The Billeaud family has had a fishing “camp” on 185,000-acre Toledo Bend Reservoir, located northwest of Leesville, Louisiana and straddling the state line with Texas, for most of Greer Billeaud’s 33-year life. It’s the fifth largest reservoir in the US; the biggest one in Dixie. Billeaud was at the lake with his family during Easter week, boating on Monday, April 6.
“I’d been on the lake that day enjoying our boat with my wife and kids and catching some ‘sac-a-laits’ (crappies),” Greer tells Wired2Fish. “We got back to our camp and everyone was getting off the boat. There was about 20 minutes of fishing light left and I asked my 7-year-old son Hansen if he wanted to go look for some big bass with me before dark.
“He’s crazy about fishing, and I knew he’d want to go. So off we went to a nearby creek mouth flat I thought might hold some big spawning-time bass.”
Using forward-facing sonar, Greer and his son started looking for fish in about 5 feet of water along a ridgeline of a creek mouth in the mid-lake area.
“I spotted a big fish on sonar; I thought it was an 8- or 9-pound bass,” said Greer, who lives in Lafayette and is an owner of the famed Billeaud Boudin Company. “I zoomed in tight to see the fish on my sonar, made a cast to it with a ‘Coike’ soft plastic lure, and she turned and took it.”
The fish was just 15 feet in front of Greer’s boat when he set the hook and slammed a 2/0 hook into the fish’s jaw.
“She came right at me, then under my boat,” he said. “She was so strong I thought for sure it was a catfish. I pulled her up and out from under my boat, and she came up rocking her head and making a sloshing jump.
“That’s when Hansen yelled ‘It’s a bass!’”
Greer muscled the largemouth to within arm’s reach, lipped it, and put the fish in their boat.
“I knew it was at least 10 pounds, but I didn’t have a scale to weigh it,” he said. “I had a buddy on the lake that had a scale and his showed it weighed 12.97 pounds. I put the fish in my boat’s livewell and ran back to our camp where I had a scale that showed she weighed 13.2-pounds.”
Greer knew he needed to have the bass weighed on certified scales, so he phoned Marcus Henry at nearby Buckeye Landing Marina. It was late and the business was closed, but Henry opened his doors for Greer.
Buckeye Marina is an official weigh station for the Toledo Bend Lake Association (TBLA). Henry weighed Greer’s bass on certified scales at 12.5-pounds, with a 29-inch length and a 21.5-inch length.
After weighing and measuring, Greer and Henry took the heavy bass back to the edge of Toledo Bend at the marina and released it.
“That bass was a fighter, and she just jetted off,” said Greer. “We put her in a bait tank at the marina while we got the weight scale set up, and she was so feisty that she was trying to eat the shiners in the tank.”
Greer will have a replica mount made of his bass courtesy of the TBLA, as it was certified weighed at one of their official stations around Toledo Bend.
Toledo Bend bass over 10 pounds that are weighed and released according to TBLA guidelines, receive a replica of their released bass. Greer’s fish is the 53rd largemouth weighing over 10 pounds submitted for a TBLA replica mouth for the June 2025-2026 season.
“She’s by far the biggest bass I’ve ever caught,” said Greer. “I’ve caught 10-pounders from the lake before, but not since TBLA was offering replica mounts. I’ve been trying to catch one over 10-pounds. I’ve just missed it three times with bass that weighed 9-pounds, but never a 10-pounder until now.”
