Lightning Strikes Twice with Devil’s Horse

As if catching the biggest bass ever from Louisiana’s Black Lake weren’t enough, Ron Dyes of Marthaville, La. went and did the same thing a second time, more than 35 years after his initial record catch and with the same classic lure – a Perch-colored Smithwick Devil’s Horse.

Dyes' most recent fish, which tipped the scales to a whopping 13 pounds, 5 ounces, annihilated the topwater lure on Dyes' second cast one April morning. It hit so hard that the veteran angler’s initially thought an alligator had grabbed his Devil’s Horse. Ten intense minutes after the massive strike – minutes that included getting the net snagged on his battery terminals and seeing just how large a fish he was battling – Dyes got the massive largemouth boatside and hand landed it.

Backtracking to 1970, Dyes was working the same color of Devil’s Horse in the same section of the same lake when a heavyweight bass attacked his lure. That fish weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and was the largest fish that had been caught from Black Lake at that time.

Along with being a lake record, the 1970 lunker helped Dyes win a fishing contest, which was being held by a local fish camp that summer. By catching the biggest bass of the season from Black Lake, he won $50 and got a free mount of his trophy largemouth.

Interestingly, Dyes earned a free replica mount of his 2006 trophy. He donated the fish to Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Lunker Bass Program for research and as brood stock for future bass generations in Black Lake and got a free replica mount of his trophy in exchange. The fish is in good conditions in a hatchery pond now, and will be fitted with a micro-chip for tracking purposes before being released back into Black Lake.

Not surprisingly, Black Lake is Dyes' favorite place to fish. An oilfield worker who works several weeks at a time in Saudi Arabia, he spends as much time as possible at Black Lake when he is in town. Dyes believes there’s a state-record largemouth swimming somewhere in the lake.

As for his favorite lure? Not much question there – A Smithwick Devil’s Horse. Dyes likes to cast a Devil’s Horse past a tree, flutter it back to the tree, pause it, and then twitch it. When he twitches the rod tip, Dyes knows to hold on tight.

If lightning can strike twice, why not three times? Someone has to catch that state-record largemouth, right?