Time/place you caught your PB

[slonezp]

Last week of March 2007. Kentucky Lake. 2fow with the lake at flood stage approx 8:00am. Was by far the best fishing trip I have ever made. with multiple 4's and 5's and 100 fish days. She was just under 7

Some of the little ones

[Cgolf]

I got my first and so far only 20" smallie late summer last year fishing a shallow stretch of river in 2-4 fow. She hit a pearl Ned rig that was allowed to bounce along the rocks. Pretty ho hum catch until I recognized the fish, it has a very distinct mouth. I first caught this fish 7 years ago as my first fly rod smallie, so she got 2 firsts for me. Released her to hopefully catch her at least once more. 

While 20" isn't a monster for some waters, it is for this river, get quite a few in the 17-18' range, but took 10 years to get a 20".

 

[CrustyMono]

13 hours ago, Keith "Hamma" Hatch said:

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.

Was this at Quabbin Reservoir, I really want to go there and do you have a picture?

[Bluebasser86]

It was January or February at Lake Comendero, MX. It was probably 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I was actually finished with my cast and she chased my lizard to the boat and caught it on the fall when I started releasing line to let the bait sink again. 

[Chowderhead]

May 1986 - SE Massachusetts. Small pond, fishing from the bank, using a 7" Rapala minnow in a complete downpour. Only fish I caught that day. Weighed in at 7 pounds 3 ounces on certified scale about an hour after catch. Unfortunately, I have not caught anything close to that size since. After nearly a 20 year absence from fishing, I am hoping to turn that around. 

["hamma"]

11 hours ago, CrustyMono said:

Was this at Quabbin Reservoir, I really want to go there and do you have a picture?

No, it was in a South Shore lake, and we got no pic. Ironically,.. we did have a camera with us, but, I think we were both in shock because we didnt even think of a pic, till we were on the 2 hour drive home, and I caught it early in the day. I lived in Peabody back then.

[CrustyMono]

5 hours ago, Keith "Hamma" Hatch said:

No, it was in a South Shore lake, and we got no pic. Ironically,.. we did have a camera with us, but, I think we were both in shock because we didnt even think of a pic, till we were on the 2 hour drive home, and I caught it early in the day. I lived in Peabody back then.

Cool! and i believe you, thats a big fish too!

[Airman4754]

On 9/2/2016 at 11:53 AM, OCdockskipper said:

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

When you go to use your thumb to grab it and flip your hand over and use all four fingers instead! 

[Looking for the big one]

On 9/1/2016 at 9:16 PM, riverbasser said:

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) 

Do you fish the Chattahoochee often? How big do the bass get in there?

[riverbasser]

1 hour ago, Looking for the big one said:

Do you fish the Chattahoochee often? How big do the bass get in there?

All the time and as my story goes biggest I've caught is a 6 pounder. I know a few other older skilled anglers that have fished the hooch there whole lives and they havent caught anything much bigger in the past 5 years. There have been some close to 10 caught around the dam but nothing in awhile. My only explanation Is bad management and overcrowding bass population

[bigbill]

It was about 5/5:30 am at twilite. The sky was just starting to light up, still dusk. The time of morning makes me think of Louie Armstrong's what a wonderful world. I was at a man made dam on a larger lake. There is a road at the first man made drop off. Before the large dam. The shoreline drops off. The weeds were submerged. I made a long cast  parallel two feet from shore. I reeled in the bait slowly the ripped it out of the deadline into the channel then the big gal hit it. As I brought her to the shoreline in the channel I was in shock I never seen a bass this large. What a big bass. My scale read 10 lbs.

Rod Shakespeare 6' med.

Reel Wal-Mart quantum

Line 8lb Excalibur Silver Thread Copolymer.

Lure, rebel BIGCLAW CRAWFISH dives 10' in green/chartruece.

I was happy catching drinks to 6lbers. I was happy with smaller bass. I feel this big bass has cursed me. Now I know the new state record is within reach. But I don't want to report where I caught it and see the place hammered. Ill just report it here but won't I'd the place