Wyatt Frankens was “at a loss for words” after reeling in a rare, world-record-breaking hybrid fish while fishing on the O.H. Ivie Lake.
Wyatt shared a few photos on Facebook saying, “At a loss for words…. I just caught the pending smallmouth lake record at O.H. Ivie!! She was 23 inches long, had a 17 1/2 inch girth, and weighed 7.60lbs on a certified scale!”
What he didn’t know at the time though was it was not just a smallmouth, it was actually a rare mix between a smallmouth and largemouth bass. He took photos of the fish and sent them to the experts to examine and was shocked even more when they got back to him.
“The lab results are in,” he shared on Facebook. “Just got off the phone with the biologist over at Texas Parks & Wildlife, and he let me know that she (bass) was in fact a smallmouth-largemouth hybrid!”
Not only is Wyatt’s catch a new record for O.H. Ivie Lake, but after getting the results in and a call from the IGFA (The International Game Fish Association), the fish is also a Texas state record, as well as, the world record holder for a catching a smallmouth/largemouth bass hybrid.
“I’m really at a loss for words…. who would’ve thought this small town guy from East Texas would be a world record holder,” he said.
The O.H. Ivie Lake was built in the 1960s and was never stocked with “meanmouth” bass, which is the name wildlife officials are giving the smallmouth/largemouth hybrids. They say it’s rare to see or catch one, but such hybrids do occasionally occur naturally in the wild.