6Lb Bass For Dinner .. Not

[einscodek]

Been out on canoe recently and killing the fish but was fishing banks this morning post frontal

Started slow and was catching nothing .. as usual I was trying to figure out both the smaller fish and where the big fish were holding under these specific conditions.

Nothing for over an hour cycling thru my usual lures and alil dispair set in

Then finally an 19" on spinnerbait followed by an 18" on plastics and a smaller 16" on spinnerbait.

Was about to head home when I detected something obnoxiously busting weeds surface on an adjacent cove.. looked like maybe a turtle.

Moseied over and a few minutes working a frog and looked like nothing was happening and slammo!.. all of a sudden the fight was on with a 22" 6 pounder.. could feel the weight of her on the rod going parabolic and the drag slipping and what seemed like 10 pounds of weeds in tow

Eventually towed her out, calmed her down a bit, and put her on scale and pulled the scale measuring tape.. was about to put her down for a more accurate measure and a pic when couple of spaniards took notice from afar and motioned with spanish they'd like to keep the fish and started their way over.

Being a catch and release guy there was no way I'm letting a 6 pounder get eaten.. let her quickly go and was on my way down the trail before they showed up.. wouldve liked more time with the big gal but its better she made like dodge quickly.. hopin for a future date.

 

It was a pain to extract a pic out of my phone's video clip.. jez technology..

[AR21angler]

lol, hooked a nice trout the other day, and this guy stops with his canoe and kid, and start bugging me, let me keep him, let me keep him, yeah right buddy, I told him I am a catch and release guy for the most part and put her back into the water.

[einscodek]

Ya its tough when yer catch and release and someone asks to keep yer fish..

Must admit I thought about it for a split second and considered it but its a 6lb fish and state record is 10.. and I just dont know if they get any bigger than this in this particular body of water so it needs to live to spawn.

There is no way I will be a part of possibly a lake's biggest fishes being someone's dinner.

[OroBass]

Nice fish but she has a slack belly.

[OntarioFishingGuy]

People do that all the time near me. One guy wanted to keep a massive crappie that I had just caught, and he was actually starting to get a bit aggressive, so I quickly tossed it back and left. Anyways, nice fish!

[OroBass]

Mmmmm crappie

[einscodek]

Nice fish but she has a slack belly.

Yea I noticed that afterwards.. was in a bit of a rush to get her back in the water

She had room to pack alot more pounds on

[NJBasstard]

Nice fish! I have a difficult time in these weather conditions but sounds like you had a good morning.

[einscodek]

People do that all the time near me. One guy wanted to keep a massive crappie that I had just caught, and he was actually starting to get a bit aggressive, so I quickly tossed it back and left. Anyways, nice fish!

Ya was kind of why I returned it to the water w/o doing more honors..I really didnt want to deal with arguing w/people wanting to keep the fish

[einscodek]

Nice fish! I have a difficult time in these weather conditions but sounds like you had a good morning.

Trust me it started real slow.. but I was bank fishing so I cycled the usual suspect lures and moved along til I found where some were holdin'

BTW, I find post frontal to be productive given patience.. less people around to to have ruffled the bass feathers before you

Somewhere in the lake are hungry fish!

[OntarioFishingGuy]

Ya was kind of why I returned it to the water w/o doing more honors..I really didnt want to deal with arguing w/people wanting to keep the fish

Exactly. You caught it, you do what you want with it.

[Dwight Hottle]

Thats a nice NJ bass

[boostr]

Would of done the same thing. "Catch your own", that's what I would of told them.

[boostr]

What part of NJ did you catch it?

[senile1]

Nice fish!  Glad you let her go to fight another day.

[jignfule]

I cringe every time I see a big bass taken from it's waters. Good Job!!!!

[Driftb]

Spread the word!  If we don't  practice selective harvest, all we will be catching is minnows.  Even the owner of our local tackle shop doesn't have a clue about this concept.  I have asked him to only post lunker pix taken  on the water.  He doesn't seem to get the connection between catch and release and his business, so I spell it out to him .  The guys who really get me ticked off are the few old timers around here that don't like to eat fish, but like to "keep a few nice ones and give them to friends and neighbors".  Release the big ones!  if you want to eat fish, keep some "Barely legal" fish.  I don't allow any harvest on my float trips except for walleye.  They are heavily stocked in my river, eat the hell out of everything else, and I don't think keeping a few of them will have much effect on the population.

[FishWitWiz]

Huge problem in Memphis. Met another BR member last weekend and was telling him about a pickup truck full of people who previously converged on the local pond and proceeded to keep every single fish they caught. If they saw an unrelated fisherman catch something they would run over and hassle him for the fish. Not 10 mins after this story, the pickup truck shows up and 5 people pile out. They had buckets and hit multiple ponds before showing up at that one.

[nepabassfishing]

Great fish and congrats!  I can't believe people have the audacity to ask other people if they can keep their fish.  Some people have zero filters.

[einscodek]

What part of NJ did you catch it?

Central.. around my area I have Spruce Run, Round Valley, Budd Lake, and Hopatcong not too far away so I am in NJ heaven!

Not to mention countless smaller bodies of water which have big bass, pike, pickeral, some hybrids

[einscodek]

Well I guess fishing is representative of the world.. there are guys who care about conservation and others who dont give a d**n..

We really cant control what others do nor think but each in our own can do the right thing for humanity as a whole which is to conserve where and when we can.  I like to think most of us here are conservationalists.. if everyone who caught a fish kept it and ate it.. pretty soon noone will be catching fish..

[boostr]

Central.. around my area I have Spruce Run, Round Valley, Budd Lake, and Hopatcong not too far away so I am in NJ heaven!

Not to mention countless smaller bodies of water which have big bass, pike, pickeral, some hybrids

 

Nice, I'm up here in N NJ, would take a good 45 min. to get to where you are which isn't a big deal. I'm heading to Rockaway today, and I'm gonna hit some lakes of Green Pond RD.

[einscodek]

Nice, I'm up here in N NJ, would take a good 45 min. to get to where you are which isn't a big deal. I'm heading to Rockaway today, and I'm gonna hit some lakes of Green Pond RD.

Hopatcong is northern right?

I'd think your area away from the urban gangs of fishermen would house some big fish.. no?

Or maybe the bass are being held in check by pike and musky?

[boostr]

Hopatcong is northern right?

I'd think your area away from the urban gangs of fishermen would house some big fish.. no?

Or maybe the bass are being held in check by pike and musky?

Yeah, you're right its Northern its actually a little SW of me I'm actually in NE NJ. The lakes near me are good, but its tough getting bank access. The lakes and ponds down in Rockaway have much better access.