On Monday, Jason Conn captured the 8th heaviest largemouth bass in Texas history.
Jason ConnOn Monday a Texas man caught one of the biggest largemouth bass in state history—a 17.03 pound behemoth from O.H. Ivie Lake, 50 miles east of San Angelo. Jason Conn, a professional angler and guide, wrote in a Facebook post that it was an "unbelievable day," adding "I didn't get to O.H. Ivie until 11 a.m., and by 2 p.m., I had a 17-pound bass in the boat." The fish measured in at approximately 27 inches.
Per the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Conn's catch is the 8th heaviest Texas largemouth bass of all time. "I am now in the top 10 with the biggest bass ever caught in the state of Texas and only 2 fish this size caught in the last 30 years," Conn wrote. "So unreal and I am still in shock."
Conn also shared a video of the catch, which captures him hooking and reeling in the fish from the bow of the boat before his friend nets it. They celebrate, exchanging high-fives and pounding knuckles, elated at the sheer size of the bass. "Largest bass caught on video in Texas?" Conn captioned the clip. "Sorry for the language go catch one and you'll understand it."
Warning: This video contains NSWF language
The record-breaking bass was kept alive and submitted to the record-breaking fish to the long-running Texas Parks and Wildlife Toyota ShareLunker Progam, which partners with anglers to promote and enhance bass fishing in Texas. "Jason Conn just caught a top 50 largemouth bass from O.H. Ivie!" wrote the organization in a Facebook post. "ShareLunker 642 weighed in at 17.03 pounds is one of the largest lunkers to hit the scales in Texas history."
The largest bass caught in Texas weighed 18.18 pounds and was caught by Barry St. Clair at Lake Fork in January 1992, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. The 7th biggest bass, a 17.06-pound largemouth, was caught by Brodey Davis last February.
Thousands of Conn's followers wrote congratulatory messages under his post, which has garnered nearly 5,000 likes on Facebook since it was posted. In honor of the holiday, he wrote that he named the fish "Pre Valentine."
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