paul.

i went for a little while earlier today. they were biting pretty good and i got lucky and caught several. here were the best of the bunch. didn't weigh 'em, but they were all good 'uns. all released. hope y'all are catchin' some too.

hey there brian. your bracelet arrived in my mailbox yesterday afternoon. i took it out bassin' this morning and all i can say is WOW!!! it looks as if your treasured little souvenir brought ME some luck! just check out these good 'uns the bracelet brought my way. turns out it was packed with mojo already. nevertheless, i added some good ol' down home midsouth mojo. you will see the bracelet hangin' from the mouth of one of these beauties. (but don't worry, i touched all of 'em with it. ;D) very soon, i will have it on its way to the next b.r. board member. wonder who it will be? : brian, my family and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your service and sacrifice. best of luck and may God bless you and yours. sincerely, paul noles and family

congrats cj. you totally deserved it bro.

10 for 10! 100%. can't do no better than that. rock on girl. 12' to 15' - sounds like you're getting her started right on the offshore structure game. good job cj. also really cool that y'all were using big baits. y'all know i love those.

you cannot stop the bait monkey. you can only hope to contain him! ;D

got some new nicknames for y'all. rob, castamasta, and trey - "the lunker trifecta". ;D i also like "the lunker bunch" and "the toad brothers". y'all are becoming like weakley, dickerson, and winn. ;D cool slideshow. 8-)

right on skillet! and on top too. real nice man.

sounds like a great trip brian. way to tear 'em up man.

way to go man. that's super. nice to see your persistence finally paid off. i know as great as it was, that fish meant even more to ya after going through so much to finally catch it. real cool. 8-)

awesome! total dadonkadonk! and the scary thing is folks, he's only gonna get better. way to go rob. my hat's off to ya buddy.

actually that's entirely possible buddy, even likely. i have had most of my success with the bigger bass i have caught on the same small lakes. so it's not like these bass are coming out of a massive reservoir. it is unlikely that these small bodies of water could sustain a very large population of big bass unless conditions were just perfect. one of my buddies on the forum here had a post not too long ago about catching what he was pretty sure was the same lunker bass 2 times. i know of several other similar situations like that too. i said before and i'll say now that i'm pretty sure a lot of the big bass i've been fortunate enough to catch have been repeat customers given that i fish mostly small waters. just goes to show the extremely high value of catch and release. also goes to show the potential for great success that is within everyone's reach in the many ponds and other small waters that dot the landscape. either way, same bass or different, i'll definitely take her. ;D i'm just a guy who loves to fish and i'm thankful for every bass i catch. of course this one was released as all the other bigguns are, so i hope to catch her again. maybe if i'm lucky, she'll be a teener when/if it happens. ;D lol. yeah, i am paul. thank you cliff. and thanks again everyone for your kind words. it's great to be part of such a cool group of guys and gals.

fantastic!!!

beautiful smallie. that's a good 'un for sure.

TOAD ALERT!!! TOAD ALERT!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! ;D great fish man and great point to your story.

all of us have been where you are. it's just part of the learning process. i have found that successful hooksetting is basically an "all or nothing" proposition with jigs and plastics. the problem is that once folks get burned a couple of times by "mistaken identity" hooksets and end up hanging into rocks, wood, vegetation, whatever they become gun shy. this usually results in hesitant, half-hearted hooksets because they become afraid that they will end up hung up or looking a fool. remember, once you commit to set, set with everything you got, not halfway. one tip i will offer is this. successful bite identification is learned by a proficiency with what is called "weighing the bait." in other words, you have to learn exactly what that particular bait feels like WITHOUT a fish, before you know what it feels like with one. and you have to learn this with all the bottom/cover conditions you will be fishing. i would recommend while you are learning to always use the same rod and reel combo to avoid introducing another confusing variable into the equation. also would help to use approximately the same size (weight) bait each time if possible. have cj take you out to fish a variety of bottom/cover conditions and make sure you know what bottom/cover condition you are fishing at that particular time - hard bottom, muck bottom, weedy bottom, brushpiles, stumps, rip rap, etc. you get the picture. learn what the bait feels like in each of these conditions WITHOUT a fish. then when it feels different from the norm in that particular condition you'll know it's probably time to set the hook. sure you'll have a miscue every once in a while. all of us do. but in time by learning to "weigh the bait" your hooking % will go way up. one other tip i will suggest is maybe using a weedless hook or rigging texposed (skin hooked) until you learn the drill. these options will increase your landing % on less than perfect hooksets and shouldn't hang up much more. another thing that will really help is to make sure you are using proper form. a lot of folks i know who have been fishing for years still use poor form, jerking the rod up over their heads or way out to their side. pay attention to where the rod butt ends up at the end of your set. if it ends up anywhere but in close to your midsection area, you are doing something wrong. of course you will tend to go to one side or another depending on whether you are right or left handed. many times i have bruises all over my ribs after a good day of plastic or jig fishing. when you try to jerk with extended arms way out to the side or above your head, you are robbing yourself of a lot of power. that's all i can think of right now. sorry this turned out so long. but like you've found out, it's far from simple. but take comfort in the fact that even the pros miss/lose fish on hooksets all the time. we all do. hope that helps and good luck to you and cj out there this summer.

great story and pix. i can tell y'all had a lot of fun.

sounds like a fun trip. and you can't beat the scenery. real nice.

what could be more fun? wow. i bet they really blasted that thing. in current too. i bet the fights were great.

definitely! congrats big time man. what an accomplishment.

that's fantastic man. i know that meant a lot to those kids.

way to whack 'em man. what a trip!

congrats on your new-found honey hole buddy. that's a great fish too. big congrats.

as usual, y'all are too kind. thanks so much for all the nice words. honestly though, i just consider myself an average fisherman who's blessed with above-average fishin' holes. i think any of y'all could do the same in the right water given equal amounts of patience and persistance. guys like catt, randall, chris, supermat, bizz, mattlures, wrb, and several others on here are the true lunker catchers. my hat's off to them. i learned a long time ago that catchin' bigguns under any circumstances is never a walk in the park. and those guys do it under more difficult circumstances than me. i am still trying to learn this trophy fishin' game and can only hope to be close to the level those guys are at one day. but that's the great thing about trophy fishin'. fortunately, i don't have to compete against anyone except the lunker bass. and trust me, i lose that one the vast majority of the time. ;D thanks again y'all.

and even the cost of an ER trip is miniscule compared to losing the fish of a lifetime. ;D i have a good buddy this happened to and he still talks about it years after the fact, kicking himself for not having a net. i've been lipping bass ever since i could walk, but i still use a net when a big fish is on the line if at all possible. my vote is to go get a net - a big one. costs just a little to buy it, might cost a lot not to. just my .02. good luck out there.

well, my new 9-5 topwater pb a few days ago sure didn't last long. ;D i busted that mark wide open tonight with a huge 10-15 caught on a big rapala x-walk. man i am tickled to death! this story actually starts back when it was cold outside. i was bait shopping at our gander mtn. in jackson and this bait really caught my eye. i love big topwater baits and it was love at first sight. this bait wasn't "cali big" but it was definitely "tennessee big" looking more like a striper bait. it's actually even categorized as a saltwater bait. it had good quality hooks, and i liked that big "sure set" in the back. it also had a lot of flash and some of the most realistic lookin' eyes i've ever seen on a bait. despite the $10+ price tag, i had to have it. honestly, i "just had a feeling" about this bait. i knew if it performed half as good as it looked, i'd be happy with it. it just had "lunker" written all over it. and i'll go ahead and admit it, walking baits are my topwater faves. i've been hooked since my first zara spook many years ago. fast forward a few months to tonight. the x-walk had been waiting patiently for its number to be called. i figured this evening it was gonna be money. after trying a few other things earlier with only small fish, i busted out the x-walk. first thing i noticed was how far this bait casts. i honestly coulda nearly spooled my cardiff on a cast if i'd wanted to i think). there is just something mesmerizing about that walking action, and trust me, this one walks like a champ. (although it takes some getting used to due to the large size and heavy weight of the bait.) well, after about an hour, i was starting to get a little disappointed. had i been wrong about this fine looking bait? then i finally got a hit. 2 pounder. well, at least i caught one one it. i decided to go back to an area i'd fished earlier with no success, a shallow grass flat, as darkness closed in. i've been fortunate enough to catch some fine bass there, and i was hoping for another. worked the area pretty thoroughly and then i made a cast to the edge where it starts to drop off into deep water. started that slow, deadly cadence that just drives the bigguns crazy. walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, KA-BOOOSH!!!!! the water just seemed to turn inside out with a monstrous strike. steel meets flesh. steel grips and holds. i knew it was a good 'un, but i wasn't sure how good until she came up for a jump. oh yeah, this one was a contender! well, played her real carefully even though i had 50 lb. powerpro on cause it was hard to see how i had this fish hooked in the fading light and i sure wasn't gonna let her jump again if i coud help it. during the battle, it was kinda hard to keep my composure. all that kept running through my mind was how thick and fat she looked when she jumped. but a cooler head prevailed and i was soon lipping this brute of a bass. after a quick ride on the digital scale and some pix, she was carefully released and i have been stoked ever since. so many of my hunches about lures have been off the mark, but man i am glad i got this one right. i definitely see more of these big x-walks in my future! all you other lunker junkies should definitely check 'em out! http://www.rapala.com/products/luresdetail.cfm?modelName=x-rap_walk_13&freshorsalt=Salt well, enough talk. here's the pic. i was happy to get this one and post her, cause my fishin' and my time on the br board is gonna be cut back some this summer due to my girls being outta school. but i'll try to make sure i still get on here every week to see y'all's awesome catches and say congrats. best wishes to all y'all for a lunker-filled summer. hope ya enjoy the pic.