When the fish slammed Jerry Anderson’s 2-ounce slab spoon, Anderson felt as if he were hooked to a mule.

It was a hybrid of a different type, a hybrid striped bass, but the fish fought like the reputation of hybrid vigor was at stake. The big hybrid had plenty of kick, and it pulled like a mule.

“I was fishing for white bass, but I’ve had good luck catching hybrids at Richland Chambers by letting a 2-ounce slab spoon sink down near the bottom under the surface schools of whites,” said Anderson.

He’s not sure how long it took him to land the fish, but the broad-sided hybrid pulled his boat around and Anderson loosened his drag for fear the fish would break his line.

The fish measured 35 inches long by 22 1/2 inches in girth and weighed 18.07 pounds, easily eclipsing the Richland Chambers record for hybrid stripers. The old record was a 15.56-pounder caught in 1993 by Phillip Mattern.

A 15.56-pounder is a good hybrid. An 18-pounder is a great hybrid. In fact, only three bigger hybrids have been reported by Texas anglers, and two of those were caught from Lake Ray Hubbard in 1984, when the state’s hybrid program was new and fishermen were still learning how to deal with test-tube fish that inherited the best characteristics of both parents.

Hybrids get their size from the maternal striped bass side of the family. From their white bass dads, they inherit the ability to survive the brutal Texas summers and a voracious appetite that makes them relatively easy to catch.

That appetite can get the hybrid in trouble. Hybrid stripers have been stocked in more than 40 lakes across the state. In lakes like Bridgeport, hybrids can eat themselves out of house and home.

Bridgeport is not a particularly fertile lake, and the fish are showing signs of depleting the forage base that they depend on, mostly threadfin shad. The forage situation, combined with low fishing pressure directed at hybrids, led TP&W biologists to recommend dropping Bridgeport from the list of lakes to be stocked with hybrid stripers.

The hotter the summer weather, the better the hybrid striper fishing, said Grand Prairie fishing guide Johnnie Procell, who has caught hybrids in at least 10 Texas lakes.

Procell guided Dallas angler John Haney to the state-record hybrid at Lake Ray Hubbard. During the hottest days last summer, Procell’s clients caught and released about 130 Ray Hubbard hybrids bigger than 14 pounds.