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BIG CROWD — The Trinity River is roiling now, but all the fresh water is sure to jump start the annual white bass spawning run above Lake Livingston. The old Lock-N-Dam at the State Highway 7 crossing west of Crockett is a popular gathering spot for bank fishermen. Anglers are required to pay small fee for access. -
FIVE CAUGHT — Brookeland’s Dakota Ebare stormed the stage with 32-4 in the final round to claim his first pro level win in the MLF Toyota Series Southwestern Division season opener held Jan. 25-27 on Sam Rayburn.
Brookeland’s Dakota Ebare sealed the deal on his first pro level win with a final-round limit weighing 32-4 in the MLF Toyota Series Southwestern Division season opener held Jan. 25-27 on Sam Rayburn. Ebare ended the weather-shortened derby with a two-day total of 48-10 and banked $80,500, including a $35,000 Phoenix Boats bonus. Corrigan’s Wyatt Frankens sacked up 28-07 on Day 2 and finished second with 47-05.
Ebare, 30, is an affable pro with a long list of high finishes on his pro resume dating back to 2017. Among them are 22 Top 10s and 44 Top 20s. His first pro level win pushes his career earnings to nearly $760,000.
“I don’t take any of that stuff for granted,” Ebare told MLF. “All of the close calls I’ve had over the last several years have been great and I’m thankful for every one of those good finishes. But at the end of the day, I’m a competitor and I want to win, so to finally accomplish that is a great feeling.”
Ebare said he caught his winning fish on assorted baits including a Strike King 6XD crank bait, umbrella rig, jerk bait and a football jig about 15 feet of water. He said forward sonar wasn’t a huge factor. “I’m always looking at it, but the fish I caught could have been caught without it,” he said.
Other Texans who finished among the Top 10: Jason Bonds of Lufkin, 4th; Marshall Hughes of Hemphill, 5th; River Lee of Nacogdoches, 6th; Harold Moore of Caldwell, 9th; and Garrett Hilton of China, 10th.
Justin Swayze of Gurdon, Arkansas took the top spot in the co-angler division 25 pounds. He won a Phoenix boat valued at $34,150. Joe Garcia of Hobson finished second with 21-04.
Iles/Shook sack up 41.56
Sam Rayburn aces Danny Iles of Lufkin and Brian Shook of China reeled in a giant 5-fish limit weighing 41.56 pounds to take the top spot in the Outlaw Outdoors Team Series event held Jan. 28. They won $8,000.
The anglers are widely regarded as one of the toughest teams to beat on the big east Texas lake this time of year. They are masters at finding fat pre-spawners laid up around isolated sweet spots far from shore, and picking them off with deep diving crank baits, Carolina rigs and Texas rigs.
The recent win marks the second time in three years Iles and Shook have cracked the 40-pound mark on five bass in a team tournament. In February 2020, they won the Texas Team Trail season opener at Sam Rayburn with an enormous weighing 49.31 pounds — a 9.8-pound average.
The 2020 catch ranks as the heaviest ever officially documented in an organized Texas team event. It may be the heaviest 5-bass team tournament limit ever recorded on U.S. public waters. They also won a 2012 Bass-N-Bucks event with 38.93 pounds.
Iles said their most recent win came after checking about a dozen different spots with shad pattern 6th Sense crank baits and Carolina-rigged green pumpkin Zoom plastics. He kept the water depth close to the vest.
Iles pointed out their boat is equipped with forward-facing sonar, but it wasn’t a factor in assembling the whopper catch. They fished the old fashioned way — chunking and winding to historic spots. “We didn’t see any of them before casting,” he said. “It (FFS) is on the boat, but it is not something we are very good at using.”
Hall reels in 2nd Legacy Lunker at ‘Ivie
Lake O.H. Ivie produced its second Toyota ShareLunker Legacy Lunker of the 2023 collection season on January 29. Kyle Hall of Granbury caught the 13.58 pounder at around 1 p.m. on January 29.
It’s Hall’s second Legacy Lunker in less than a year. He turned in a 16.10 pounder in March 2022. The story behind Hall’s most recent catch sounds like something out of a fairy tale book.
A forward sonar expert, Hall says he was fishing a swim jig around a main lake hump when he saw a school of large bass he believed to be 9-11 pounders trailing the bait over about 40 feet of water. He claims the school had been trailing the jig for about 30-45 seconds when the 13 pounder suddenly came rushing in and gobbled it up.