It’s been around five years since an angler caught and recorded a bass better than 13 pounds on Lake Fork Reservoir. And nearly 19 years since local angler Dale Washington has held one that size. But on Feb. 28, Washington landed a huge, 13.38-pound largemouth on the Fork, showing that the famed reservoir near Dallas is still producing lunkers.
“I got on the lake about nine in the morning from my lakeside camp on Lake Fork,” Washington tells Outdoor Life. “I tried a few places and caught several bass up to about four pounds. That afternoon I decided to move into a stump-filled creek.”
Washington has fished Lake Fork for about 40 years and knows it well. He says the creek he entered looking for big pre-spawn bass is a nightmare of stumps and snags, which keeps some people from going back there.
“On my way into the creek with my trolling motor I spotted my neighbor and good friend Jimmy Singleton fishing with his wife, Paula,” says Washington, who lives in Godley. “They were leaving the creek, and I went right by them casting a 3/8-ounce red-chrome Hags Chatterbait.”
It was a calm afternoon, with air temps in the 80s and water temps around 63 degrees. The water was slightly stained, and Washington used the loud bait to probe the numerous stumps in the creek.
“Pre-spawners in that creek like to hold around the biggest stumps, and I sent a cast to one side of a three-foot wide one,” says Washington. “I brought the lure in, then made another cast to the other side of the stump and felt a slight tick – almost like a catfish or a redfish would hit the lure.”
The strike was only 30 feet from Washington’s boat when he set the hook. When he did, he knew he’d stuck a huge fish. It boiled the water and pulled hard as it tried to wrap his 65-pound braid line around the various snags, roots, and stumps.
“I was able to turn the fish quickly and pulled it into an open water gap between stumps toward my boat,” he says. “It never jumped, just wallowed on top a couple times.”
Washington got the fish beside his boat but had trouble fitting it in his net. Finally, he got the fish’s head turned into the mesh, lifted the net, and brought his huge bass aboard his 20-foot bass boat.
“I sat down, shaking like a leaf, and as I did the lure just fell out of her mouth,” Washington recalls. “I knew it was over 10 pounds and was so excited I immediately put it in my livewell. I called Jimmy [Singleton] to tell him I had caught a giant in the creek that he and Paula had just left.”
The Singletons turned back toward Washington to see his bass, which he’d just weighed at 13.65-pounds on the Bubba scale in his boat. Washington’s next call was to his wife, Dawn. He asked her to drive their truck and boat trailer to the lake so they could load up his boat and take it to Lake Fork Marina for an official weight and measurement.
Soon after meeting his wife at the ramp, they headed to the marina, where personnel from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s ShareLunker Program were waiting. Officials weighed the big largemouth at 13.38 pounds, with a 25.5-inch length and a 20.5-inch girth. From there, the live bass was transported to a state fish hatchery, where it’ll be spawned along with the other Legacy Class ShareLunkers donated by anglers this season.
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As a reward for donating his bass, TPWD will provide Washington with a replica mount of his 13.38 pounder. He’ll also meet with biologists later this spring, after the bass has spawned, so he can release it back into Lake Fork.
Washington says it’s the second 13-plus-pound bass he’s caught from the 27,000-acre reservoir. His first Legacy Lunker weighed 13.05 pounds, and he caught it in April 2007.
“I have that first Legacy bass mount in my rec room, and that’s right where I’m going to hang this replica mount, too.”