As Huge 15-Pounder Proves, East Texas Giant Bass Factory Fork Isn't Done
By: Lynn Burkhead
John LaBove caught the 48th biggest bass in Texas history when he tempted this 15.48-pound Lake Fork largemouth with a black-and-blue jig fished in four feet of water. (Photo courtesy of Kyle Brookshear/Texas Parks and Wildlife Department)
On March 2, East Texas' famed big bass factory Lake Fork cranked out a 15.48-pound lunker largemouth, the first Legacy Class entry in the revamped TPWD ShareLunker program
Big bass still bring excitement to Texas anglers, especially when they are really big.
And by nearly any measure, the largemouth bass that Greenville, Texas angler John LaBove caught on Thursday, March 2, 2018 is big.
At 15.48 pounds, the LaBove bass is Texas-sized big with a length of 26 ½ inches and a girth of 22 ½ inches. That’s 10-gallon hat-sized big and then some, even in the Lone Star State where anglers like to do a little good-natured bragging from time to time.
As the first ShareLunker Legacy Class entry (a bass that is 13 pounds or better, caught between January 1 and March 31, and loaned to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists for inclusion in the agency’s selective bass breeding program), the LaBove bass caused a lot of commotion in the Lone Star State as word began to spread through social media and on fishing website’s like the popular TexasFishingForum.com.
“It’s encouraging to see a ShareLunker that big,” said Kevin Storey, the TPWD biologist and district supervisor who oversees Fork. “It gets people excited.”
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