Angler Reports Catching 15-Pound Bass On Sabine River

Terry Brack of Savage Forks, La. reported catching a 15-pound largemouth bass in the Sabine River.

Brack was fishing for hybrid stripers with an Erratic Shiner jigging spoon when he caught the fish from the bank in the Sabine River channel.

“I had caught an 8.5-pounder in that area before, but I was surprised to catch such a huge bass,” Brack said.

The fish which he said was hooked fairly deep was going belly up by the time he brought in it.

“I didn’t get a certified weight because the fish died, I did however get a weight with my scale and it weighed 15 pounds,” Brack said.

He said he contacted the nearest tackle shop with certified scales.

“Because the fish wasn’t alive, they wouldn’t weigh it,” he said.

The Texas largemouth bass record for the Sabine River according to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department officials weighed 6.81 pounds and was caught by Matt Bertrand in 2018.

Justin Royal caught a 9.73-pound bass back in 2018 while fishing the Resilience Fishing Tournament Series in Orange in 2018.

“The fish was weighed on tournament-calibrated scales, and we just never went through getting it certified because I would have had to haul her a way to get weighed and we wanted to make sure she got released safely,” Royal said.

The Texas record bass on Toledo Bend weighed 15.67-pounds and was caught by Bill Cook of Houston in 2023. Cook’s fish beat the record of 15.32 pounds caught by Eric Weems in 2000.

Although Brack wishes the fish he caught would have lived, he is honoring the catch by having it mounted by taxidermist Aaron Schultz in Conroe.

“This is all new to me. I am an avid fisherman but not a tournament fisherman and I don’t weigh very many fish, but I weighed that one,” he said.

Chester Moore