On the afternoon of March 13, full-time fishing guide Doug Rice was crappie fishing with his wife Lisa on 5,400-acre Lake Nacimiento in Southwest California’s San Luis Obispo County. They were catching crappies and scouting good fishing spots for Doug’s upcoming guide trips.
The water temperature was 64 degrees and they were working four to six feet of water.
“Lisa helps me a lot, and she’s great at finding and catching fish,” Doug told Wired2fish. “We were catching crappies in lake feeder creeks with blowdowns and cover when Lisa hooked a two-pound bass that hit her crappie lure.”
A Bigger Bass Approaches
As Lisa brought the small bass to their boat, a huge female largemouth chased the smaller male to the edge of the landing net Doug held ready.
“I’ve seen this hundreds of times in 40 years of tournament fishing and guiding,” said Doug, who lives in the California town of Atascadero. “So I landed and unhooked the male bass and immediately put it back in the lake on a nearby bass bed.”
Doug then spun their boat around, watching through clear water as the male bass went toward a bed. As he turned the boat he reached for an “ever ready” heavy-action spinning rod with 20-pound test braided line and 15-pound test leader. It was rigged with a drop-shot rig, and he handed it to Lisa.
Going in for the Bite
After Doug maneuvered their boat toward the bass bed, he told Lisa to pitch the six-inch plastic worm drop-shot lure toward the bass bed.
“I was turned backwards to Lisa getting the net ready just in case,” Doug explained. “Then I heard line peeling, and a massive bass is jumping on the other side of the boat.
“I raised the trolling motor and main engine completely out of the water. But Lisa managed to pull the giant bass back under the boat. It jumped and made another massive head shake and I got the net underneath her.
“It was nothing short of unbelievable.”
A Personal Record
Doug weighed Lisa’s bass on a Bubba scale, which confirmed it was her biggest catch ever: 10.06 pounds. They snapped a few photos of her catch, then released the bass.
“I’m going to Disneyland!” Lisa shouted joyfully, according to her husband.
“I knew the lake record was an 11-pounder, so we didn’t get a certified weight or measurements of Lisa’s bass,” Doug explained. “I just wanted to release the fish as soon as possible.”
The Rices kept fishing after they released Lisa’s 10-pound bass. Her prior biggest bass was a 6.5-pounder, so she was ecstatic about her latest big fish.
“She has unbelievable skills and tenacity,” said Doug about Lisa. “We went right back to fishing after her bass, and we caught 15 crappies.”
