A fisherman has caught one of the biggest largemouth bass the state of Texas has ever recorded.

Jason Conn was fishing at O.H. Ivie Lake near San Angelo when he hooked a 17.03-pound ShareLunker, which the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said is the eighth-heaviest largemouth bass known to be caught in Texas.

Conn’s catch supplanted a 16.9-pound bass caught by Earl Crawford at Lake Pinkston in 1986 from eighth place on the state list.

It was also preceded by yet another bass caught at the O.H. Ivie Lake just last year by Brodey Davis. Davis still holds the lake record with his 17.06-pound catch, which sits pretty at seventh place.

Catches ranked first through sixth were all fished at Lake Fork. Barry St. Clair holds the all-time state record with an 18.18-pound bass caught at Lake Fork in 1992.

Conn told The Dallas Express he was guiding a group of fishermen on the lake when he made the catch.

“I was downplaying it for them,” he said in an interview. “But in my mind, I knew it was something special because I’ve seen a lot of big fish and weighed a lot of big fish, and that was bigger than any I’d put on a scale. Way bigger.”

Home to largemouth bass, black and white crappies, sunfish, and channel catfish, Lake Fork is usually where Conn — a professional angler and guide — casts his line.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has participated in the Toyota ShareLunker program, which breeds bass to be stocked in the local lakes so fishermen can catch “bigger and better” fish, since 1986.

The program classifies the fish that have been caught into four categories: Legacy, which consists of fish weighing 13 pounds and over that are caught between January and March; Legend, which includes 13-pound fish caught between April and December; Elite, for fish weighing 10 pounds and over; and Lunker for fish that are at least 8 pounds.

Legends can be given back to the ShareLunker program to breed more fish.

Conn donated his bass, which was the sixth-largest donation the program has ever had.

“An incredible catch by Conn led to a truly historic day for bass fishing in Texas,” Natalie Goldstrohm, Toyota ShareLunker program coordinator, said in a media release issued by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“Bass this large are especially rare and this fish is one of the biggest bass ever caught in Texas,” Goldstrohm added. “We are thankful to Conn for sharing his catch with the program and for the chance to spawn this exceptional bass with a male ShareLunker descendent, so her offspring have the best genetic potential to grow into Lunker bass.”

Anyone who enters a fish they caught in the ShareLunker program gets a catch kit, a car/boat decal, and the chance to win a shopping spree worth $5,000 at Bass Pro Shops.

In previous years, the fish needed to be weighed using an officially certified scale, but that rule has since been changed.

Conn will also get his name added to the Parks and Wildlife Department’s Top 50 Largemouth Bass list.