Three Lakes to Pursue The Next Mega Bass

Feature Story by MATT WILLIAMS

ANGLERS LOOKING TO JOIN the Mega Bass Club this year—recording official catches of eight, ten and thirteen-plus pounders—can look to three Texas lakes as the most promising places to apply their efforts: OH Ivie and JB Thomas in West Texas, and the grandpappy of ShareLunker production, Lake Fork in the east. Here is a profile of each.  

O.H. Ivie

Dalton Smith likes to remember that eventful day back in December 2022 when he joined the budding list of anglers to discover big bass nirvana on Lake O.H. Ivie.

It was the third fishing day following a long journey he and Cole Logston had made to the famed West Texas fishery from their home state of Kentucky. Logston had boated an 11 pounder the day before, but Smith hadn’t caught anything bigger than five pounds. Smith’s luck changed in a really large way on December 30. He landed a pair of O.H. Ivie giants weighing 14.69 and 14.26 pounds less than three hours apart, both on tiny swim baits rigged on spinning gear matched with 15- pound braided line and a thin 8-pound leader. The fishing trip made a life-changing impression on the former Dale Hollow fishing guide and light tackle specialist. Less than a week later, Smith packed his bags and moved his guiding business to ‘Ivie. He’s been steering others to Texas-sized lunkers ever since.

For those who may not know, ‘Ivie has been the workhorse for Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Toyota Sharelunker program in recent times with 51 Legacy Class entries over 13 pounds over the last four spawning seasons, Jan 1 – March 31. Among them are six Top 50 fish, including two 17 pounders, three 16 pounders and a 15.82 — all caught making casts that likely never would have been made prior to the advent of forward-facing sonar technology.

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Bassmaster Magazine ranked ‘Ivie as the No. 2 bass lake in America 2024; No. 1 in 2023. If you’re after a big girl, it’s definitely a lake you don’t want to overlook in 2025.

Smith says there has been talk of the lake’s trophy fishery showing signs of decline due to low water and increased competition for food, but he isn’t buying it just yet. He predicts there will be another 10-14 Legacy Lunkers turned in this season. “The lake is getting a lot more pressure than it used to, so it is naturally tougher for the average fishermen to catch them than it was a few years ago,” Smith said. “But there are still good numbers of 13-15 pound bass swimming around out here. I know those bigger fish are going to eventually die off, but the good thing is there are a bunch of 10-12 pounders coming up right behind them. The number of 6-7 pounders that are caught that you never hear about is astronomical.”

Perhaps no one is happier with ‘Ivie’s performance in recent times than Lynn Wright, the fisheries biologist who oversees the lake for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Wright agreed that ‘Ivie is still holding good numbers of big fish. The bad news, he says, is the reservoir continues to shrink in size due to drought. The lake saw a welcomed rise of about 5 1/2 feet in September, but Wright said it wasn’t enough to benefit much in the long term. The 19,000-acre lake was at 33 percent capacity (about 8,800 surface acres) in late October. Likewise, the competition for food is steadily increasing.

“Fishing is still good, and with the forward facing sonar technology anglers have they may continue to find the big ones at low water levels for a while,” Wright said. “But looking at my data, growth is slowing down and the fish under 20 inches are getting skinny. The pipeline of bass coming up isn’t flowing as fast as it was five years ago. As those teeners start to fade out due to old age, there are just not going to be as many back filling as there were before. History shows us when the lake gets really low and competition for forage increases, fish growth rates are going to start tailing off. It’s happened before. If the conditions don’t change, I have to think it will do it again.”

Lake J.B. Thomas

Another West Texas lake big bass junkies won’t want to overlook this year is J.B. Thomas. Located near Snyder, the remote fishery caught fire in 2023, and it’s been smoking ever since.

Through October, the 7,200-acre lake had produced 97 entries for the Toyota ShareLunker program in 2024 alone. Among them were two Legacy Class fish, six Legend Class (13 pounds plus caught outside the Jan. 1-March 31 spawning window), 44 Elite Class (10 pounds plus) and 45 Lunker Class (eight pounds plus).

Like O.H. Ivie, ‘Thomas is starving for water. The lake level did jump about 13 feet in September but was only about 36 percent of full capacity in late October, or 4,160 surface acres. 

Fishing guides Christian Gladfelter and Brandon Burks have enjoyed a wealth of success on ‘Thomas. Check out their Facebook pages. It’s gallery after gallery of lunker largemouths. Both guides are experts with forward-facing sonar. Much of their success is owed to this real-time technology.

Amazingly, Gladfelter steered Lawrence Lee of Tolar to four 13 pounders in 2024, several of them coming at night during the heat of the summer. According to Gladfelter, Lee epitomizes what it takes to be consistently successful catching the big ones on the muddy water reservoir. “Casts and retrieves have to be precision here and Lawrence has it down perfect. The more conventional ways of bass fishing just don’t work here. Most people don’t have very good luck.” Gladfelter pointed out that J.B. Thomas bass are different animals than those in most lakes. “These fish aren’t spot oriented to structure,” he said. “They just show up in random areas. You might find an area with a bunch of big ones one day and they’ll be someplace else the next.”

Lake Fork

Lake Fork hasn’t produced a Legacy Lunker since 2021, but the 45-year fishery near Quitman is a long way from being all washed up. Bassmaster Magazine ranked it No. 5 in the country last year.

Through October, Fork anglers had reported more Lunker Class fish for 2024 than any other Texas lake — 88 — plus 20 Elite Class fish over 10 pounds. Several of the entries were reported during the Bassmaster Elite Series event held there last spring. The event will forever be remembered as one of greatest big bass slugfests of all-time, as the entire Top 10 earned century belt trophies for cracking the 100-pound mark over four days on 20 bass. The tournament champion, Trey McKinney, reeled in 130 pounds,15 ounces — just shy of the BASS all-time four day weight record set by Paul Elias in 2008 at Falcon Lake. 

Though some were shocked by all the heavyweights reeled in by the Elite Series field, the big bass parade didn’t come as a total surprise to Jake Norman. Norman is the fisheries biologist who oversees Fork and several other powerhouse lakes.  

The biologist said the Elite Series results confirm what he has been preaching for the past few years — the lake is bristling with bass in the 4-7 pound range. And they should continue stacking on weight. “Those 4-7 pound fish have obviously kept growing, and I can comfortably say now that the lake is full of 5-9 pound fish,” Norman said. “I have always said Fork is still the best lake in the state — likely the country — to catch multiple fish over eight pounds in one day. You have a better chance at a true giant other places, but I would still argue there isn’t a water body that can give you multiple 8 pounders and a 35-pound plus bag any day of the year.”

—story by MATT WILLIAMS