-Shreveport angler fishes a tournament.
Why?
Because of what he took away from that stump on Thursday, Feb. 6 – and what he left behind.
The tall stump, in 10 feet of water, held two big bass, at least according to Martin’s forward-facing sonar.
“There were two fish on the stump, and both of them were big,” Martin said.
He knows they were big, because he caught one, an 11.19-pound monster. The 26 ½-inch-long fish, which was 20 ¼ inches in girth, became the third fish in 2025 to qualify for the Toledo Bend Lunker Program – and the biggest of Martin’s life.
A two-time member of the Louisiana High School Bass Nation all-star team while at Notre Dame High School, Martin was fishing by himself about 2:15 p.m. on Thursday. He’d had a pretty good day, including a 6-pound fish, when he came to the stump.
“The stump was in about 10 feet of water, and she was sitting midway up the stump, actually, in about 5 feet of water – it was a big, tall stump,” he said.
Battling the big bass
Fishing a 6th Sense rod and Lew’s reel spooled with 12-pound Seaguar, Martin made a 50-foot cast to the stump with a 6th Sense jerkbait. He got the bait down to the fish’s level and was about to jerk it again, when “she just took off with it,” he said.
“She had a little bit of control on me as she was running,” Martin said. “She about got wrapped up on the stump; she hit the stump, and the line went over it, but then she kept going.
“She jumped three times – that wasn’t very cool. The first time she jumped, about 20 feet from the boat, I could tell she was a 10. I could see the bait sideways in her mouth, but I didn’t know how many hooks she had in her.
“She just wore out. The last time she jumped, she didn’t get out of the water. I reeled her on in and lifted her in.”
Martin put her on a set of Bubba scales in his boat; the big girl registered 11-7. He cranked his outboard almost immediately and headed to Buckeye Landing, where the fish was measured and weighed on certified scales, tagged and released.
“She was a big, healthy fish,” he said.
Martin, who is fishing MLF’s Toyota Series, said the fish came out of 58-degree water, about a 5- or 6-degree change from the previous weekend.
“It didn’t take long for it to warm up, especially in the shallow water,” he said.
