Let's see, so many to choose from.
I was fishing my second favorite pond. Which is surprisingly quite deep and is about 2 acres or so total with one side only accessible to mountain goats. It has a hill side set at about a 60 degree angle covered in trees. The back side is mostly over grown and extremely shallow and thorn laden. Anyway, I was fishing the back corner of said pond. I was using my brand new Quantum Smoke reel using 12lb flouro set up on a, I want to say either a MH Diawa Procyon or a MH CarbonLite. I honestly can't remember now. Its been three or four years ago. It was the first time I had ever fished this reel and I was extremely excited about it. I was fishing parallel to a sunken oak tree that is about four feet in diameter where the base had uprooted against the bank. My lure was a H20 express lipless crankbait in a silver, blue with a mirror finish. Weight was a 1/2 ounce. I had caught some decent 4 and 5 lb bass off this sunken tree in the past so I figured what better place to try my luck. On about my tenth cast I felt a tug and slammed the hook. I fought the hell out of this fish. Rod was bowed over the whole time. I'm smiling a mile wide. Once the fish gets up to shore I notice its a freaking Red Ear Sunfish. That greedy thing had the entire rear treble hook in its mouth. He weighed about a pound in a half, maybe 2 pounds tops. Little bugger had been dragging the line against and under the tree the whole time. It was a hell of a fight but definitely not what I was targeting. (I managed to get the treble hook out with out ripping its mouth apart too. I was very proud of that.)
Story 2.
This is my biggest large mouth to date.
I had just learned how to rig a wacky rig with a trick worm. (Thank you Bass Resources). Another member here explained it to a T. Went as far as almost giving me a diagram. I was fishing another pond I like to frequent. This one about 3 acres total. I have gone so far as to diagram and map this pond. There are some enormous bass in there. Anyway, I had caught roughly 4 two pounders and was loving my newly learned rig. I moved to the rear of the pond where it looks like the toe of a boot. The pond is shaped like a boot for what its worth. I was casting to the far bank where there are a bunch of stumps and a dead tree extending from the water. Set up was a BPS Pro Qualifier(the chameleon one), with 20 lb braid, on a BPS CarbonLite MH. Weightless wacky rig with a Reaction Innovations, Flirt 6.95 in California 420. I was casting to the stumps letting it sink slowly and then jigging it up and jn about a foot. Pausing every third handle turn for between five to six seconds. Every other hop I would give it a twitch right before it started sinking.
As I was casting to a group of stumps. My line went taught. I snatched it thinking I had hooked a branch, root, or one of the stumps. I reeled and snatched again feeling a large weight at the end of the line. I paused a second and the drag started screaming as line was ripped from my reel. Well, I figured, apparently my tree branch wants to fight. So fight I did. This fish gave me hell. She jumps about 6 feet from shore and I almost dropped my rod. She was freaking huge! Once I landed her my hands were trembling like a heroin addict in need of a fix. My heart was pounding through my chest. I grabbed her with the scale and she weighed 10lbs 2ounces! I couldn't believe my eyes. I honestly got light headed when I read that scale. That is the story of my biggest large mouth to date.
