Travis McCollough drove just 15 minutes from his home in Abilene, Texas, to 4,200-acre Fort Phantom Hill Lake in early January. Alone, he towed his 21-foot Bass Cat boat, launched it, and started fishing late that morning.
It was a windy day, and while McCollough knows the little lake well, he’d not caught anything for a couple hours casting and was a bit discouraged.
“I stopped for 10 minutes and sat down in my boat thinking,” said the retired, Christian plumber. “I was enjoying the warming sun and temperature approaching 70 degrees. Then I prayed to Jesus, asking him to please give me a bite that day.”
He then returned to casting, and started fishing a rock-bottom area in 8 feet of water. With a G.Loomis baitcasting rod and Lew’s reel, he tossed a ½-ounce Strike King football jig in green pumpkin color with a craw worm trailer.
A Memorable Bass
“I just swim that lure along the bottom slowly because bass in the rocks think it’s a crayfish and they clobber it,” McCollough explained. “About 10 minutes later I hooked a fish that fought like a demon. I knew my prayers had been answered, because I could feel it was a huge bass.”
He played the fish carefully and slowly, and about 15 minutes later brought it beside his boat. The bass was beaten, and McCollough lipped the fish and put it in his boat.
He quickly weighed the bass on a portable digital Bubba scale, where it weighed 14.2 pounds. Then he put it in his boat’s aerated livewell.
“I called the Texas ShareLunker folks right away to tell ‘em I had a bass over 13 pounds,” said the elder angler. “They said they’d send a crew right away to come and weigh the bass. Then they’d take it to spawn in their hatchery, so they’d get fry from it for stocking.”
McCollough soon spotted a trio of anglers in a pontoon boat trolling for crappies. He asked them if they’d take a photo of him and his fish because he was alone in his boat.
“I pulled up to them and asked if they’d take a photo of me and a big bass,” he said. “They agreed, and when I pulled it out of my livewell, they were shocked.”
Donating Your Catch
Later that afternoon a crew from the Texas’ ShareLunker program met McCollough at a launch ramp’s boat dock. They officially weighed his bass at 14.35 pounds, with a 25-inch length and 21-inch girth.
In appreciation of donating his large bass to ShareLunker, McCollough will receive a free replica mount of his bass. He’ll be notified when his bass is ready to return to Fort Phantom Hill Lake so he can have the pleasure of releasing his fish.
“I’ve got another big bass mounted on a wall in my home, and right next to it I’m going to put that replica mount of my 14.35-pounder,” he said. “I’ll be fishing a tournament pretty soon, and you can be sure I’ll be praying that day for another bass bite.”
Editor’s Note: Please check out other recent ShareLunker catches in Texas, including a 13.13-pounder and 14.74-pounder.
