When Andrew Scott’s 19-year-old son Chalton came by his house on Feb. 16 and asked him to go fishing, he almost didn’t go. The retired Marine had some projects he needed to finish for his company, Semper Fi Roofing and Restoration. After a bit of prodding from Chalton, Andrew finally agreed to head out for a few hours. It would prove to be one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
“It’s funny but we almost went to a different spot,” Andrew tells Outdoor Life. “Chalton is new to using LiveScope and just wanted to go out and poke around somewhere he liked. But he also wanted to catch a 10-pounder, so I suggested going to Lone Star [Lake]. He griped a bit about it, but I’ve caught plenty of 10 pounders out there.”
Arriving at the lake at around 9 a.m., Andrew and Chalton launched separately in two boats, hoping to cover more water. The weather was beautiful and water temps were hovering around 58 degrees. Andrew and Chalton fished a couple familiar spots and didn’t catch much of anything — at least, not at first.
“We were both catching a bass here or there, but the fishing wasn’t great,” Andrew recalls. “So, I decided that we should go over to a spot I hadn’t been to in years. As soon as I got there and put down my scope, I saw a ton of fish.”
Fishing between 5 and 9 feet of water and using one of his secret baits rigged on a 3/0 Gamakatsu worm hook, Andrew was catching bass left and right.
“I think I caught forty to fifty bass, with [maybe] twenty of them over five pounds,” Andrew says. “I was getting so many that Chalton got irritated and pulled up his trolling motor and left. Once he was gone, I looked back at my scope and saw a group of giant fish swimming by.”
Andrew doubted the monsters he saw on his scope were bass, but he was curious. So he flipped his bait in their direction and began to work it back toward the boat. The fish turned and began to follow but weren’t acting incredibly interested, so he stopped his retrieve and let the bait sink to the bottom. He noticed one fish following it down.
“I felt a small tick on the rod and set the hook,” Andrew says, “It felt like I set the hook into a tree stump. I thought, ‘There’s was no way this is a bass.’ I bet I did three full three-sixties with my trolling motor on full blast as she swam in circles around my boat, but I couldn’t get her to come up.”
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Eventually the fish took off, and Andrew chased her across the reservoir for about 200 yards. No matter how hard he pulled, he couldn’t get the fish to come off the bottom. With his 17-pound test line starting to sing and threatening to break, Andrew was convinced he’d hooked a big catfish or a drum. That’s when the fish finally decided to come to the surface.
“When she came up and I saw that it was a bass, I started to panic. I brought her alongside the boat, but I didn’t bring my net, so I just grabbed her and flipped her out of the water. As soon as I did, the hook dropped out of her mouth, I couldn’t believe it.”
Andrew put the fish in his livewell and called Chalton four times. He wouldn’t answer. So Andrew texted him, letting him know he’d just landed a 14-pounder, and to meet him back at the dock. When he arrived and still didn’t see his son, Andrew called him six more times. Finally, Chalton picked up.
“All I said was ‘Check your text messages’ and then I hung up,” Andrew says. “Ten minutes later he came roaring up to the dock going, ‘No way, No way!’ I pulled the fish out and he practically fainted. Then we called ShareLunker.”
After calling the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s big bass program, biologists came out and weighed the fish, which tipped the scales at 13.62 pounds, making it a pending waterbody record. As a lifelong angler, Andrew couldn’t have been happier with the news.
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“Fishing has always been my passion and my release,” Andrew said. “But never in a million years did I think I’d catch a bass like that. It was the best feeling and it still feels just completely surreal. I’d really like to thank my son for convincing me to go out.”
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