Imagine dunking a shiner or hair jig or tube jig into a likely looking hangout for a sac-a-lait, you get a bite, set the hook and nothing gives.

Ugggghhhhhh. Dang it! A log.

That’s what a 15-year-old Arkansas fisherman thought April 2 while fishing an undisclosed lake in Randolph County in northeast Arkansas. The ninth-grade student and a buddy were fishing for sac-a-lait, commonly known as crappie just about everywhere else but Cajun Country, and doing quite well pulling up the tasty slabs.

On that particularly dunk, though, Logan Cernosek was ready to get unsnagged as he believed he was hung up. Not so fast.

“I thought I was hooked on a log, but then I realized it was a huge fish,” Cernosek told the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Fisheries Division.

That “log” began to move. He fought the fish successfully and reeled it in.

He was using 4-pound test line, which means there was a very thin fishing line connecting the ninth-grade student to what turned out to be a 12-pound, 4-ounce, bass. He weighed it on a portable scale.

The bass, a pleasant surprise, lagniappe, whatever you want to call it, placed the teen among an elite few anglers in the state who have caught bass topping 10 pounds. The Arkansas state record is a 16-8 caught in March 1976 by Tennessee angler Aaron Mardis at Mallard Lake, a border lake shared by Arkansas and Tennessee.

Cernosek said he thought he’d never catch a bass that big.

About his other catch, he said they didn’t too shabby.

Some Teche Area residents have an idea how the Arkansas teen felt about catching a real heavy bass while sac-a-lait fishing. One of them is Lydia outdoorsman Milton Davis.

Many folks know Davis as one of the top redfish fishermen in and around Vermilion Bay. What some don’t know is he is one of the best sac-a-lait fishermen on Lake Fausse Pointe.

While sac-a-lait fishing in a lake known for big bass, Davis has hooked and boated several in the 5- to 8-pound class range while sac-a-lait fishing. One of his latest “surprise” lunker bass catches was in mid-February in the Texaco Field.

Davis told his son, Dusty, about it and the location. The younger Davis went there Feb. 23 with his two young sons, Layn Davis, 9, and Bowen Davis, 4.

Dusty, who has cashed in or won several Wednesday Night Hawg Fights Bass Tournament Series tournaments on Lake Fausse Pointe, caught a 7.2-pound while he and his boys were fishing with a big plastic lizard in the Texaco Field.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.