Prior to arriving at Sam Rayburn for the St. Croix Bassmaster Open presented by SEVIIN this week, Adam Rasmussen thought the state of Alabama was his favorite state to fish in. Now, he isn’t so sure.
During his practice day on Monday, the Sturgeon Bay, Wis. pro landed a 13 pound, 13 ounce largemouth at the legendary Texas reservoir, the biggest bass he’s ever seen, let alone the biggest one he has caught.
He did not enter it into the Texas Parks and Wildlife Toyota ShareLunker program, but if he had, that bass would have qualified as a Lew’s Legend Class, the highest tier of the ShareLunker program.
Rasmussen’s previous best bass was a 9-8 largemouth from Lake Guntersville in Alabama, the same state he has won the Open at Wheeler Lake and a Nation event at Lake Eufaula.
“I always thought Alabama was my place, but maybe Texas is,” Rasmussen said.
Practicing with his Humminbird Mega LIVE 2, it had been a rather slow day of fishing for Rasmussen up to that point Monday.
“You can catch a pile of fish here, but there are so many 2-pounders and then you’d catch a good one and then you’d catch another 3-pounder,” he said. “I was honestly about ready to be done with it.”
That’s when he saw a giant blob show up on his screen, which Rasmussen believed had to be a gar or a catfish. He threw his Rapala Maverick jerkbait at it anyway, which turned out to be one of the best decisions of his fishing life.
“I was kind of ticked off that morning and throwing at everything because they weren’t biting very good,” he said. “I threw the Rapala Maverick at the big blob and it bit it. When it came by the boat, I thought for sure it was a catfish until it came up again. The thing was so massive. I’ve never in person seen a bass that big. It had one hook and I started freaking out that I was going to lose it. But I got the other hooks in her face and got it in the boat.
“When I grabbed her, I still had to double check. Like, it was a whole different class of bass. When they are that big, they don’t even look real. The eyes on that thing were the size of the bottom of a pop can. It was a very cool experience.”
Miraculously, not one of his fellow competitors was around to witness his catch or assist with a picture of the behemoth bass, although he imagines others practiced there and will be in the area during the tournament.
After releasing the bass, it took the runner-up from the 2023 Bassmaster Classic a while to collect his emotions.
“I bet it was a half-hour or 40 minutes before I could cast again,” he said.
In all the ways that make a bass that big special, Rasmussen also believes it could have potentially given him a successful pattern to run when the tournament begins on Friday morning. That bass, along with some of his other better bites, were doing similar things.
“Seeing where I caught her and a couple of my other better bites gives me some confidence that might be the deal. Not that I’ve had a lot of (really good bites), but I also haven’t spent a ton of time in those portions of the creeks. Whether it shakes out that way or not, I don’t know. I have two areas, and it usually works out better for me when that is all I have.”
Not only is it a confidence booster as far as the tournament goes, Rasmussen said it validated the work he has put into learning forward-facing sonar. In the northern part of the country, Rasmussen does not use his Mega LIVE very often for largemouth. If anything, he will use it to make accurate casts to targets.
But in the changing landscape of tournament bass fishing, he has been attempting to learn as much as he can about forward-facing sonar. That journey started at the first Open of the year at Clarks Hill.
“I really learned a lot at Clarks Hill. I did it there for five days. Then I came here and I have spent 70 percent of my time ‘Scoping and 30 percent of my time just fishing around up shallow. I’m definitely learning a lot about that and catching that bass taught me some other things about it.
“I tell people now, it is not just about putting your trolling motor in the water, staring at the graph, casting and catching. That is not at all what it is. You have to figure out which way they are swimming and if they are even a bass.”
Rasmussen and the rest of the Bassmaster Opens pros will launch from Umphrey Family Pavilion on Friday at 7 a.m CT. for Day 1 of the now two-day tournament. Full coverage will be available on Bassmaster.com.
