Today I got to have lunch with Stan Moss. Stan and I went to Garland High school together a “few” years ago. He still lives in Rowlett Texas. Stan is a quiet man of Faith, never one to boast of his accomplishments. Today, I would like to brag on him a bit.

On April 1. 1989 Stan was fishing by himself out of Oak Ridge Marina. He called me that fateful day after TPWD came to pick up the fish that I will call the fish of ten lifetimes. He knew I was the Jawtec Worms rep for Texas and he wanted to tell me he had caught her on a moccasin colored 6” Jawtec Lizard fished weightless on 25# Big Game line. He loved to fish lizards weightless or with a tiny 1/32 oz weight on the line if it was windy.

As Stan trolled down the bank near Eugene Ditch, he saw this massive fish cruising along near the bank. She was not on a bed but most likely near one. Stan pitched his weightless lizard at her and she inhaled it right in front of him. He set the hook and the fight was on. Stan had previously caught a bunch of 7-9 pound bass from Fork and he told me this fish did not pull as hard as some of the smaller bass he had landed. She was just a heavy weight.

As he gets her to the side of his Champion boat he reaches down and lips the giant bass. He immediately puts her in the livewell and goes back up front to fish some more. After a few mins he starts thinking that maybe this fish is over 14 pounds so he decides to head in to see what this whopper weighed. He gets back to Oak Ridge and beaches his boat. He walks into the restaurant to find Joe Brady eating a slice of pie. Two game wardens were also in there eating pie, although either one of them needed it.

Stan tells Joe he needs him to finish his pie and come down to the boat with him so he can show him his fish. Joe asks how big he thought it was and Stan says, “She’s Big, like over 14”. Joe shoves the last bite of pie in his mouth and they all go down to Stan’s boat. Joe gets in the boat and opens the livewell. He says, “Put that blankety-blank boat on the blankety blank trailer and get that fish up here to the store so we can weigh her!”

The fish is weighed and they call David Campbell with TPWD to come and get her for the SAL Program. Stan named her April and she pulled the scales down to 17.64 on Oak Ridge’s certified scales that day. That fish was just 0.03 of a pound behind Mark Stevenson’s state record that went 17.67 caught 2.5 years prior. In other words, a few water droplets shy of being a new state record.

It was great to catch up with Stan today and hear him tell the story of one of the biggest bass ever landed. I hope he enjoys reading this.

I feel like the state record bass is currently in jeopardy for the first time in a long time. When the gentleman from Oklahoma caught the 17.06 last January at Ivie I saw a glimmer of hope for a new state record.

With today's 17 pounder being landed it makes me even more encouraged that this could be the year.

Awesome story.

Very cool!

Kinda strange that his fish was .03 shy of the state record and todays 17 was .03 shy of the OHI lake record.

Thanks for sharing, Ken!

Man. You still living in the past! Every time a big one is caught at Ivie you post up a Polaroid of a fish from the last millennium caught at fork! Haha.

Forks gonna be ok. The businesses there will be ok. You guides there will be ok. I drove two hours there and back Saturday to pick up a new prop….Ivie doesn’t have any prop shops.

Thank you Mr Moss for sharing this legendary bass history with us.
Thank you very much Ken for the legwork, phone calls, photo, and story. Priceless.
Absolutely stunning fish and photo. Looks bigger than 17.6.

Yeah-Yeah I know! Someone has to pass down these stories and I was there when it was fresh & hot.

That is one monster fish and he also has a sweet stache.


In1989 that area of the lake looked so different than today.

Great post!

That was a fat fish

Cool story. When I heard about the 17 from Ivie I thought the same thing. Thats getting awful close to State record category
And a 15 1/2 from Toledo. A 10 lb fish will strike fear in your heart. I cant imagine getting one of these freaks of nature up beside the boat.
Most big fish are lost because of letting your emotions take over and making stupid moves.

Good story Ken!

Thanks Ken for the story. Some of us were lucky enough to be spending almost all of our spare time back in those days on Fork during it's heyday and love reliving some of those memories,

Cool story, thanks for sharing.