Missing a potential $6,400 wad of cash in his pocket, Colby Hand of Shreveport could be philosophical. At least, he said, he had finally caught a 10-pound bass, and he would have a free replica mount to prove it.
Hand landed a 10.57-pound hawg of a bass on Sunday, Feb. 25, while fishing with partner Scott Westerchil of Leesville in a big-bass tournament.
Having caught four bass that weighed 26 pounds by 7:30 – anchored by the 10.57-pound brute and another 8 ½-pounder, Hand figured they had plenty of time in hand before the tournament weigh-in at 11. So they cruised to Buckeye Landing to have the fish officially weighed and measured for the Toledo Bend Lunker Program, which rewards anglers who register their double-digit fish with a free replica of the bass.
Just one thing went wrong. Once all the paperwork was done and the big bass was tagged, TBLP rules require the fish to be released – and it was. And at the weigh-in 3 hours later, Hand said they wouldn’t allow the certified weigh sheet from Buckeye to substitute for the live, green, scaled monster.
According to Hand, the big fish in the tournament – much smaller than his 10.57 – was worth $6,400.
“We had no idea you couldn’t take the fish after you weighed it,” Hand said. “We took the paperwork to the other weigh-in, and they wouldn’t accept it. That cost us $6,400 – but hey, I’ve been looking for a fish like that for a long time, and I’ll get a replica of him.”
Hand’s best was one of three double-digit lunkers that rounded out the month of February on Toledo Bend, where 20 fish have qualified for the 2023-24 TBLP season. The same day that Hand struck gold, well, at least sniffed real gold, Russell Aucoin of Florien boated a 10.18-pound bass on a lure he bought 30 minutes before the big girl struck on his third cast of the day. And on Feb. 29, Levi Thibodaux boated an 11.26-pound bass that was already in the Toledo Bend Lunker Program, caught, weighed, tagged and released last September at 10.03 pounds.
Hero or zero? Definitely hero
Hand and Westerchil opened their fishing day well before daylight, and they put an 8 ½-pounder in the boat almost immediately, following it up with the 10.57-pound fish 15 minutes later – plus two more around 4 pounds apiece.
“This is a spot I fish a lot,” Hand said. “It’s a ‘hero-or-zero’ spot – you usually catch some big fish, or you don’t catch anything.”
Around 6:50, fishing a shellbed in 3 to 5 feet of water on the south end of Toledo Bend, Hand dragged a Zoom Ol’ Monster worm – on a Shaky Head jig – across the “hero” part of the spot. The big fish sucked the lure down.
“It felt like I had a small fish – you could feel her chewing on it for a while,” he said. “When I set the hook, she came up and jumped. I’ve caught several 9s off this spot, but this was my first 10. When she jumped and I saw the size of her belly, I said, ‘This is my 10!’”
Hand got the fish close to the boat twice, and it made two nice runs, with Hand loosening the drag on his Shimano reel, spooled with 15-pound Seaguar Invizx fluorocarbon and mated with a 6th Sense rod, and giving the fish her head. Shortly thereafter, Westerchil had the fish in the net.
The bass officially weighed 10.57 pounds and was 26 inches long, with a 19-inch girth – the biggest of Hand’s fishing career.
Putting the ‘Hammer’ to her
Aucoin’s son came to see and fish with his father in the middle of the week, and Russell Aucoin was apparently impressed with one of his son’s lures.
“He was using a bait I didn’t have, and he only had one, so Sunday morning, I went to the tackle shop and bought three,” Aucoin said. “I had mine tied on, and my wife was tying hers on. Before she got hers tied on, I hooked the big fish.”
The magic lure? It was a Z Man Jack Hammer, a beefed up version of the popular ChatterBait, a bladed jig.
Aucoin and his wife, Angie, were fishing in a mid-lake area in his center-console bay boat, and when the fish struck. Aucoin was fishing a Johnny Morris Carbonlight signature series rod and reel spooled with 10-pound green Stren. He was a bit concerned that even though the fish was in barely 2 feet of water when it struck, it never breached the surface.
“She really drilled it, and the whole time I fought her, she never jumped, just went round and round,” he said. “I kind of thought she might be a big catfish by the way she was pulling – so hard. I never got a look at her.
“I never turned the (reel) handle a single time. I have a center-console bay boat, and she turned the boats in a circle and then pulled it a ways before she got tired. I finally started pumping her in, taking up the slack. When I finally led her to the boat, she dove and went under the boat. But she came back out and my wife – the best netter in the world – netted her. She had about 8 inches of tail sticking out of the net.”
Aucoin caught the fish at around 3:30 p.m., and he and his wife made the trip to Buckeye Landing for the certified scales. The fish weighed 10.18 pounds, was 26 inches long and 18 inches in girth.
How big is 11 pounds?
Thibodaux had a huge week of fishing as March approached. Two days, he said, he caught stringers with the biggest five bass weighing better than 30 pounds. He didn’t get close to that on Thursday, but he might have been the happiest he was all week, because his big fish of the day was an 11.26-pound monster.
Thibodaux was using spinning tackle, with 20-pound braid and a 12-pound leader, fishing a white Air Man (JaBoom Bait Co.) on a Damiki rig.
“I was fishing by myself, and I saw her sitting up by herself on a big point, in about 12 feet of water,” he said. “I saw her on my LiveScope, and she came flying up to hit my bait. I wasn’t sure it was a bass, because it was so big on the screen. I got nervous – there were a few trees around, and I didn’t want her to get in them, but in a few seconds I had her by the boat. She never came up and jumped; she was just digging most of the time.”
Thibodaux lipped the brute and had her in the boat by around 7:45 a.m. He already had a 5-pounder and an 8-pounder in the boat. At 26 ½ inches long and 19 inches in girth – measured at Buckeye Landing where she was weighed – Thibodaux said “she made that 8-pounder look like a little fish, and it was really more like 8-12.”
Toledo Bend is ready to explode, Thibodaux said. People have been catching like crazy. He was catching his in 7 to 15 feet of water and all the big fish he caught had some spots of blood on their tails, but they were still out in deep water.”
