[oucorry]

The Oklahoman

Allen Gifford of Davis decided to spend a few hours bass fishing Wednesday afternoon on Arbuckle Lake before attending church services that evening.


"I know at this time of year anything is possible as far as big fish,” he said.

Gifford didn't make it to church Wednesday night as intended, but surely God will forgive the fisherman who missed a sermon because he landed one of the biggest bass ever caught in the Sooner state.

Gifford, 57, almost broke the state's most coveted fishing record, landing a 14-pound, 8-ounce largemouth bass.

The fish was just 3 ounces shy of the current state record of 14-11, set in 1999 by William Cross at Broken Bow Lake.

No angler has come this close to Cross' record in the past nine years. Gifford's fish is the third heaviest largemouth bass ever caught in the state, according to Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation records.

"I'm tickled with the fish and extremely lucky that I caught it, but I was disappointed it didn't go another three ounces,” he said.

Gifford was fishing in the back of a cove on the Guy Sandy arm of the lake, using a 3/8 oz. Terminator spinnerbait with a chartreuse and white skirt and gold and silver blades.

"I fish (spinnerbaits) real slowly at this time of year,” he said. "Basically, I'm dragging it half of the time on the bottom. I've had fish pick them up laying on the bottom.”

Gifford was slow-rolling the spinnerbait and had just lifted it from the bottom of the lake in 11 feet of water when the bass hit.

"The fish made four good, hard runs and was ripping line off,” he said. "I backed the drag off a little and let her run, but I kept heavy pressure on her.

"She would go down and I would pull her back. She tried to get across my trolling motor twice. I had to stick my rod down in the water and get around my trolling motor. Luckily, the line didn't break. After the fourth run, she was spent and ready to come out of the water.”

Gifford, retired from the University of Oklahoma where he worked at the physical plant, said it probably took four or five minutes to land the fish, but "that's hard to judge when you are excited.”

The fish was weighed Wednesday night on registered scales at David's Supermarket in Wynnewood with a game warden as a witness.

Arbuckle Lake was the hottest bass fishing lake in the state last spring as several double-digit bass were caught there. State wildlife officials shocked to the surface two 10-pound plus largemouths during their electro-fishing survey last April.

Arbuckle has always been considered a good bass fishing lake, but it's never produced quite like this before. Gifford's fish will be Arbuckle's first entry on the state's top 20 largemouth bass list.

Gene Gilliland, fishery biologist for the state Wildlife Department, said Arbuckle is growing big bass because it's deep, has a good forage base and "the Florida bass stockings are coming of age.”

Arbuckle Lake was not one of the dozen lakes that state wildlife officials had initially selected for its new lake records program.

But on Thursday, they decided to add it to the list and officially declare Gifford's largemouth bass as the new lake record for Arbuckle.

However, the way Arbuckle has been fishing lately, it may not be the record for very long.

Gifford thinks there is a state record swimming around Arbuckle right now.

"I'm sure there is,” he said. "I don't have any doubt in my mind. There are just too many big fish being caught here.”