There’s a lot to be said for being able to fish a good spot by yourself.
Lindy Self of Hemphill, Texas, got to a big, grassy hump in the middle of a main-lake cove at Toledo Bend about 30 minutes before fishing began in the Texas Oilman’s Bass Invitational on Saturday, March 26. He and partner Eliot Bellot were by themselves, but by the time 7 a.m. arrived, they had been joined by four others. Three of them left within a half-hour, but the last fished the hump for 3 hours.
Once that boat left, Self was aiming to fish the spot the last boat had been fishing, and after letting it “rest” a few minutes, it took him about 5 minutes to put a 13.84-pound monster in the boat.
“I’ve been hoping and praying to get a 10-pound fish,” he said. “I had no idea I’d get one close to 14.”
The big fish was the tournament record for the TOBI – by 3 pounds. Worth $6,200, it pushed Self and Bellot to fourth place the second day of the tournament and 29th overall out of 279 boats.
A number of double-digit bass
The six days surrounding last weekend featured eight other double-digit fish qualifying for the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program, in addition to Self’s monster.
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On March 15, Joel Perritt of Longview, Texas, caught a 10.62; Todd Babb of Glenmora caught a 10.25; Devan Segura of Groves, Tex., caught a 10.90 and Ricky Vidrine of Lake Charles caught a 10.01;
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On March 17, Zachary Suit of New Iberia landed a 10.71-pound bass and Charles Buchert of Lake Charles caught a 10.17;
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On March 19, Jim Goss of Slidell landed an 11.26;
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On March 21, Rocky Thompson of Many caught a 10.83.
Self was fishing a watermelon red/chartreuse tail Zoom trick worm on a drop-shot rig, on 12-pound fluorocarbon on a Shimano reel and GLoomis rod. He made a long cast to the hump, which he said was about 100 yards by 50 yards, 5-6 feet deep on top, with grass extended close to the surface in some places, but about 3 feet where he was fishing.
The one we’re looking for
“I felt a bite, and I set the hook,” Self said, “I told my partner, ‘This is the one we’re looking for.’ She just buried herself in the grass. I didn’t know if she had me hung up, but I couldn’t pull her out. I had made a pretty long cast, and I was about to knock the spot lock off the trolling motor to go that way, and I felt her move. As soon as she started to move, she came straight up out of the water. She tail-walked for about 5 feet. I couldn’t believe a fish that big could do that.
“She went down to the left, and I kind of got her turned, but she came back out and shook her head. I was praying she didn’t throw the hook. She went back down under the corner of the boat, and I just held her, gave her some drag. She finally tired herself out, and I pulled her back out from under the boat. She kind of floated into the net, and my partner plopped her on the deck. We started whooping and hollering.
“I knew when she came out of the water the first time she was double-digits. When we got her on the deck, we knew she was a really good double-digit. I had a set of scales, and she weighed 11 ½, but I think I was so nervous, I probably didn’t zero it, or I had her tail on something.”
A really big fish
Self and Bellot had two more hours to fish before the 2 p.m. weigh-in, and they stayed on the hump, culling two fish to reach their eventual 5-fish limit of 24.61 pounds. At the weigh-in at Cypress Point, Self was stunned that the fish weighed better than 2 pounds more than his scales said.
“When we got to the weigh-in, the guy dropped our bag in the basket, and they weighed it, and he said, ‘It looks like you’ve got a good one,’” Self said. “There was a 3 and a 3½ on top of her, and when he took them off, he hollered at the guy with the microphone, ‘We’ve got a really big fish here!’”
Official weight
The official weight was 13.84 pounds. The big female was 26 ½ inches long and 20 inches in girth.
“She was a pre-spawn fish,” Self said. “She was on that hump in the middle of a cove, just sitting there, waiting to go in.”
