O.H. Ivie is Primed to be the Best Big Bass Producer of 2022

I”VE NEVER BEEN much of a gambler. If I were, I’m thinking it would be a pretty safe bet to put some chips on Lake O.H. Ivie as the happiest of all hunting grounds for hauling in a big Texas bass in 2022. Maybe the entire country.

That’s not a hunch based on tackle shop chatter. It’s a hot tip gleaned from inside sources such as Joe McKay, Josh Jones and more than three dozen other fishermen. These anglers have reeled in Ivie whoppers documented by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Toyota ShareLunker program over the last 10 months.

Located 55 miles east of San Angelo, the reservoir has had a really hot hand for kicking out big bites and enormous bass in 2021.

In fact, while much of Texas was still reeling from the winter freeze that crippled the state’s power grid, Ivie maintained its story book reputation as a lake where fairy tales sometimes come true.

For those who may not have heard, the bite was literally insane out west last spring. Between February 19 and March 27, the 19,000-acre fishery cranked out 12 legacy class Toyota ShareLunkers. This included six 13 pounders, four 14 pounders, a 15 pounder and a 16.40 pounder.

This fish was caught by McKay on February 19. McKay’s fish ranks as the sixteenth heaviest Texas largemouth of all-time. It was also the biggest bass reported statewide since February 1999.

McKay was fishing with YouTuber Ben Milliken on the heels of the record-breaking freeze. That’s when they enjoyed an epic day of fishing. This spurred a social media frenzy and a blitz of fishing pressure on the remote West Texas reservoir.

Together, the two men boated multiple bass topping 10 pounds, including a pair of 12 pounders to go with the 16 pounder. The big bass anchored what is being touted as the heaviest five-fish, single-day catch ever documented on camera on a public lake — 60 pounds! 

Jones is another popular YouTuber who experienced big bass nirvana at Ivie. The Oklahoma fishing guide showed up at the lake on February 21 hoping to catch the fish of a lifetime. He wound up reeling in an army of lunkers in just eight days, including a pair of Legacy Lunkers weighing 13.20 pounds and 15.40 pounds. On Febtuary 22, Jones reported that he boated five bass weighing a total of about 51 pounds.

The madness didn’t end there.

Through September 1, 43 Ivie bass (minus the 12 Legacy entries) had been reported to the ShareLunker program, 13 more than any other Texas lake. Among them were seven eight pounders, 10 nine pounders, five 10 pounders, three 11 pounders, four 12 pounders, one 13 pounder and one 14 pounder.

David Guajardo had a ringside seat to the beatdown. Guajardo owns Elm Creek RV and Campgrounds near Voss, a lakeside big bass hub where many of the lucky anglers brought their fish to be weighed.

“It was pretty incredible to watch it all unfold,” Guajardo said. “In February we went from seeing just a handful of boats each day to well over 300. We’ve had people coming from all over the country to fish this year.”

But not all of them have reported their lunkers. Guajardo said he knows of at least a dozen fish over eight pounds caught and released in July and August that were not entered in ShareLunker.

“What’s exciting is that most of the big fish caught this year went right back in the lake,” he said. “It’s going to be really interesting see what’s caught this year. There are some giants out there.”

Perhaps no one is more stoked about the 2022 fishing prospects than Lynn Wright of San Angelo. Wright is the fisheries biologist who rides shotgun over Ivie for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Wright says 2021 wasn’t the lake’s first big bass rodeo. Based on the 31-year-old reservoir’s rich history of producing whoppers, he says it won’t be a surprise if another flurry of double-digit fish surface this spring.

“Will it do what it did last year?” Wright said. “That remains to be seen, but I think there is a great possibility it will continue to produce some really nice fish over the next few years.”

To date, ‘Ivie has kicked out 38 Legacy Class ShareLunkers, including a pair of 16 pounders. It’s best run prior to the 2021 boom came in 2010, when it produced 11 bass ranging between 13.03 and 16.08 pounds. The lake followed up with seven entries in 2011 and two in 2012 but wasn’t heard from again until 2020 when it produced a single entry.

Wright says the two spikes in big bass activity came on the heels of “trophic upsurge,” a fancy phrase fisheries biologists sometimes use to describe what happens when a reservoir catches a significant amount of water after a long drought.

During extended periods of low water, large expanses of the lake bed normally covered by water are exposed to direct sunlight. This spurs the growth of all sorts of terrestrial vegetation native to the landscape.

Like liquid fertilizer, rich nutrients fill the lake when rising water levels rise and the plant life begins to decay. This promotes a boom in plankton growth, benefitting everything from forage species to game fish such as bass, catfish and crappie.

The jungle of flooded cover also provides juvenile fish good places to hide from predators. This usually results in high recruitment among one, or more year classes of fish. This ultimately leads to banner fishing several years down the road as they mature. Also known also known as the “new lake effect,” trophic upsurge can make a tired or old fishery seem new again.

Ivie has benefitted from trophic upsurge multiple times over the years. It is riding one those highs right now, thanks to big rains in 2018 and 2019 that resulted in a 30-foot rise on the heels of a multi-year drought.

The lake expanded from about 4,500 surface acres to 15,000 surface acres in short order, flooding thousands of acres of new growth mesquites and salt cedars. Thus, a healthy bass population dominated by Florida strain genetics has flourished with a bountiful food supply. The reservoir has since shrunk to about 13,500 acres, 8,000 acres of it comprised of flooded brush.

According to Wright, last spring’s flurry likely goes back to strong year classes of fish produced in 2008 and 2009, when water levels rose about 15 to 17 feet ahead of a decade long drought.

“That would correlate pretty well with those fish seen last spring being 10 to 12 years old, Wright said. “There were still plenty of 8 to 10 pounders in the lake when we got the big rise in 2018 and 2019. Those fish have had the run of the place with an unlimited food supply. It just took them a few years to get over the 13-pound mark. I expect we will see more of those this year.”

How many is anybody’s guess, but one thing is for certain. Anglers looking for big bite this spring can’t go wrong heading west.

 

—story by MATT WILLIAMS

 

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