Bassmaster Elite Series angler Jeff Kriet established new largemouth lake record on Wednesday at a body of water that he's fished for 35 years and which sits about 5 minutes from his home in Ardmore, Okla. He used a 4-inch Big Bite Baits Kriet Kreature to rope a 12-12 from Lake Murray.
It was the biggest largemouth he's ever caught (click the photo to see a larger version), and it was released back into the lake after being weighed on the marina's certified scale. Ironically, it was a bedding female that he saw before catching – he never misses an opportunity to proclaim how much he dislikes sight-fishing.
"I was just out with a buddy (Gene Eisenmann) fishing for smallmouths with spinning gear, and we'd probably caught about 50," he said. "Then we slid back in this little pocket and there's a swamp donkey sitting next to a stump. I said, 'Hey, there's a 6-pounder,' which shows how good I am at sight-fishing."
He pulled a medium-heavy rod rigged with 15-pound Hi-Seas line out of his locker and threaded the Kriet Kreature onto the hook. The fish rolled on the bait once and he missed it on another attempt before he finally got her impaled.
Then things got pretty goofy.
"It ran underneath the boat and got hung up in the keep protector. It was on the other side of the boat when I finally got the line out of there, and then it got hung up on my Power-Pole after that.
"If it was a tournament, that fish would've come off for sure. I'm just glad it wasn't on film because it would've been ugly, and if I'd have know how big she was, I know I would've lost her."
Once it was in the boat, he was prepared to call it an 11-pounder and let it go right there, but Eisemann suggested they take it to the marina because it might be a lake record. Sure enough, it eclipsed the previous certified mark by more than 2 pounds.
"I'd caught a few 10s, but I've been fishing there my whole life. At a jackpot tournament on Tuesday night it took 8 pounds to win, so it's not like somebody catches one every day. I fished that tournament and I caught five for 7 pounds."
The 5,700-acre lake is primarily known as a smallmouth-numbers fishery. Kriet's personal bronzeback record there is 6-12.
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