When he took the fish to fisheries biologists with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, they immediately recognized it was bigger than either the current smallmouth or the black bass hybrid records. However, the brute had characteristics of both a smallmouth bass and spotted bass.
Fisheries biologists sent a small fin sample to a DNA lab which has now confirmed that fish was a cross of a smallmouth bass and spotted bass. Black bass hybrids occur rarely in nature when the spawning areas of black bass species overlap.
Kinslow was using a jig and salt craw combo when he hooked the big fish in the clear waters of 67-acre Veteran’s Lake. “I was just trying out different lures to see what might be biting when I hooked the fish,” Kinslow said. “It fought pretty hard and went all the way under the boat. I didn’t realize how big it was until I got it in the boat.”
The fish measured 22.75-inches long and was 16.5 inches in girth. The former state record black bass hybrid was just established this February when Sean McAllister pulled a 6-pound, 14-ounce fish from Lake Texoma.
Editor’s Note: Courtesy of Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation