Story from TPWD
James Maupin, of Cypress, schedules a fishing trip with his dad to Lake Amistad every year. This year was no exception however, due to ramp closures as a precaution of the COVID-19 outbreak the father and son pair had to change their plans last minute.
“We go to Lake Amistad every year and spend 10 days fishing,” said Maupin. “We did pretty well the first day but when we got back to the boat ramp, we found out they shut down the lake because of COVID-19, so we packed up and headed to the nearest lake- O.H. Ivie.”
This was Maupin’s first trip to O.H. Ivie. They fished the lake for about three days and on the last day of his trip he reeled in the catch of a lifetime.
“I thought it could’ve been a ShareLunker so we weighed her, and she was a little over 13 pounds,” said Maupin. “I put her in the live well and called the marina immediately. They had an official scale, so we got her weighed and measured, and the ShareLunker guys came out to come get her.”
The official weight was 13.15 pounds.
According to manager of the ShareLunker program Kyle Brookshear, O. H. Ivie has been known to produce giant bass.
“The lake produced multiple bass weighing more than 13 pounds from 2010-2012. That was also the last time their selectively bred offspring were stocked into the reservoir. There is a good probability that this fish is one of those offspring stocked 8-10 years ago,” Brookshear said.
Genetic analysis is currently underway to determine if direct lineage to those lunkers exists.
Maupin’s catch is the fourth and final entry of the Toyota ShareLunker “Legacy Class” donation season that ended March 31. His fish will be a member of the TPWD selective breeding program and help spawn generations of bass for Texans.
“It’s my passion to be out there bass fishing. Without the ShareLunker program, I probably would have never caught her. I’ve got a 5-year-old daughter and she loves to fish too, so hopefully that offspring will be caught by her one of these days. That’s pretty cool.”
