Robert Rush holds up the eighth heaviest largemouth ever recorded in Louisiana. courtesy of Robert Rush
Bussey Brake has been certainly one of Louisiana’s top-producing bass lakes for years, however the motion there was particularly sizzling this winter, with anglers breaking the lake file twice in February. Todd Herrington of Bastrop caught a 13.58-pound largemouth on Feb. 13, however his file wouldn’t stand for lengthy. It was damaged on Feb. 26 by Arkansan Robert Rush, whose 15.36-pound bucketmouth ranks as one of many high 10 largest bass ever recorded within the state, in keeping with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Rush was in a position to launch the bass into Bussey Brake after it was weighed and measured. And since he lives solely 21 miles away from the two,200-acre reservoir, he’ll doubtless be again to attempt to beat his personal file as the massive females get into spawning mode.
“I went to church that Sunday morning, and decided it was a good day to go to Bussey Brake for big pre-spawn bass,” Rush tells Outdoor Life. “I called my buddy Mark Beasley to go with me, but he couldn’t make it. So, I loaded up my boat and headed there alone.”
Rush launched his 18.5-foot Javelin bass boat round noon, and he caught some smaller bass that afternoon. Around 4 p.m. he had a strong hit on a big, weedless-rigged, dark-colored tube jig, however he missed the fish. He saved fishing and caught a two-pounder, adopted by a five-pounder.
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“That’s when I thought I better turn back and try for the fish that hit, but I didn’t hook,” says Rush, a longtime bass angler who fishes the occasional native event. “I got back to the area where I missed the fish, made a cast, and she jumped all over that same lure.”
Then the fish went “bonzo”, in keeping with Rush, making just a few highly effective runs and peeling line off his Abu Garcia 5500C baitcaster. At first he didn’t understand how large the bass was, however when it jumped twice and cleared the water, he knew it needed to weigh nicely over 10 kilos.
Rush didn’t have a internet. So, after a two-minute combat that appeared to take lots longer, he drew the fish near his boat, rigorously lipped the lunker, and put it in his boat’s reside nicely.
“I went back to fishing for about 10 minutes, but the more I thought about that big fish, I figured I better get it weighed,” says Rush.
He referred to as an LDWF recreation warden and defined what he’d simply caught. The warden instructed Rush there was a storage shed on shore close to the boat ramp of the general public lake, and contained in the shed there was an authorized weigh scale he might use to doc the fish.
“[The warden] gave me the combination to the lock to get inside the shed, like they’ve done with other fishermen who catch big ones on Bussey Brake,” Rush defined. “I got back to the boat ramp and Randy Bentz was there, and he asked how I’d done fishing. I told him I had a good bass in the boat live well, and he helped me get into the shed, weigh the bass, and [take] some photos.”
Louisiana’s Top 10 List
The bass formally weighed 15.36-pounds, with a 26-inch size and 22-inch girth. With the fish weighed and measured, Rush launched it into Bussey Brake. The paperwork for his lake file catch has been registered with LDWF, and the company says Rush’s bass ranks because the eighth largest bass ever recorded within the state.
Looking at Louisiana’s Top 10 record, all the most important bass in state historical past are inside a fraction of a pound of one another. The state-record largemouth, caught in 1994 from Caney Lake, weighed 15.97 kilos, which is simply over a half-pound heavier than Rush’s fish.