Really big largemouth bass are rare creatures resulting from strong genetics, age and an ability to elude anglers.

Of those three traits, elusiveness falls partly into the hands of us anglers who tend to tackle the obvious and avoid the mysterious

“We do a lot of electroshock surveys to help determine bass population and the overall health of the fishery, but we generally get very few large specimens that way,” said Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) fisheries biologist in Jasper Todd Driscoll.

“Most of the bigger fish hang out in deeper water and our electroshock surveys are really only effective at depths of eight feet of less. We shock lots of fish but when you get a really big one you hear about it.”

In fact at the time of this writing there had only been one Sharelunker (13 pound or larger) bass caught in the history of TPWD’s electroshock surveys.