paul.

chris, buddy, you've got no idea how much i'd love to posess the skills to have this kind of perspective on bass fishin'. any trip i get a teener results in no sleep for 3 days and euphoric state of such proportions it borders on a full-blown manic episode, putting me at serious risk of psychiatric hospitalization. very fortunately for my poor family, this phenomenon of unprecedented luck has only occured to me twice. ;D any YEAR i get a "teener" is a great YEAR. just havin' some fun with ya. i've said it before, you're the man buddy! anyway, the question was "what conditions would i keep a bass under"? the answer? i would keep a small bass "under" about 5 inches of hot cooking oil with a nice coating of cornmeal. ;D. but i do release all the biggun's i'm blessed enough to get.

that's too bad, but i like the way you kept it in perspective. a skunk - $gas money fishin' time with dad - priceless you'll get 'em next time.

congrats. boy that's sweet lookin' spot. LC, that was totally uncalled for man. ;D

nice. glad you're catchin' a few buddy.

congrats y'all.

very nice trout. congratulations.

wow! what a heartbreaker. great story though. i guess it's better to have fought a monster and lost than not to have fought at all. like you said, at least you know she's in there. a fish like that just makes you want to forget there's any other fish in the lake and just chase after her all year. it just sucks losing big fish. i have a couple that still haunt me to this day. i guess in a way the tradgedies make the triumphs a little bit sweeter. i know that's probably not much consolation, but it's the best i can think of. you'll get 'er next time buddy. now get back there with some braid and kick her butt!

greaat job man! nothing like a new pb.

nice pics man. thanks for sharin'.

welcome and good luck.

welcome to THE bassin' board.

glad to have ya here. great buncha guys here at br.

nah, we got those on 1/2's tin. there's been ice on stuff around here lately and i haven't been able to go much. so excuse me for trying to re-live the "glory days". it's all i've got for now. lol ;D.

just 2! ;D ;D ;D http://www.trophybassonly.com/id215.htm seriously though buddy, it depends on several things - time of year mainly. this time of year i'm happy if there's no ice and i can just catch a few little 'uns. if i got someone with me, my goal is for them to catch a good fish or several decent ones. if i had to put a number on it though, on my favorite lake i'm kinda disappointed if i don't get at least 10 bass. good idea for a post. i'm anxious to see what folks have to say about this one.

"cheating" or not, those are some awesome fish man! way to go! and i agree, that lake looks awesome. scratch that, with fish like that comin' out of it, it IS awesome!

sounds like a great day. way to catch 'em man! ;D now if we could just get rid of the ice on the water here...... >

about 13 pounds if i remember right.

congrats on your catches man. that was cool. gar are fun, but man do they ever smell bad. at least the ones around here do. i can't ever get those suckers out of the boat and back in the lake fast enough. yuck.

good job fpb, and cool post. yeah, i really got into the ul stuff last year and i had a blast. those long drag pullin' runs are really fun and using ul really improves your fish fightin' skills. my best day on ul tackle was when i caught both of these in the same day. 6 lb. test and 5 ft. ul spinning. i don't think i'll ever forget that day. pure adrenaline baby! i didn't think i'd ever get the catfish in. came very close to spooling me on the first run. thanks again for the cool post. more people need to know about how much fun the ul stuff is.

april 28, 2007 - my wife's birthday. promised her i'd go out to eat with her and the family that evening. had all day to fish. something told me to check my favorite lake close to the house for bedding sows that morning, but i didn't. instead i went to another spot and caught dinks all day. coming back home, i decided to swing by the aforementioned lake as an afterthought. had about an hour left before i had to leave. walked the bank looking for beds and quickly spotted the biggest bass i had ever seen in that lake sitting on a bed and acting very "catchable". she was easily even bigger than the 10-3 i had caught out of there earlier that month. i was furious at myself. but i had an hour. had to get something to catch her with - fast. the clock was down to about 50 mins. now. i knew a live bluegill would work the fastest, so i walked over to the bluegill hotspot in that lake and finally caught one just the right size after about another 20 minutes. i might just be able to pull this off after all i thought! hooked up the gill on a big 5/0 hook with a heavy sinker to make it stay put and got it on the bed just right. now it was just a matter of time. after leaving briefly, she came back and attacked the hapless gill with a vengeance! this was too good to be true! then it happened. somehow, while the gill was sitting on the bed, the hook had gotten turned around in it so that when i set, the hook just went right back into the bluegill, and all i succeeded in doing was just jerking the whole rig out of the bass' mouth, spooking her badly in the process. she never came back in the few minutes i had left. and she never came back to the nest in the days following either (believe me i checked!) these 2 bonehead manuevers in one day (not checking the lake before i left for the other fishin' hole and not using a big treble in the bluegill instead of a single) still haunt me to this day. and to make it worse, i will forever associate my sweet wife's birthday with this horrible bonehead manuever. catching that fish this year (if she's even still alive in there) is the only thing that will ease the pain at all. i'm keeping my fingers crossed. thank you for making me re-live this miserable day once again. ;D

wow! that is really cool. and it looks like you had a great year too!

way to go man. you have been on quite a hot streak here lately, whackin' a few each time ya go. here's to consistency! that lil' craw seems to be a pretty hot bait for ya too.

well ya gave it a shot anyway. better to be fishin' than at home wishin'. i'm sure better days are ahead for ya.

nice chunky fish there buddy. congrats big time. real nice!

wow. that does look windy big time! but good catchin' man. i hate that you got so cold out there though. ;D it's supposed to get real cold here this week so i may have to rely on your posts to get me through.