Lea Anne Powell’s first-hand account of landing a new IGFA-certified world-record bass in Texas.
On Feb. 28, 2023, Lea Anne Powell walked past a pair of faded blue campground fuel pumps in Voss, Texas. Breakfast burrito in hand, the Georgia native set out onto O.H. Ivie Lake with local guide Dalton Smith, her chest still thumping from catching her first double-digit bass the day before.
Together, Powell and Smith set out on the reigning “Best Bass Lake in America,” according to Bassmaster Magazine, to hunt for giants. Though they’d spent the previous day deep cranking for lunkers with telescoping, 10-foot poles, Powell and Smith wielded only the humble Damiki Rig — a finesse fishing setup still new to many bass anglers that requires a sensitive rod, jig head and light line.
As a low winter sun burned through the misty Texas air, the first prime fishing hours of their adventure day began without drama. Around 9:30 a.m., Powell felt a tell-tale tremor on the other end of the 10-pound, Seaguar Red Label fluorocarbon tethered to her spinning reel as the Damiki rig descended through submerged timber. Smith told her to be careful. Watching via live sonar, he could see that Powell’s bait was among giants.
A novice angler might have missed the light double tap that Powell picked up on seconds later. But Powell is no novice. For the past four years, she’s been logging seat time as a co-angler on semi-pro bass fishing circuits across the country. She’s become a cheerful, enthusiastic fixture at weigh-in stages in the central and southeast reservoirs of America, fishing dozens of tournaments with both aspiring and present pros.
Powell knew exactly what to do. If she had a fish, it was 45 feet away from the boat surrounded by 15 feet full of trees.
She leaned slightly, applied pressure and let the fish hook itself.
“Then the fight was on,” Powell says. “He (Smith) is looking at the scope telling me to watch, and I’m telling him I’m not taking my eye off of the rod tip. I was having to loosen and tighten the drag the entire way through the fight, because every time she got close to the boat, she would take back off.”
Adrenaline pumping and sweat pouring, Powell artfully battled the bass for a nearly 10-minute timespan she says felt like an hour. “Eventually, we get her in the net, and when I go to take the hook out it just falls out,” she recalls. “The pressure was the only thing holding that hook in place.”
An admitted talker, Powell fell mute at the sight of the monster before her. It was a beast by any measure, a F1 largemouth straight out of the Texas Lunker Share playbook. And Smith wanted to know precisely how big it was. The duo carefully placed the bass in Smith’s livewell and made a run to Elm Creek Campground for an official weight.
The weight: 12 pounds, 3 ounces. That number qualified Powell for an International Game Fish Association World Record.
As of June 23, 2023, she holds the world record for a largemouth bass caught on 12-pound. “There is no 10-pound line class,” she explains, “so it scales up to 12.”
In the world of bass fishing, tournament wins are often considered the ultimate crown. The largest events like the Bassmaster Classic and the Bassmaster Elite Series come with six-figure paydays and accolades across the industry. Lower-level tournaments can still net winners tens of thousands of dollars. Admittedly early in her career, Powell says her highest finish at the co-angler level has been a 17th-place performance on Toledo Bend.
But her O.H. Ivie bass may have come with something unequaled on the tournament level — she is likely the only active tournament bass angler with a current IGFA world record. Her name now belongs in a conversations with mythological figures of the sport like George Perry’s mysterious 22-pound record from 1932; Manabu Kurita’s precise tie with Perry’s record in 2009; and record chaser Robert Crappie’s pair of 20-plus pounders from the 1980s.
The Texas state record bass weighs in at 18-18, a 1992 Lake Fork giant hauled in by Barry St. Clair. But for Powell, the new line class record is as sweet as them all.
When news of her record began to spread, Powell found herself a cross-platform media star at publications like USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Sport Fishing Magazine.
“Everybody says those double-digit bass will come to you at the right time,” Powell reflects. “I had lost double-digit fish before, but for me as a tournament angler this was huge. I know how to handle that fish. I know what it feels like to have a fish of that capacity on the line.”
Like most co-anglers, Powell says her eventual goal is to fish the Bassmaster Classic. An experienced world traveler, she also wants to leverage her platform to create videos that inspire bass anglers to go out and experience fishing around the world in places like Africa, the Middle East and South and Central America.
Right now, the IGFA record is a thrilling chapter in what she sees as a longer journey. Fueled by the pain of losing both of her parents in 2015, Powell says she has no plans of slowing down. “I’m getting my seat time in,” she says. “I’m out using co-angling as a way to get my seat time, and I’m channeling that pain.”
“My mom would be super proud. My dad, I think, would be shocked.”