Fisheries department workers from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) will have stocked 300,000 bass fingerlings in O.H. Ivie by the end of this summer.
On June 17, fingerlings were released at various locations around the 19,000-acre reservoir, with staff choosing prime sites for young bass to thrive and grow to avoid predation.
The bass fingerlings are produced via TPWD’s Toyota ShareLunker program that has been the envy of big bass anglers and other state fisheries’ departments for years.
State biologist Lynn Wright says such mass stocking of genetically superior, hatchery-raised bass in O.H. Ivie is a supplemental boost to ensure the lake’s largemouths are self-sustaining and augment the tremendous big bass angling the lake has offered in recent years.
O.H. Ivie’s giant bass fishing can crank up in late winter. A pair of 14-pounders were caught three years ago during the first week in January.
Tyler Anderson from Austin and Wendell Ramsey, Sr. of San Angelo, landed 14.48 and 14.92 pounders respectively during that first week of January at O.H. Ivie.
Just before the New Year and the opening of the 2023 ShareLunker season, visiting Kentucky anglers Dalton Smith and Cole Logsdon caught and released three bass from O.H. Ivie Lake that weighed over 40 pounds.
Smith caught a pair of 14-pound largemouth bass on the same day from Ivie Lake.
Just last April, visiting Oklahoma angler Cullie Beveal landed the 20th largest bass ever caught in the Lone Star State and the heaviest fish this year in the ShareLunker program.
Beveal and friend Jonathan High fished O.H. Ivie with well-known lake guide Kyle Hall. Beveal says he fished with Hall in 2024 and caught a 10.5 pound bass from Ivie, and he wanted a bigger one last spring. It happened the day after April Fool’s Day in brutal high wind and cold temperature fishing conditions.
They used LiveScope forward-facing sonar to search for big bedding bass in 6 to 8 feet of water. They found a big fish, and on the second cast to it with a soft plastic bluegill-imitating swimbait, Beveal hooked the biggest bass of his life.
“This was a different bass than I’d ever felt before,” he said. “My arms burned as the fish pulled. Its strength and power were unbelievable.”
At nearby Elm Creek marina the not-yet-spawned female bass officially weighed 16.39 pounds. It measured 27.75 inches long, with a 22-inch girth. It’s the 20th largest bass ever caught in Texas.
Guide Kyle Hall caught another giant bass weighing 16.10 pounds from Lake O.H. Ivie on Mar. 1 2022, which also is one of the program’s biggest bass ever.
“O.H. Ivie continues to produce lunker after lunker,” said Natalie Goldstrohm, Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator. “Anglers are drawn to fish O.H. Ivie because of its quality bass fishery.”
O.H. Ivie Lake has given over 50 bass weighing 13 pounds or more to the ShareLunkers program over the last few years. This includes a lake record largemouth weighing 17.06 pounds caught in 2022.
Fishermen who donate bass over 13 pounds to the program for genetically selective bass spawning are awarded valuable prizes like replica mounts. They also are entered in an annual end-of-the-season raffle for a $5,000 Bass Pro Shops shopping spree.
