Time/place you caught your PB

[riverbasser]

Where and what time of year did you catch your PB? When I say where be as specific as you want but I really want to here the depth,structure or cover you were fishing. And add the lure if you want.

My pb isn't a trophy but it was caught in the Chattahoochee river in early fall on a rocky wall just before a big S-curve with a fallen tree right on the bank. I actually saw the bass take the lure and set the hook to soon but luckily the bass hit it again. Caught it on a 8inch ribbontail worm on a beetle spin arm(just an idea I had) 

[win300mag1]

I caught my PB on Shearon Harris reservoir, NC this last May. She was 11 lbs 6 ounces. She was buried in the back of a cove where a small Creek emptied out into it. I walked a frog through an opening in the primrose about the size of the bed of a truck and she came flying off bed and destroyed it. I actually watched it's fin come out of the water like a shark as she chased it down. Needless to say it was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

[dwh4784]

I'll never forget my PB LM bass, although I hope to surpass it eventually. Caught when I was probably 13 years old, my family had rented a cabin on Priest Lake, ID for a summer weekend and I was sitting on the end of the dock with my Shakespeare rod and cheapo Shimano spinning reel spooled with 6lb Stren and a single orange PowerEgg on a #12 hook off the bottom with a slip sinker. Pretty much hoping to catch a trout, bluegill, whatever. I get a bite and set the hook, only to watch my spool start peeling line like I'd never seen. My dad meanders off the deck to see what's going on, we both agree I must have one of the big lake trout on they have in there and wait it out. When I finally get it close to the dock, we see it's a huge bass and another one is swimming with it. My dad jumps down and goes for a lip just as it runs under the dock and our boat on the other side, somehow the Stren holds on for dear life and I'm able to bring it back out. He fishes a net (that we never used, but this dock was pretty far out of the water) out of the boat and nets it, weighs in at 4lb13oz. I've since come within 2oz on standard bass gear, but other than the picture don't remember it at all. Maybe I should fish with kid gear all the time. Still makes me smile to remember. I also recall the entire hook was visible where it was hooked, like it was just inside the membrane of it's mouth. Still no idea how it didn't get off for any number of reasons.

 

[CrustyMono]

I hooked my "PB"  8.5 pounder skipping docks with a 5 in black senko neko rigged with a 3/4 inch roofing  nail a size one hook. This fishing was textbook. Isolated wooden dock on a point. skipped in it (after hopping onto another dock) i got nagged on the boats motor for five minutes. eventually it started MOVING. big fish, i had the fish in my hands. it broke off in my Hands fish was at least 24"

[Catt]

Toledo Bend early pre-spawn

Daylight Mid-February, cold, overcast, drizzling, northwest wind

Shallow water point with timber & grass

#820 Red Chrome

[scaleface]

I dont know what my PB is . I have caught a bunch of fish in the 7 to 8 lb range . I'll   just go with the biggest in  the last three years . Caught it  in  July during a light drizzle   . Threw a black lunker lure next to a lay down tree . A few minutes later I caught its twin on a Storm Spin Shad on another lay down tree .

[davecon]

09/14/74

Borrow pit alongside I4 near Tampa.

8 inch black Manns Jeiiy Worm.

14.1

Over the years caught at least 50 others in that pit that went between 9 and 11.4

Have caught several in other bodies of water with the biggest at 13.8 but that 14.1 was/is my PB.

Nothing you guys couldn't do if you lived here in central Florida and had been at it as long as I have.

[papajoe222]

Mid-summer, 9:55AM, water temp. 78. air temp 72, Barometer 30.1, two days after a major front moved through. I was slow walking a SuperSpook Jr parallel to a vertical drop (7-15ft.) just off a small hump. I'd worked that same area earlier, but was walking that bait a lot faster.  Caught one on the slow tapering side of the hump working it slow and immediately moved over to the steeper side.  I can't say for sure, but I'm confident that the change in speed made a difference as that fish was suspended 15yrds. off the drop. 

[OCdockskipper]

8 am on July 2nd of this year, I caught one that beat my PB by 2 ounces.  Even though it was overcast for the first few hours of the morning, the ongoing warm weather had more fish deep than shallow.  I was making my way from one deep water spot to another, passing by an isolated dock on a point.  Out of habit more than anything, I made a cast towards the corner of the dock as I approached it.  I never felt her inhale my 6" Zoom Dead Ringer in Green Pumpkin, just saw the line moving away.  I set the hook, she came away from the dock, surfaced & shook her head.  She was unimpressed with my gear, peeled off about 20 feet of line & went back under the dock.  I was able to turn her and after a few minutes, on her first pass by the boat, was able to lip her.

She was in about 3 feet of water, 8 feet off the shoreline while almost every other fish in the lake was in 10 feet of water as far from the shoreline as they could be.  Thank heavens casts are free, else I probably wouldn't have made that one on that morning.

[IgotWood]

Just a few weeks ago, my buddy and I were out in our kayaks. We were fishing a bunch of standing cypress in the middle of the lake, in 5-8' of water. We went all morning with just a few small bites. Now it's 1pm, we're working our way back to the dock. We were both bouncing wacky worms off the trees with no expectations, considering it was 1pm and and water temps were in the mid 90's. He hooks a big fish, and lands it...6.5lbs. I stopped and helped him, and took some photos. I get back to fishing, and on my next cast, BAM, I caught one 6.5lbs. They were different fish for sure, because one of them was tagged. He and I both had our PB that day. 

[N Florida Mike]

I caught my pb on   Dec.31,1979. It was a very windy day and warm for Dec.That fish was the only bite that morning.I caught it in late morning.I had made a perfect cast just to the left side of a cattail bed right up against the bank.The water there was a couple feet deeper than usual for the shoreline.I caught it on a pinched off 10 inch Mann's grape jelly worm with 12 pound stren.The fish got about 1/2 of it's body out of the water when it jumped. It ran back and forth 3-4 times as I worked it closer and lipped it.I hooked it in the roof of the mouth about1/2 inch from the lip.It weighed app.9 pounds.24 1/2 inch.The fish was an early bedding fish .Its belly was sagging with eggs.I caught it about 250 yards from where I live right now.

[Torn Thumb]

August 30, 2016 8:30 a.m. Pontoosuc Lake, Pittsfield, MA. Just this past Tuesday. I was trying out a new 3/8 oz zman chatterbait in white from a wall that is primarily used to jump off of into about 4-5 feet of water. About 15-20 feet out after letting it sink to the bottom, my new PB grabbed ahold of it and I set the hook. 5 pounds on the nose. I was using 8 lb. Trilene on an ugly stik gx2 youth spinning rod. That thing is fun to fight bass with. Nice and light with a sensitive feel to it. I don't care if it's for kids, it works amazingly for me.

     My previous PB was 3 lbs and 10 oz so this was a good jump in size for the areas that I fish.

["hamma"]

I was prefishing for a tournament in a so. shore lake that Ive never been on before. It was early sept 1994, the weather conditions were to be perfect for the next week or 2. Barometer was around 28, and every day from then on was to be favorable temps, and as most New England summer days possible showers in the evenings. The tourney was to be the first of the next year so I needed to check this place out, as some springs the ice can deter fishing all together. We get to the ramp and the wind is a favorable westerly breeze, and we were looking at an Island just across from the ramp and gameplanned our course. We decided to start on the easterly sides point (sheltered from the wind) and progress on the windless side back towards the west, fishing that islands shore. I caught one decent 3 lberoff the point and as we slowly drifted west we came to another point which my buddy caught a nicer 4 lber right off. He taunted me about it and as we rounded the point there was a nice stump about five feet off the shore, and He says "watch me catch a 5 lber now" I said "yeah right in your dreams, Im gunna beat it anyways" he tossed in a worm, and I a white spinnerbait. We both hook up, he says "Ha Ha!,..told ya, this one feels better" I say "oh yeah thats nice" his runs under the boat, mine heads behind the boat for deeper water. He says "I shoulda bet you 20 bucks!" as he sticks his hand down to lip his fish, I say laughingly "I'd of taken that bet" fighting my fish with all I could" My rod is doubled over and I could feel a strong Thump,..thump of my fish shaking its head, as Im fighting my fish he is unhooking his, gets it weighed and releases it, and says. "Five point three, wheres my twenty" turns and looks at me and says "What the hell are you waiting for?" gets a good look at my doubled over rod with line peeling out and says "Did you loosen your drag or something?" Now, my hearts beatin a mile a minute, Ive caught some big fish, but nothing like this, I could feel the shake of its head again and its a longer time period than any other fish Ive caught, the flick of its tail would strain the line and peel more off, nothing I did was getting this fish to the surface, no matter how hard I tried. I say "No, my drags fine, I think I have a big catfish, this thing isn't coming up" Just then she finally turned upwards, I dip the tip of my rod into the water and keep pressure (instictivley) on her to keep her from jumping, and we finally get a look at her, I say "Holy S&$#!!!" he says, "You gotta be f'ng kiddin me!" we were in total awe, never had we seen a bass's mouth that huge.  I think his heartrate caught up to mine as he started shouting instructions, "Dont loose it!, hold on Hamma!, pull the other way, ya gunna loose it, hold on" I say "Whaddah ya think Im doin! I got it, she aint goin nowhere!" all the while the fish is beggining to tire, shes under the boat and I feel her heading up again, so I pull and reel down dippin the rods tip in the water again and she surfaces, as quick as I can I grab her lower lip before she started thrashing and I got her now. I lift her up and cant believe it, we didnt expect this, shaking Jay turns around with the scale and hooks her up, I finally let go and we are anticipating  beating the state record because she in simply huge. She weighs out at 12.5 and I unhook her from the scale and Jay sticks both his fists in her gaping mouth. We think of weighing it at a certified state scale but decided to let her go as I am prefishing and we had no livewell. I let it go and we just sit there both of us shaking as we light up cigarettes, I tell the storyat the next club meeting and no one believes me,. The next spring someone weighs a "skinny" 11 pounder on a state scale from the same lake. Club members looked at me in amazement, astonished that i didnt put it on my wall. I just say,."I didnt wanna kill it",..I just couldn't.

[YoTone]

late May in Westchester NY, standing on a huge fallen tree and tossed a jig in a  fork of the tree. felt a nice tug and set the hook and pulled up a 5 pounder.  it happened so close  to where i was at that the whole thing from the cast to her in my hand was probably less than  5 seconds. in fact most of my biggest catches were like that. over before i even realized what happened.

not that im complaining but i always envisioned one of those long fights with a huge bass with her jumping and fighting like crazy. 

[buzzed bait]

just a few months back, about 11AM on a bluebird day.  tossed a siebert brush head jig with a homemade skirt at an isolated brush pile in about 8 feet of water.  fish took it on the fall, i didn't really feel it but saw my line swimming off and swung for the fences.

[Senko lover]

Slow, very hooot day of few bites. I switched to a desperation technique of dragging a texas rig super slowly over the logs in the area I was fishing. It was  painful fishing. Thought I was hung up, and then the line started moving. I never got a good hookset on her, and the hook came out when I grabbed the mouth. 

You know it's a big fish when your whole fist and part of your arm can fit inside her mouth!

[00 mod]

One of the hottest days of my life, seriously!  I think it was 105 out that day and it was around 11am.  Humidity was at or near 100%.  I was the very start of the rainy season in Sinaloa Mexico.  We were fishing the world famous Lake Baccarac for our first time ever. I believe it was our 3rd day there.  We were tired and worn out, but wouldn't stop!  We fished as much as we could and it paid off! 

We were deep cranking 20+ foot cranks over underwater humps in 35-50 FOW.  The specific target were the tree tops that were 15-25 foot tall. The bass were suspending in them and the best way to catch them was to burn a deep crank through the top and elicit a strike. It was a Bomber BDF8 in Dance's citrus shad that did the trick for me.  we were casting as far as we possibly could, and it was the first tree I hit.  She hit like a freight train and headed straight for the top.  She jumped twice on the way in, despite my best efforts.  Once in the net, I thought she was 12.  Just a big fat, thick all the way to the tail girl! 

I think about that catch all the time, and even though I have come close 4 other times, I still haven't topped that July 19th, 2012 girl!

Jeff

[benzmech]

I caught my pb in February while in a trout fishing tournament. It was about 5pm and i was fishing a large flat area. used an ultra light shimano rod and a small okuma reel. I was throwing a drop shot with 4lb fc line, small trout worm hook and a bright pink lip ripper trout worm. I must have dragged that thing right on top of her bed and really ticked her off. I just thought I had a huge trout at first. Then I saw it jump out of the water. Biggest bass I had ever seen! People on shore were yelling at me to be careful and not break it off.....well yeah, that was my plan. After about 10 min finally got her in the net and to the dock scales. 12.1 lbs!!! I couldn't believe it. I eased her back in to the water so I could try and catch her when she is 14 lbs. 

[OCdockskipper]

6 hours ago, Keith "Hamma" Hatch said:

...we finally get a look at her, I say "Holy S&$#!!!" ...

That reaction, those exact words, is universal for anyone the first time they see a really big headed bass breach the surface.  

[MassYak85]

First time (I've caught two the exact same weight) was towards the tail end of the spawn, in a channel that leads out of a cove that they spawn in. Wacky rigged Stick-O right in the middle of the channel. 

Second time was pre-spawn, in a flat that we expected them to move up and spawn on, but we hadn't seen or caught a bass all day besides a few dinks that were 6 inches off the bank in some thick brush. Made a long cast to the side of the flat nearest where it drops into a deeper channel, swimjig with a paddle tail trailer. 

Both fish were 5.40 exactly

[WRB]

March 3, 1993 Lale Castaic.

I had taken the week off to fish during pre spawn at lake Castaic. Had a really good Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday the 3rd was forecast for rain and knew it was going to be a good day for a potential world record bass. 

The crawdad anglers like Crupi were already on the water anchored down on the well known spots in the fish arm, only a few boats on the ski arm where I planned to fishing it was a light rain and light wind.

It was around 9 o'clock that I decided to try a spot called the old folks home and already caught 3 good bass earlier had a good idea at what depth and structure these bass were located on.

I like to start outside a good spot and work quietly into casting position, no other boats today with so could take my time. The wind had picked up somewhat and was casting cross wind requiring up wind cast from where you want the lure to end up and this also creates some additional slack line. Made the 40 yard cast, picked up the slack line with the rod held low waited for my jig to hit bottom and realized it stopped so I cranked the reel fast and set the hook. The bass came up and jumped completely out of the water, very unusual for giant bass in 18'-20' of water. Because this bass jumped I didn't at first think it was over 12 lbs. The fish came up and made a head shaking jump this time about 50' away and looked over 20 lbs. Now I am talking to myself to calm down, take it easy this could be the fish. After putting the giant bass in the boat she weighed on my scale close to 20 lbs. Filled the livewell, put the bass in and went to the marina to get a formal weight. The marina didn't have a certified  scale! Put the boat on the trailer  and drove to the mini mart, who did have a certified scale and weighed the bass at 19.3 lbs and disappointed it wasn't over 20. Drove back to the marina and released the bass.

Never caught my 20 and looking back very fortunate to catch the 19.3 lbs PB

Black/purple/brown hair 7/16 oz jig with barn red custom Super Pork 4" trailer, 12# Big Game, custom Lamiglas rod, Diawa TD 103HA reel.

Tom

[GORDO]

My PB largemouth, I wish I had a picture of it. I have a terrible history with phone as a teenager. I caught it bank fishing at the bottom of Watts Bar Dam on lake Chicamauga on a black and blue jig(idk what brand) but it weighed 7lbs on the dot! I cant remember the day but i know it was in june because it was on the new pole my dad got me for my bday. 

My PB smallie out of Long Lake, WA last summer.I caught it in 33 foot of water at the bottom of a steep rock drop off. It was on a War Eagle 1/2oz heavy finesse jig with a rage tail structure bug as the trailer. I knew it was giant when I set hook and my drag slipped! Battled it for 5 mins to get it close to the boat. When it came to the surface and i saw it jump me and my buddy freaked out, we knew it was a trophy smallie. I end up landing it and put her on the scale. 6.16 on the digital. Hands down one of the best feelings i have ever experienced in my life. Thats what fishing is all about. 

[GORDO]

I know this isnt a bass but I caught my PB northern pike this year in March on Long Lake, WA from the bank. I was throwing a firetiger husky jerk size 14 on a MH7' rod with 40lb braid and no leader. I know Im reckless sometimes but I didnt have a leader and it was that time of the year. Regardless, it was about 10' of water with weeds on the bottom, perfect spawning habitat. I threw it out there, cranked it down to its depth and paused for about 30 seconds. Gave it a twitch, 30 second pause and as soon as I was about to twitch it again my line just starts screaming to the right. I knew it was big just because of how heavy it felt. It was like i was hung on a log that was going with the river current! We get it to the bank after 15 mins and I see the size of this thing and my heart just starts pounding! It slashed us all so good when it turned to run again, I was frozen but whatever, more than worth wet pants to hold this giant. 42" 22.23lbs 

splashed** it did not slash us lol although its teeth could be considered knives. 

[jr231]

@GORDO cool stories man. Nice pike too. I'd have got in the water too ! What baffles me is how on earth do you have dark brown hair and a bright red beard. Lol. I bet you get that alot. 

[GORDO]

@Yeajray231 lol when I was a kid i had red hair but after moving to Washington state, spending 6 months out of the year under a gloomy sky has changed the color of my hair! but my irish beard, freckles and beer drinking habits still remain strong!