Bill Cook’s “Oh my goodness” moment as a very seasoned, highly competitive bass angler came shortly after 7 a.m. Feb. 11 on a raw, cold day at his “home lake,” Toledo Bend.

That’s when the Texan by way of Louisiana slammed the hook of an Alabama rig home on the biggest bass ever caught on the border lake shared by Louisiana and Texas. The 15.67-pounder is the lake’s new bass to beat.

“I’ve never thought anything about catching a lake record. It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime event. It’s just really special,” Cook said Monday from his Houston home.

Broke 23-year-old record

His catch heard ’round the region erased the old Toledo Bend record that stood since 2000 when Eric Weems hooked, boated and weighed a 15.32-pound bass on July 3. The Crosby, Texas, bass angler held the envious record for nearly 23 years following that trip with his brother Tony Weems of Lumberton, Texas.

Cook, 78, reeled in the new lake record while fishing a Bass Champs tournament with another Houstonian, Ken Burgess. Their five-bass limit weighed 25.87 pounds that, coupled with the day’s big bass, earned $2,700 for third.

The buzz about the record-setter spread in a hurry on social media. That brothers Michael Mitchell and Nathan Mitchell, both of Lake Charles, boasted a limit weighing an unbeatable 28.95 pounds with an 11.58-pound kicker for $20,500 almost seemed an afterthought.

“I feel really blessed — this old, still competing and catch a fish like that … Everybody’s been so nice, so complimentary,” Cook said.

His personal best before the second weekend of February was a 10.2. He also has 9- and 10-pound bass to his credit.

The Vivian native who graduated as a two-sport standout at North Caddo High School and pitched for LSU, credits the memorable catch to a real bad day, oddly enough, the previous weekend in an MLF Bass Fishing League Cowboy Division tournament at Toledo Bend.

Michael Hagan, one of bass’s fishing young guns from Big Sandy, Texas, formerly of Hot Springs, Arkansas, gave Cook a valuable lesson a week earlier when Hagan reeled in an 11-pound bass as a co-angler fishing with Cook. Hagan also finished second with three bass weighing 17-4.

Cook finished 88th in the Boater Division with one bass for 2-6. He was impressed with the younger Hagan, who caught his fish on something he didn’t have in his new Phoenix.

A valuable lesson week earlier

“My co-angler (Hagan) caught an 11-pounder. Then he caught a 5-pounder. He said, ‘Mr. Cook, do you have an A-Rig (Alabama rig)?’ ” Cook said, chuckling at the memory. “I said, ‘Yes, I have one tied on to my favorite rod, leaning against the door in my garage.’ ”

After the tournament, his wife of 56 years, Alice Cook, said, wryly, “I hope you have a better plan for this weekend.”

He did.

Between Feb. 4-11, Cook rigged that Yum Flash Mob Jr. A-rig in his garage with three “live” hooks and three “dummy” hooks. (The BFL circuit restricts A-rigs to three live hooks. Bass Champs rules allow five, he said, but he was unaware of that.)

Cook put a white Hale Lure Co. Swimming Minnow on each live hook as he readied for fishing the Bass Champs derby with his good friend Ken Burgess of Houston.

Their boat ride that morning took about 10 minutes to a spot in 18- to 20-foot depths near shallower water on the main lake on the Texas side in the general zip code of Housen Bay and Six Mile Creek. He declined to get more specific.

First cast for the Bass Champs field was at 7 a.m. Cook’s eyes were on his marine electronics when his seventh or eighth cast of the day triggered the big bite on his “home lake.”

“I saw that fish come off the breakline. It was pretty exciting. To see that fish come up from the bottom … you see it strike and, you know, you say ‘Oh my goodness,’” he said.

Cook set the hook with his 8-foot long Dobbyns Swim Bait Rod, turned to his tournament partner right away and said, ‘Ken, get the net. This is a really good fish.’ Once I hooked it, it really made a hard run. That’s when I knew I had a BIG fish.”

The geologist who still works as a consultant in the oil industry said Burgess wasn’t aware where the landing net was stored.

After two long, heart-stopping hard runs, Cook started turning the bass to the boat. He loosened the Shimano Curado’s drag knowing it had another run in it close to the boat and it did, to no avail.

Yikes! Where’s the landing net?

There was a sense of urgency with the time of reckoning at hand. His 50-pound test Yo-Zuri braided line was being put to the test.

“I said, ‘You need to hurry’ ” to find the landing net, or just lip it, Cook said.

Burgess finally got his hands on the landing net after finding a pull tab for the “trap door” in the bottom of the boat where it was stored.

“He netted it and could barely get it in the boat,” Cook said.

The new lake record bass was hooked on one hook, the last hook, of the A-rig. It was quickly but gently lowered into the livewell.

“He (Burgess) said, ‘That’s a good fish!’ It wouldn’t barely fit length-wise in the livewell. It was a total football,” Cook said.

Later, after the weighmaster put it on a certified digital scale, Cook said he was “totally shocked the bass weighed that much.”

As the word spread, everyone else shared that thought.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Inland Fisheries biologist manager Villis Dowden of Natchitoches was relaxing at home that afternoon. He left in a hurry and drove over to Cypress Bend Park.

Dowden measured the bass at 28 ½ inches long with a girth of 22 ¾ inches. Like so many others, he was happy for Cook.

“Bill has fished tournaments a long time and not a more deserving angler,” Dowden said.

John Dean, a former bass tournament angler, artificial lure designer and fishing guide at Toledo Bend, echoed the veteran biologist’s opinion. A new lake record was past due, he said, and one of the truly “good guys” who fishes the lake landed it.

“Like I told you the last couple of years, it’s just a matter of time. I tell you what, a 15.67 is a giant fish at Toledo Bend. It’s something to be proud of,” Dean said.

“I guarantee you right now, a 16-plus is swimming out there, probably a couple of them.”

Bass that size overdue

For sure, there’s a 15.67, perhaps a little heavier now, swimming around because it was released in the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program. Cook plans to hang the replica mount in a prominent place.

“I’d like to put it where everybody else can see it … not the garage or the house,” he said, adding he’s considering putting it at Toledo Town & Tackle on Louisiana 6.

The catch coincidentally coincided with two new developments on Toledo Bend. Recent rains have pushed the lake’s level to nearly pool (171.43 feet) and grass has been coming back big time, particularly on the Texas side.

“Right now, the way the conditions are, it’s picture perfect,” Dean said.

He won’t get an argument from the new lake record bass-holder.

“It was a good day … a lot of nice comments from pals and friends who knew how many tournaments I’ve fished on the lake,” Cook said.