Lake Lamar Bruce gets new co-record largemouths
A 13 ½-pound bass is a rarity, anywhere, but one Mississippi lake produced two of them recently, the same day, 45 minutes apart.
The exact same size — to the hundredth of a pound.
Scott Lewis of Tupelo caught a 13.54-pound bass at Lake Lamar Bruce near Saltillo the afternoon of Feb. 23. While the huge fish was still in his livewell, recovering before being released, Channing Davis of Nettleton caught a 13.54-pound bass within 15 minutes of launching at the 300-acre lake, which is one of the real jewels in the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks’ State Lakes Program.
“What was crazy was that we had been there only about 15 minutes, and it was our first time fishing Lake Lamar Bruce,” said Davis, 28. “They drained it a while ago and stocked it with Florida (strain) bass. I usually go to Pickwick, but me and my buddy decided to go try it.”
Davis said he and Max Moore of Fulton put in at 2:45 p.m. and idled over to a point.
“He saw fish and bait on the side-scan, and he said ‘There they are,’ and he threw a crankbait and caught a 6-pounder on his first cast,” Davis said. “Then, we both thew out again. I threw a shaky head, and I pulled it into some brush, and she pulled it straight down, and I set the hook.
“When it came up and tried to jump, we saw its mouth and eyes and panicked.”
But after a few seconds, Davis had the bass in his boat and they spent a minute or two just admiring it.
Lake record holders
“There was a guy on the lake we knew, and my buddy called him and asked what the lake record was. He said it was 13.54, that a guy had just set it 45 minutes before,” Davis said. “We got out on the lake at 2:45 and we were weighing it at 3:08. It was 13.54, exactly. Two fish, the exact same size, caught within an hour.”
Later, Davis got a photo of the fish that Lewis had caught on a crankbait and knew they hadn’t somehow caught the same fish.
“His had two sores on the side, and mine didn’t, so we knew they were different fish,” he said. “We found out later he actually had his fish in a livewell when I caught mine. He had brought it back out to release it, and held it for a while.”
After getting the fish weighed, Davis and Murphy went back to the point and proceeded to load the boat — literally.
The right spot
“My buddy caught two more over 9,” Davis said. “Our best five weighed 46.25. We had the 13, two more over 9, another 8 and a 7. We caught 10 or 12 fish and had nothing under 6 pounds. It was just this one little place stacked with big fish.
“It was a long point with brush all over it, and there was one little, bare, clean spot, and the fish were all over the clean spot. She was about 15 or 16 feet deep.”
Davis caught his fish on a green pumpkin Yum Dinger with a chartreuse tail, on a heavy action, 7-foot-6 Hammer rod and a Daiwa reel. It was a rainy, overcast day with the surface water temperature around 48 or 49 degrees when the big fish were caught.
Lake Lamar Bruce covers 300 acres in Lee County. The lake is part of the MDWFP’s State Lakes Program. It was closed in 2010 to repair a faulty water-control device and re-opened in 2015 after what was a complete makeover, with fish attracting cover, wooden and earthen piers, channels and boat ramps. It was restocked with Florida largemouth bass, bluegill, shellcrackers, Magnolia crappie and channel catfish.
Be the first to comment