Posted 11:38 pm Thursday, March 11, 2010
Trip Produces Purtis Creek ShareLunker
For some reason Jacksonville dentist Michael Banks fired off an e-mail Tuesday to let everyone know he was going bass fishing from his kayak at Purtis Creek State Park.
He promised a report would follow, but no one could have expected what he would write 12 hours later.
"OK folks,
Here is the fishing report from Purtis Creek State Park Lake and I can not believe what just happened!
Here is the fishing report from Purtis Creek State Park Lake and I can not believe what just happened!
I get so much more out of life than I deserve. I am so blessed!
A fish of a lifetime on a day I was using the day just to get out of the way.
A SHARELUNKER!
Dubbed - "Ima Hogg"
13.6 lbs.; 12:45 pm; about 12 foot depth; using a crank bait; from my kayak!"
Dubbed - "Ima Hogg"
13.6 lbs.; 12:45 pm; about 12 foot depth; using a crank bait; from my kayak!"
Banks' excitement showed. He beat the official Texas Parks and Wildlife Department press release by 13 hours.
An avid kayaker, Banks often fishes out of his boat. He has taken it to the coast on several occasions and can be found fishing for carp on Lake Jacksonville from time to time. He also tries to get to Purtis Creek three or four times a year because he finds the 349-acre lake well-suited to fishing from a kayak, not to mention he usually has a good day fishing.
"The lake has been catch-and-release since 1988, and you would think you catch a lot of big fish, but I catch a lot of fish and not a lot of big ones," said Banks, who is co-chairperson of the Friends of the Neches River.
Banks said he picked Tuesday to fish based on the weather and the calendar. He knew rain was in the forecast for Monday and Wednesday, but Tuesday was slated to be clear and warm.
"I knew it was going to be a pretty day, so I said it would be a great day to go fishing," he said.
And although he had no great expectations, he also knew March is the month to catch big bass with the spawn coming on.
He got to the lake about 9 a.m. and started fishing near the dam. From there he paddled downwind and began working in and out of each cove along the way.
Banks said fishing from a kayak really isn't that hard.
"I have a rudder and you can play the wind. It is not as easy to fish as a bass boat, but you can get some distance casting," Banks said.
Banks had moved uplake to the fifth cove. Without electronics he wasn't sure of the water temperature or how deep the water was. He did know it was too cold to stand in and deep enough to fish a deep-running crank bait.
He didn't catch a fish all morning. About 12:45 p.m., however, something suddenly hit the lure, one that he didn't even know the brand of that he received as a present at a Sunday school party.
"It hit kind of like a dead weight," Banks said. Within a minute or so, he had the big fish alongside his boat.
Banks weighed the fish on his scales and it showed to be 13.4. Thinking he might have a ShareLunker, he decided to take it to the lake's weigh station. Kayaks don't come with live wells so Banks had to tie the bass on the side of the boat using the scales.
He then called his wife back in Jacksonville and asked her to call the park headquarters and let them know he was heading in. He got a call back from the park telling him to take it across the lake. Midway there, they called him again and told him to head back to the dam.
Battling the wind and stopping periodically to check on the bass, it took Banks 35 minutes to get back to shore. Possibly because the water was still cool and he was paddling slowly, the fish appeared to be in relatively good health, although ShareLunker officials had to puncture its bladder so it could swim upright.
Shy of the lake record of 13.73 caught in 1995, Banks' fish is the fourth ShareLunker from Purtis Creek and the first since 2006.
Purtis Creek is one of five state park lakes to have produced a ShareLunker. The others are Casa Blanca (5), Tyler State Park (2), Lake Raven inside Huntsville State Park, Cooper and Fairfield (1 each).
Banks' fish is actually the third to be caught by an angler in a kayak. The other two were by David Utz of Lovelady who used a kayak to catch two ShareLunkers within two days in 2006 from Ratcliff Lake inside the Davy Crockett National Forest.
Banks broke a string of Toyota ShareLunkers from western Texas lakes that was extended Sunday with a 13.7-pound bass from Lake LBJ. Caught by Lloyd Ward of Horseshoe Bay, it was the first ShareLunker from LBJ and will become a lake record. The old mark was a 12.55 caught in 1989.
Of the 13 ShareLunkers caught prior to Banks, two were caught on private lakes in East Texas last fall and Lake Livingston had provided the only East Texas entry off public waters. The others have come from O.H. Ivie (3), Falcon (2), Amistad (2), Austin and Choke Canyon.
"It was a shock. I wasn't prepared for that. I was just out to have fun," Banks said.
