THE TOURNAMENT REPORT
SLAYING GIANTS
BIG FISH AND BIG BAGS HEADLINED A JANUARY TO REMEMBER FOR DEREK MUNDY By Justin Onslow
For most bass anglers , a 13-pounder is a fish of an entire lifetime . Likewise for a 40-pound five-fish limit .
Derek Mundy isn ’ t most bass anglers . Not only did he achieve both feats , but he did so in two different tournaments in January on Sam Rayburn Reservoir ( winning both ), coming darn close to duplicating both results with a 39-7 limit in one event and landing an 11- 10 kicker in the other .
On January 2 , in the first tournament of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Cowboy Division season , Mundy came to the scales with 40 pounds , 10 ounces of mammoth Big Sam largemouth . That 11-10 anchored his bag – though he would have won that tournament if that fish had jumped out of his livewell and he only weighed in the other four – and netted the Broaddus , Texas pipeline welder a $ 7,000 payday .
When you ’ re running that hot , it ’ s hard to ever expect that dream scenario to play out again , but the Toyota Series Southwestern Division opener on Rayburn at the end of January proved lightning does sometimes strike twice – this time in the form of a 39-7 Day 2 limit that included a 13-10 kicker .
Truly a bass fishing dream firmly rooted in reality .
“ To be honest with you , I don ’ t know if it ’ ll ever sink in ,” Mundy says of his historic run that added his name not once but twice to the list of all-time largest one-day limits in MLF competition . “ To catch that kind of quality , it ’ s super hard . It ’ s hard to catch that quality anywhere . There ’ s usually a guy that does do well , but it falls off pretty quick . It ’ s a hard lake to run into the big ones that time of year .”
Call it luck or providence or fortune , but what happened to Mundy in the second of his two Rayburn victories is almost impossible to explain . First , a 13-10 on the second cast of the day . Then , two casts later , a double on the same Strike King 8XD crankbait that netted another 15 pounds or so .
“ Two casts later ,” he recalls . “ Same crankbait . One on each end . They were both heavy 7s . One of them might have been an 8-pounder . It was insane . It ’ s hard for the other one to get hooked . It takes one not choking it so the other one can eat it , too .”
Mundy has weighed multiple bags over 30 pounds and some three-fish limits in the mid-20s on Rayburn . Big Sam is essentially in his back yard , so it makes sense that he ’ d fish enough local and regional tournaments to do some real damage . But , again , 40-pou nd limits and 13-pounders don ’ t just jump into the boat .
Though there certainly are plenty of them swimming around in the big fish capitol of Texas .
“ The first 13-pounder that was caught on Rayburn was caught 50 yards from me at the beginning of this year ,” Mundy says . “ I ’ ve had my boat around two of them .”
If Mundy ’ s big bass heroics have you itching to chase down some Rayburn giants this spring , he has some local knowledge to impart .
“ In April , it ’ s going to be postspawn ,” he explains . “ I would definitely keep myself close to the grass . You definitely can ’ t go wrong with that , especially main-lake grass . We ’ re still having a shad spawn that time of year , too . A lot of your mainlake points with the hay grass on them are good areas .
“ At that time of year , they just haven ’ t made their push offshore . That ’ s a good time to catch them on topwater with a frog or a Whopper Plopper just running grass edges .”
Ask another Rayburn local if you ’ d like , but if you ’ re going to Big Sam anytime soon , you could do a lot worse than the advice of the man who put the whole bass fishing world on notice in a span of a few weeks back in January .
74 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | APRIL-MAY 2021