Angler caught the 8th largest largemouth bass ever caught in Texas

SAN ANGELO, Texas – The fish caught last week is the eighth largest largemouth bass ever caught in Texas, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Jason Conn caught a 17.03-pound fish in Lake Ohio Evie, east of San Angelo, on February 13th.

“The bait went right over her head and she just smoked it out,” Conn said in a statement. “She comes out of the water with an Alabama rig dangling from her mouth and digs back. I yell for them to grab the net, and once we’ve got her in the net, I go crazy hugging one of the customers while the other hangs over the boat with the fish in the net. I finally packed up and we went to pick her up. It was the largest perch I have ever seen or caught.”

Conn donated the fish to the TPWD ShareLunker Initiative, a selective breeding program at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. Some offspring of ShareLunker fish are stocked back into the water from which they were caught. Others are kept in state public waters in an attempt to increase the overall size and growth rate of largemouth bass in Texas.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Conn said. “I’ve fished perch all my life and I know that this fish I’ve caught is the result of the ShareLunker program. Watching what has happened over the last few years with the program has been incredible. I know they will take good care of the fish. I hope she produces many offspring that we can breed all over the state.”