Ever lost such a big fish you just cant fish anymore for that day/week?

[RHuff]

I've read so many stories about guys who catch the bass of their life. Well it happened to me yesterday finally. I've been catching some solid fish this year in the 2-4lb range but have never caught a true mature 8lb or bigger bass. Yesterday evening I was out with my dad fishing a lake here in Southern WV. About an hour before dark we hit a large field of lilly pads that pretty much covered the entire north end of the lake. Neither one of us was having much luck so I decided to throw a Rapala jerkbait to slow down my presentation. Shortly after I caught a nice bass on the edge of the lillies in a break of the edge that weighed 3.2lbs. Big bodied bass pretty fish. Never got another bite so closer to dark I tied on a Castaic Boyd Duckett Walking Popper. I came to a long point in the lillies and made a perfect cast up into a corner and started walking the bait parallel to the lilly edge right down the line. On about the 4th twitch a big bass blew the bait up. It was the bite you dream of. I had my drag set tight and kept pressure on him because I knew if he went into the lilles I may not get him out (extremely thick). I got him almost to the boat and he darted back straight down to deep water again. I've been fishing for 25 years and I've never had a bass pull this hard. I got him up to the boat again and all I could see was his head and a tiny bit of hydrilla wrapped around his head. He was the by far the biggest fish I've ever hooked. My dad had the net and was going to help me get him up. When he got down to reach down the bass seen him and darted like a bat out of hell downward and snapped my line. I dropped the rod and went to my knees. Felt number for 15 minutes afterward. This bass was easily 7lbs and could have been larger. Not only did I lose my best fish, but I also lost my best lure..... Dad caught a bass 5lbs a couple of weeks ago and he said this bass was both longer and bigger around than his. I'm reallly struggling getting past this. I keep telling myself that I threw the right bait in the right situation to get hooked but it still doesn't make the what if feeling go away....

[EastNcBassin]

Update on my fish, I managed to get her to bite again (same bait, different time) as stated in the original post, the first time was at around 6:30. Sunday she bit again, but it was at around 10 pm I think I have narrowed down the times and place she feeds. (edit: I didn't catch her this time because she just missed the entire bait, she just blew up on it)

[RHuff]

At least she is there and you are still in the game my man. Keep it up . Good Work!