Fishing buddies Joe “Brooks” Morrell and Richie Barnes are on some kind of a roll for giant largemouth bass. The two anglers from Starke have collectively caught-and-released four bass with an aggregate weight over 50 pounds. You read that correctly. That’s an average weight of nearly 13 pounds per fish.
But that’s not all. The largemouths were all caught on artificial lures, officially weighed and measured and witnessed by Florida wildlife officers.
Three of the bass were caught on March 8, including the largest weighing 14 pounds, 9 ounces. The second-largest fish, weighing 13 pounds, 12 ounces, was caught on March 1.
All of these once-in-a-lifetime bass were duped via sight-fishing using soft-plastic crawfish-imitating lures on Kingsley Lake in Clay County near Camp Blanding.
Kingsley is a well-known large lake, best-known perhaps as a semi-private spot with deep and clear water that military families and their guests regularly visit. It’s most popular with water-sport enthusiasts and swimmers. For decades it has been known as a good bass factory, though because of its ultra clear waters and deep depths, it’s noted for being a tough spot to consistently catch big fish.
Not now.
The anglers have enjoyed outstanding bass action on Kingsley all spring. But their big bass tear kicked into high gear when Morrell located the 13-12 bass on a bed on March 1. He saw the spawning big fish and a small male fish guarding the nest. He caught the buck bass, then concentrated on the larger female and caught it, too, using a crawfish-imitating lure. CONTINUE READING…..
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