Woman caught ShareLunker bass after ‘last-minute’ decision to go fishing

NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) - For the woman who caught a 13.27-pound ShareLunker bass in Lake Nacogdoches on March 10, the decision to go fishing that day was “last minute.”

Kellie Renfro and her husband decided to go fishing for a few hours before their kids’ baseball practice.

Renfro told KTRE Sports Director Caleb Beames that she and her husband went out on a boat and stopped at a secondary point. Renfro’s husband made a cast and caught a 2-lb. fish.

At that point, Renfro’s husband told her to come to the front of the boat to cast, and she did. Soon afterward, she felt a small bite set her hook. At first, she thought she was hung up on something.

“I turned to my husband and said, ‘Well, I’ve hooked a stump,’” Renfro said. “Seconds later, that’s when she started pulling drag, and that’s when I realized I had just hooked into the largest fish I have ever felt … the fight was on.”

Renfro said the fish on her line pulled drag for what felt like 10 minutes.

“After my husband scrambled getting the net out of the rod box, she took me around the boat once after jumping twice,” Renfro said. “With my husband almost fainting, she came up, and that’s when my husband made the perfect scoop to get her in the boat. We were in shock. I still cannot believe I’ve caught the fish of a lifetime.”

Renfro explained that she caught her ShareLunker on a V&M Baby Swamp Hawg Watermelon Red using P-Line Floroclear and her Dobyns spinning rod paired with a Lews spinning reel.

“A big thanks to Brand Belt with the San Francisco Giants ad Brandon Belt Fishing for being at the lake at the time she was caught and helping hoist her up on the dock for the official weight,” Renfro said.

Renfro said she and her husband contacted the ShareLunker program, and they sent someone from the Freshwater Fish Hatchery in Athens to weigh the bass and collect data from it. Renfro said her ShareLunker weighed 13.27 pounds, her personal best bass. The fish had a length of 26 inches and a girth of 23.5 inches, she said.

“She was released back into Lake Nacogdoches for another fisherman to catch another day,” Renfro said.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the bass that Renfro caught was Lake Nacogdoches’ first ShareLunker of the year. A Facebook post stated that Renfro was the first woman in almost four years to catch a ShareLunker.

For more information on the TPWP’s ShareLunker program, click this link or visit the ShareLunker Facebook page.

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