Story and photography by Matt Williams

TPWD biologist says time is ripe for a new state record bass, offers top picks.

It never fails. Sometime around the turn of the new year, Texas bass crowds always start pondering thoughts about the next state record largemouth. It’s only natural for chatter to surface about where the special fish might be caught. And when.

There was a time when it seemed like no state record bass was safe in Texas. Amazingly, the hallowed mark was set and reset six times on four different lakes in 12 years spanning 1980-92.

It’s been a waiting game ever since.

The Run on Records

Jimmy Kimball got things rolling in 1980 with a 14.09 pounder from 2,000-acre Lake Monticello that broke the state’s earliest record, 13.50-pounder caught in 1943 from Lake Medina in Central Texas.

Kimball’s mark didn’t last long. John Alexander boated back-to-back state records in 1981 from Lake Echo, a private lake near Canton. The first was a 14.2 pounder in January, followed by a 15.5 pounder in February.

Alexander’s record held until February 1986, when the late Earl Crawford busted it with a 16.90 pounder out of Lake Pinkston. Crawford’s record held for only nine months before Lake Fork fishing guide Mark Stevenson cracked a 17.67 monster at Lake Fork. Barry St. Clair of Athens set the record straight again in January 1992 with an 18.18 pounder, also from Fork.

Now, here we are some 33 years later, still reflecting on the past and speculating about the future.

Technology:  Bass Can’t Hide

I once believed St. Clair’s record mark may never be broken, but I’m not so sure about that any more. Neither is Jake Norman.

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