World Record Update

Genetics testing has confirmed that an 11.07 pound black bass caught Feb. 22 at Lake O.H. Ivie by Brady Stanford of Midland is an F1-hybrid of a smallmouth bass crossed with a largemouth bass. The DNA testing was carried out at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Analytical Services Laboratory in San Marcos by Dijar Lutz-Carrillo, TPWD geneticist and senior scientist.

Stanford’s fish is the largest of its kind ever reported in the world. The angler has submitted an application to the International Game Fish Association for consideration as a new world record smallmouth/largemouth hybrid.

IGFA’ Angler Recognition Coordinator Zach Bellapigna said Stanford’s paper work has been processed and that the record is pending.

“Everything on the application looks good, but the record won’t be official until it undergoes final review,” Bellapigna said. “It could be three weeks to a month.”

If accepted, the bass will top the current IGFA world record of 7.60 pounds that was caught from ‘Ivie in March 2021 by Wyatt Frankens of Corrigan. The fish also will rank as a new Texas state record, besting Brandon Burks’ state record 8.32 pounder caught in January 2022.

Burks’ fish was disqualified from consideration as a world record by the IGFA because it was caught on a five-wire umbrella rig (A-rig) equipped with as many swim baits and hooks.

IGFA’s current rules contain language that disqualifies fish from world record entry that are caught using “more than one bait with hooks at a time.” In Texas, there are no restrictions on the number of baits and hooks that may be used on an A-rig by recreational anglers on public waters.

O.H. Ivie has had a really hot hand for kicking out big bass in recent times. The lake produced 12 Toyota ShareLunker Legacy lunkers (fish over 13 pounds) during each of the last two collection seasons.

The lake has also produced several of the whopper hybrids over the last few years, but none to compare to the bruiser that slammed Stanford’s swim bait earlier this year.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department fisheries biologist Lynn Wright says he has very little data on the lake’s hybrid population other than reports he hears about catching them The biologist said he and his staff have never collected one of the fish during years of electrofishing surveys.

Regardless, the fish are finning around out there in catchable numbers, and they are obviously growing some shoulders.

How large can the crossbreeds possibly get?

Wright says no one knows for certain, because information about the fish is so limited. However, based on the idea that the state record smallmouth is 7.93 pounds and the state record largemouth is 18.18 pounds, he thinks the growth threshold might be somewhere in the middle.

“I think it would be conceivable that we could see one in the 12-13 pound range,” Wright said.

“We have no idea how old that 11 pounder was and we have no idea how fast those fish are growing. With the number of 14-16 pound bass ‘Ivie has been pumping out, the conditions are obviously right for growing big fish. If a hybrid was going to grow that big, I think O.H. Ivie would be the place where it could happen.”