Labor Day Weekend, a New PB, and a N. WI Mega Bag!

[WIGuide]

Usually I tend to stay off the water on the busy holidays, but fortunately for me, the weather was projected as iffy all weekend which kept a lot of crazy people away from the lake. Had a pretty decent weekend of fishing, the passing fronts had them tuned up a bit and had a blast with dad catching our share of northerns and bass, including a few nice ones. Given that the lake our cabin is on is still in rebound from a die off roughly 6 years ago it was good to see the numbers coming back along with some size as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

That was great, but Labor Day itself turned out to be one for my record books. The day also coincided with my aunt's birthday. She enjoys fishing, so I decided to take her out on a lake that's been on fire to have some fun hoping for her to hook into some good fish. She did get a few, but in the meantime, I managed to put together quite a bag of fish. I wasn't catching the numbers I'm normally used to there, but every other spot I'd pull up on, we'd work for a while and I'd smoke a good one cranking. It was later in the day after we had went up shallow in hopes of her getting a little more action, when I decided to hit a small hump not too far away. I caught my smallest keeper right away, and then had a giant engulfed my crankbait a few casts later. When I first hooked into her, I actually thought it was a little one. Not much of a pull, not much of a hit like the others I'd caught that day and just some small head shakes. However, about a quarter of the way back to the boat she decided to come up. Despite jamming my rod tip down into the water almost the whole body came out of the water and after that the fight was on. She started pulling like a freight train coming up and jumping at least one more time. My heart had just about stopped as bass very very rarely reach that size in northern Wisconsin. Between the battle and my aunt freaking out in the back of the boat I was beside myself at what was going on. I was just praying that she'd stay on. With my aunt having somewhat limited mobility, I was left to battle and land it myself. Luckily, I was able to get the net under her and get her up in the boat. Fighting this fish I knew it was big...but being up close with it, it started to set in just how big this bass was. I had the shakes pretty bad and my whole body just about felt like jello, but I had put keeper #5 in the boat...my kicker and it tipped the scales at 7.34 lbs bringing my days total to 21.73 lbs. I could have fished slightly longer, but we decided to head in a little early to get some good pictures not only of the fish, but my limit as well. I almost wish I would have stayed out a bit longer as I feel like I could have made another cull to put me into a minimum of the 22 lb range and the way the day was going...maybe even higher. Days don't get much better than that around here, but it was a blast and some great memories were made! Not a day I'll soon forget. All fish were released to be caught again another day, but I've got the measurements to eventually get a reproduction made. 

Link to the whole bag --> https://www.facebook.com/michael.mudgett.9/videos/10214557160715206/

 

 

 

[CroakHunter]

Great fish and great write up. Looks like a good time. Especially being out there with your family. 

[long island basser]

A great day there. Congrats and enjoy the high!

[Derek1]

Great fish and I might have you write up my stories from now on lol. 

[WIGuide]

6 hours ago, CroakHunter said:

Great fish and great write up. Looks like a good time. Especially being out there with your family. 

 

5 hours ago, long island basser said:

A great day there. Congrats and enjoy the high!

 

5 hours ago, Derek1 said:

Great fish and I might have you write up my stories from now on lol. 

It was a blast of a weekend, and for sure a blast of a day! Thanks for the positive vibes! Haha Derek, it might be a little harder writing yours for you without having the first hand experience but I could try

[WIGuide]

A few pics of the total bag in case you missed the video link.

[A-Jay]

Way to Go MM !

Congrats on the great Bag & the New PB.

A True Northern Giant

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

[lonnie g]

wow! what a tank! congrats on the great weekend and the p.b. it truly doen't get any better than that, being with family is truly great. 

[CassLaw]

That’s a beautiful fish and a bag to be very proud of! More than that the description of your day made me feel how excited you were...are! It’s great to near a great story and see beautiful fish like that! 

[Dwight Hottle]

PB's are always sweet especially when you can enjoy them with family. 

[tkunk]

A 7-pound largemouth in WI is freaking awesome. Congrats, man!

[WIGuide]

5 hours ago, CassLaw said:

That’s a beautiful fish and a bag to be very proud of! More than that the description of your day made me feel how excited you were...are! It’s great to near a great story and see beautiful fish like that! 

Glad the emotion came through and you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words!

 

3 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

PB's are always sweet especially when you can enjoy them with family. 

No doubt! My aunt was freaking out while I was fighting it more than I was! I was hoping she'd hook into a few nice ones too especially since it was her birthday, but she ended up having a blast and got to see a good show!

2 hours ago, portiabrat said:

A 7-pound largemouth in WI is freaking awesome. Congrats, man!

Thanks! They definitely aren't common up here! Where in WI are you from?

[shimmy]

Dude, that is a giant for Wisconsin!!! Well done. Hard earned. One of these days we will have to head out!

[WIGuide]

On 9/8/2018 at 10:05 PM, shimmy said:

Dude, that is a giant for Wisconsin!!! Well done. Hard earned. One of these days we will have to head out!

Haha thank you! We will have too get out. Too bad I didn't know a month or so ago, I had been living in Oshkosh for almost a year so pretty much in your backyard.