ZWOLLE, La. – Riley Harris of Orange, Texas, caught a five-bass limit weighing 40 pounds, 8 ounces, Saturday – the fourth-largest limit ever weighed in BFL event – to win a Cowboy Division event at Toledo Bend Reservoir. He earned $3,317 for his victory.
Wildly, was the second 40-plus tournament limit Harris has been part of this year. Back in February, Harris and his tournament partner, Luke Potter, caught a whopping 41-9 limit in a Texas Team Trail event.
Harris (center in photo) was thrilled that everything finally came together on Saturday. He’s known about these fish for a while, but lost fish and some equipment issues had kept him from capitalizing on them until the BFL event, when things went flawlessly.
“A lot of them are schooled up right now, especially around brush piles, and you could usually go to each brush pile that was offshore and it would have four to five really big ones on it,” said the winner of the Toyota Series event at Sam Rayburn in March. “I thought that if everything went properly – like 100 perc3ent – I knew I could get anywhere from 35 to 40 pounds. I had 32 (Friday) when I practiced, and I only threw a handful of times. When I caught 41 in the Texas Team Trail in February, I was like, man, I’ll never be able to get close to that again. It was crazy.”
His biggest bass for the day weighed 11-1, earning Harris an extra $340 prize as the Berkley Big Bass. His smallest fish? A “tiny” 6-pounder.
Getting so dialed started with electronics. Harris idled around with side-scanning sonar to look for brush piles. If he saw a few fish – or even one fish – to the side of a pile, he turned around and used 360 sonar and forward-facing sonar to take a closer look. The fish were at the bottom of the piles, so the extra time studying each piece helped determine the potential.
Even with all that technology, it really was Harris’ preparation and execution that made this happen. In fact, he was overprepared – the result of a ton of experience on Toledo Bend.
“I’ve been at Toledo for a while, and we’ve pretty much lived on it for small periods of time it feels like,” he said. “It’s just a bunch of knowledge and everything – it just starts coming together.
“I didn’t even get to fish like three groups I had today,” Harris added. “I had 40 at like 1 o’clock and figured if somebody beat me they deserved it, so I headed in.”
Harris caught his fish on power-fishing baits: a Carolina-rigged 6th Sense Bodega (not available in stores yet), a 6th Sense Crush 500DD crankbait and a Texas-rigged 6th Sense Boosa 9.6 Ribbon Tail Worm.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always have a minnow tied up on my deck,” Harris said, referring to the popular lure used with forward-facing sonar. “I caught an 8-pounder yesterday throwing a minnow at this school, but it was a fun day today. I got to lean on them hard.”
Harris started his day on a spot where he and his wife fished the weekend before. She lost one there that he figures weighed 10-plus and he caught a 7 1/2.
“I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna start there come next weekend – no doubt,’” he said. “So I ran there and caught 27 (pounds). I actually caught one (an 8-pounder) that I broke off on that day with my wife, too. My hook was in the back of its throat. It ate the same Ribbon Tail Worm and everything. It was incredible.”
With 27 pounds in the livewell, Harris started running his other piles, picking up a fish or two almost every stop. The best piles had a lot of life around them – bass and bait. At around 12:50, he hooked the 11-pounder on the Bodega. And that was that. Harris started working back toward the ramp, knowing he’d done it again – cracking 40 pounds in a one-day tournament.
“Me and my good buddy were able to do it in the Texas Team Trail earlier this year, and that was crazy,” he said. “That happened and we were done by 9 o’clock. This one, it was good fishing, but you had to work for it a lot more. You just had to cover ground and keep moving. You couldn’t stay in the same spot. It was a great feeling. It was awesome.”
