Wendell Ramsey had fished Hords Creek two weeks prior to launching his boat at the lake with two pals on February 11. Ramsey is a full-time fishing guide who usually works on the famed O.H. Ivie Lake. But he figured when his West Texas buddies Gary Gayle and Blake Hammond came to town they’d try Hords Creek in Coleman County, south of Abilene.
It was a bright and sunny day with no wind, air temperature about 40 degrees, water temp 51 degrees.
“We got there about 8 a.m. and caught a few nice 4 and 5 pounders pretty fast at places I’d fished earlier,” Ramsey tells Wired2fish. “I was using forward-facing sonar and finding a good many big bass deep, but they wouldn’t hit our lures early that day.”
But 90 minutes later Ramsey spotted three large “bumps” on the lake bottom in 8 feet of water.
“I had an umbrella rig tied on with Strike King Rage Swimmers attached and cast to the trio of big bass,” said the 62-year-old guide, who’s fished Hords Creek Lake for 40 years. “The first bass it came near didn’t move. But the other two bass started following my umbrella rig. That’s when the first bass got interested, excited and then rushed past the other two bass to clobber my lure.
“It was a competition among them — the first bass wanted to beat the other two to the lure.”
He hooked the largemouth, and while it fought hard and took line against his reel’s drag, the fish never jumped. He soon brought the fish to his boat, where Hammond netted it.
“I knew it was a fish over 10-pounds the way it fought,” said Ramsey of San Angelo, Tex. “But when I got it closer, I thought it might be big enough for it to be a Texas ‘Legacy Class Lunker’.”
Ramsey knows a giant bass when he sees one. In 2021 he caught a 14.92-pound “Legacy Class Lunker” bass from O.H. Ivie. That same year a fishing client of his also caught a bass weighing over 13 pounds for “Legacy Class Lunker” status.
For those unfamiliar, from January 1 through March 31, anglers who catch a 13+ pound largemouth bass can choose to loan their fish to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). Legacy Class fish are transported to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens for spawning. Their offspring are then raised and stocked into public lakes across Texas, helping ensure bigger, better bass for future generations.
Ramsey put his huge Hords Creek bass in his boat’s well-aerated livewell. Then he called the Texas “ShareLunker” hot line [(903) 681-0550] and reported he had a giant largemouth to donate to the state’s famed bass stocking program.
The anglers fished for about 20 minutes more to see if they could catch another of the pair of lunkers that had followed Ramsey’s umbrella rig earlier. But no fish hit. So, they loaded their boat onto its trailer and drove with their live bass to O.H. Ivie Lake. The Texas ShareLunker project has a weigh station and a large live tank there to keep big bass healthy until a state team can transport them to the hatchery in Athens, Texas.
Ramsey’s 25.5-inch bass officially weighed 13.76-pounds and has been taken to the Athens hatchery.
State fisheries staff will spawn the bass and get fry from it for later stocking. Then Ramsey will be notified when his fish will be returned to Hords Creek so he can release it back into the lake.
As a reward for his bass donation to the “ShareLunker” program, Ramsey will be given a replica mount of his 13.76-pounder.
“I know right where I’m gonna hang that new mounted bass,” he said. “I’m gonna put it in Concho Park Marina at Lake Ivie. They have my mounted 14.92 pounder there, too. They’d look pretty good together.”
