Gillard Finally Lands First Lunker, Wins Big BassHonors




With more than 55 years of fishing under his belt, and a few close calls along the way, a double-digit bass has always eluded John Gillard. Fishing with partner, Randy Pennington in the Toledo Bend Oilman's Classic, he finally caught his first lunker, 10.98 lbs., 25 1/2 inches long, and a grith of 19 3/4 inches on April 27.

His big fish was up on the nest, in the spawning mode. The water wasn’t really clear, and Gillard actually noticed the lateral lines of another big bass, not 10 feet from the boat. He thought the second fish was about a 5-pounder, and started throwing his blueberry Texas-rigged Zoom lizard its way.

He made one more cast to the spawning bass before he and his partner headed back for the weigh-in. In Gilard's words, “Podnah, when I set the hook, all hell broke loose.”

The big bass took off for the buck brush, which provided for some tense moments before getting it into the boat. Pennington netted the big bass, but Gillard didn’t realize then that his 55-year pursuit of a double-digit fish was about to come to an end.

Pennington told Gillard that he had a 10 lb. bass. At Toledo Town and Tackle’s certified scales, the big bass officially weighed 10.98 pounds.

“The way it all happened was so unbelievable. In a million years I’d have never thought anything like that would have ever happened,” Gillard said. “It was just meant to be.”




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Fishing Report from TPWD (Feb. 12)

SLOW. Water stained; 57 degrees; 2.51 feet below pool. Big rains in the forecast leading into the weekend so the creeks will be running again. Before the rain bass were good shallow with fish up to 6-7 pounds caught on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and squarebill crankbaits. Good numbers of big fish are in 8-14 feet of water, waiting for the next full moon and water temperature to increase. These fish are biting crankbaits in 8-12 feet of water with divers and Carolina rigged lizards. Deep fish are still good, but will be moving up in the next week or so. Big crankbaits, Texas rigs and dropshots are best in 18-25 feet of water. Crappie bite was good in the creeks with live bait in 5-10 feet of water, but expect the rain to slow the bite down. Report by Stephen Johnston, Johnston Fishing.

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