Riley Harris of Orange won the MLF Toyota Series event held March 6-8 on Sam Rayburn with a three-day total of 82 pounds, 10 ounces on 15 bass. He earned $29,930 for the win.
Cody Ross of Livingston took second with 79-12, followed by Dylan Thompson of Del Rio, 76-05; Todd Castledine of Nacogdoches, 74-04; and Dakota Ebare of Brookeland, 72-04.
Phillip Hudnall of Bixby, OK, grabbed the co-angler title with a three-day total of 34-0 on 13 fish. He won a new Phoenix bass boat valued at $33,000.
If it sounds like the fishing was lights out, that’s because it was. Sam Rayburn really showed out with parades of mega bags. Over three days, the legendary East Texas fishery cranked out five limits topping 30 pounds and more than two dozen over 20 pounds.
Both Harris and Ross topped the previous Sam Rayburn Toyota Series weight record of 77-7 set by Colby Miller of Elmer, LA, in February 2024. Ross dropped the event’s heaviest sack in the final round — 36-02.
Not surprisingly, the majority of the top finishers relied heavily on forward-facing sonar to locate fish and guide their baits.
Harris said he targeted drains in water ranging 5-15 feet using a 6th Sense Ozzie, a Neko-rigged 6th Sense Divine Shakey Worm with a 1/10-ounce weight and an umbrella rig with three 1/8-ounce heads and two 1/4-ounce heads and 6th Sense Divine swimbaits.
His three-day weight was anchored by a massive 30-09 limit in the the final round — while Harris iced the win with a 30-09 limit anchored by 11-pound, 3-ounce giant. The 15 bass in winning averaged nearly 5 1/2 pounds each.
It’s been a pretty good year for Harris so far. In February, he and Luke Potter teamed up to win the Texas Team Trail season opener with 41-9 on five bass. They won a $56,984 prize package. In November 2024, Harris landed a 13.79 pounder that is the biggest fall bass reported from Sam Rayburn since 2015.
TEXAS ANGLER SETS WEIGHT RECORD
Longview bass angler Jordon Osborne set a National Professional Fishing League single-day weight record during the opening round of the NPFL’s 2025 season opener on Santee Cooper in South Carolina with five fish weighing 33 pounds, 1 ounce.
SHARELUNKER COLLECTION SEASON WINDING DOWN
The 2025 Toyota Share-Lunker collection season rolls to a close March 31 and Lake O.H. Ivie near San Angelo is on track to become the program’s leading donor for the fifth consecutive year. Bass must weigh upwards 13 pounds and be caught between Jan. 1 and March 31 to qualify.
Through March 12, Ivie had produced three of the eight Toyota Legacy lunkers turned in this season. The most recent is a 13.14 pounder caught on Feb. 27 by Oklahoma angler Brandon Burkhardt.
Lakes J.B. Thomas, Richland Chambers, Ladybird, Alan Henry and Tawakoni have one entry each. Ross Gomez of Lubbock caught the heaviest bass of the season thus far, a 14.78 pounder from Alan Henry.
Interestingly, TPWD fisheries biologists discovered a “PIT” tag in the body cavity of that bass that identified the fish as the same Legacy Lunker Gomez turned in during the 2023 collection season. The fish weighed 13.22 pounds when it was first caught.
CWD IN KAUFMAN CO
Two white-tailed deer held captive in a Kaufman County breeding facility recently tested positive for chronic wasting disease, according to reports from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. TPWD says a 20-month-old-buck and eight-month-old doe tested positive through ante-mortem testing.
The samples were analyzed at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa confirmed the CWD detection, marking the first-ever detection in Kaufman County.
TPWD white-tailed deer program leader Blaise Korzekwa says CWD has now been discovered in 36 breeding facilities in 23 different counties. CWD has also been detected in 135 free ranging deer.
