Dalton Smith
Texas’ OH Ivie Lake, located in central Texas east of San Angelo, is one of the warmest waters in America for producing giant mullet. The 19,000-acre basin was the fishing destination between Christmas and New Year’s for two Kentucky bass anglers who towed their boat as part of a trip to catch the lake’s legendary largemouths.
Cole Logsdon, of Brownsville, Kentucky, and Dalton Smith, of Columbia, Kentucky, drove 15 hours to Texas to catch the famous double-digit bass on the abundant waters. The reservoir was formed in 1990 after parts of the Colorado and Concho rivers were dammed. The lake boasts a depth of more than 100 feet.
“We’ve been working on the lake for a little over two days,” Smith said in a Facebook post from the lake. “The first day we just drove around and looked at the lake. But on the second day, Cole caught and boated an 11.11-pound bass.
“The next day we went back and caught them, went to a spot where I caught a 5-pounder the day before and then we had a crazy catch of fish. I bit one giant, but I didn’t hook her. About five minutes later I hooked the fish on a 7.5-foot finesse (spinning) rod using 8-pound fluorocarbon line with 15-pound, 2.7-inch test leader [swimbait].”
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Standing in his boat on Lake Ivie, Smith detailed the wild five-minute fish fight that ensued. He guided the bass to the surface, he says, but then got dirty and was left hanging in a flooded tree below the boat.
“Then my friend Cole took the (cracked) net, laid it on the deck of the boat and we could see it down in the water, and after about 10 minutes he found the fish in the net and hauled the fish away,” Smith described. “It was crazy.”
The bass were quickly put in the boat and the anglers raced to the lake’s Elm Creek RV & Campgrounds. There they grabbed a scale and weighed the fish at 14.69 pounds. The second large bass Smith caught that day weighed 14.27 pounds. In total, their top three bass of the trip weighed more than 40 pounds.
Smith’s Facebook video ends with him retrieving a lively 14.69-pound bass from the boat well, holding the huge fish up to the camera and showing off his prize.
“We’ll let her go, but first we want to take a few more photos and take some measurements,” he exclaimed. “Let’s go small – £14.69!”
Dalton Smith
Big Bass Highlights
- Dalton Smith caught 14.69- and 14.27-pounders
- Cole Logsdon drove an 11.11-pound boat
- In total, their top three bass weighed more than 40 pounds