Texas Parks and Wildlife has certified the 5.98-pound spotted bass caught by Josh Helmstetler on Jan. 9, 2016 as the state record for that species.
Helmstetler was fishing a local tournament at 2,880-acre Lake Alan Henry near Lubbock, Texas, when the fish ate a LIVETARGET BaitBall Glass Minnow jerkbait (silver/natural).
“Yeah, it was supposed to be very cold, about 37 for a high, so my buddy had to talk me into going,” Helmstetler said. “We fished for about an hour and caught about 10 fish, then the bite died. We moved out over some flooded timber in a creek channel that had been productive for me in the past, and that is where the big one struck.”
He initially thought it was a big largemouth when he set the hook
“I thought it was going to be a double-digit largemouth it pulled so hard,” he said.
After landing the fish and inspecting the tongue, he identified it as a spotted bass. With the nearly 6-pounder in his bag, he won the tournament and his partner finished 2nd.
“I’ve used the (LIVETARGET) crankbaits, the rattlebaits, and other versions of the jerkbait successfully in the past, so I use LIVETARGET lures quite a bit,” Helmstetler said. “We had caught some fish on rattlebaits earlier in the day, and I had just switched to this natural color jerkbait when we went out over the deep timber creek channel when the record fish bit. These lures just seem to excel where there is clear water.”
