How did you catch your PB? Detailed account, story time

[Alec McMillan]

It was August of last year. I was 15 and it was 100 degrees. I went to a relatively large pond that I had never fished before and I found a creek area that looked pretty juicy. I threw a black and blue chatterbait with a biospawn exoswim trailer. First cast got nailed within 2 feet of the bank. Set the hook really hard, fought her for a minute, and eventually lipped her and got her on the bank. I was freaking out, the biggest bass I had ever caught before that was a six pounder, and this shattered my old PB. I weighed her on my scale and she turned out to be 10 pounds and 4 ounces. I still can't believe to this day that a ten pounder was sitting in less than a few feet of water in summer, and that I caught it first cast in a completely new pond. To this day I have only caught 2 other fish out of that pond. Crazy experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Hopefully I can break it one day   

[N Florida Mike]

Caught mine when I was 19 years old. It was the last day of the year. Warm and windy as I recall. I had not had a bite all morning. Around 11:00 I made a perfect cast that the wind took and just missed the edge of a stand of cattails, landing 1-2 feet from the bank in a slightly deeper little hole, 3-4 feet deep. I remember saying out loud " Bill Dance makes a perfect cast " And thinking It was such a good cast I ought to catch a good fish there. It was kind of a protected little cove formed by the cattails on either side. I was using a grape Mann's Jelly worm. Felt the tap, set the hook, and the fight was on. She tried to jump but could only get head and shoulders out of the water. The fish fought left, right, left , right as I got her closer with each run. Finally lipped her and couldn't believe It. Based on 3 sorry scales and length , the fish was 8 1/2 to 9 pounds. 

An interesting side note is that my son caught his 2 biggest within 30-40 feet of the same spot as mine.  His biggest One was almost exactly the same size as my pb. Caught almost 40 years later.!

The pic is my son's 2nd biggest , which was 8.2.

[WRB]

I suggested searching the site for personal best and thought that would be easier then recounting something over and over. I treid the search this morning and with 572 pages decided that wasn't practical. Glenn started a show your personal best thread in 2011 that has lots of stories and photos so search 19.3 lb bass" under  "what's your personal best" and it's all there. 

Tom 

[superkamikazee]

Caught my PB 4.5 lb'r on a 4" senko wacky rigged, skipped it under a low hanging tree. The leaves and limbs were only 1-2' above the water, but over hanging the water a good 5'. Small lake, a lot of vegetation and muck on the surface with pockets of open water. Sun was out after being overcast and sprinkling rain all morning, 6pm, skipped the senko under the tree and let it sink. Didn't even feel or see the line move, I just checked for tension and the senko would not budge. So I set the hook and the fight was on. Caught on a 15 year old 2 pc 6' ugly stik, medium action, had the rod bent in half lol. 

 

[CrankFate]

Disney World guided fishing. September 2001. Desolate river area near the now closed and removed Disney Institute and what is now Disney Springs. Trolling live shiners 1-2 boat widths from the bank. Missed a few massive hits on my ultralight JDM Rods that I just got as a gift. No they were not set up right. The guide insisted I use one of his properly rigged rods after the several massive bites broke my line before the hookset, because the trip was almost over and it was too hot out. Bam! 30 seconds later, monster bass. It was big enough to easily swallow a house cat or small dog whole.

 

Any other big bass (about half the size of my PB) I ever caught, was on a worm, either real or rubber, rigged various ways, right up against the bank—but never an actual Senko.

[Bluebasser86]

On 6/20/2019 at 4:35 AM, Dwbassin said:

That’s great and all, but we are talking about a Mexican bass, unless I missed it I need a weight cause I know they’re monstrous

It was 10lbs 2ozs and, believe it or not, extremely skinny. My guide said it would have been a 13 or 14 pound fish it hadn't been so thin. 

[Brandon O'tinger]

Mine was last Monday. while I said in my original post I used a live shad, I actually used live bluegill. I had several encounters with it a few days prior where it had stolen bluegill from me that I had set the hook on and was reeling in. So last Monday I decided to catch a bluegill to hook up and see if I could get it to strike again.  I did so and had it hooked just after 2:30 that day, sadly as i tried to hoist it over the dock railing, the line broke. About an hour and a half later, it miraculously returned and took another swipe at a bluegill I was reeling in. So I caught another one and threaded it on my Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6000 reel/Abu Garcia Vigalante 2.0 7 foot medium rod. It absolutely slammed that one, and this time I made sure to loosen the drag a bit and worked it around the back of the dock, through the grass and over to the bank where I lipped her. I was as stoked.  I got her weighed(4 and a half pounds) and snapped a picture, held her like a wwe championship belt. and walked over to the boat launch where I revived her and released her.

[Dwbassin]

On 6/23/2019 at 12:48 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

It was 10lbs 2ozs and, believe it or not, extremely skinny. My guide said it would have been a 13 or 14 pound fish it hadn't been so thin. 

Wow you’re not kidding that is a skinny 10 pounder, never thought I’d say that. The head gives away how big it truly is

[Dwbassin]

Well guys I found a place we’re my pb will more than likely be broken. I caught a 4.75 on a soft plastic swimbait after going through the motions. Stuck with that and hooked one, she peeled around for 3 minutes. Saw her multiple times and didn’t bring my net. Between 6 to 7 pounds she was, shook me of cause I was pulling her up and she shot up and gave me a head shake. I was told this place has multiple 7 plus pounders caught and a 9 or 2. Not a heavy bass population and good forage and lots of cover so I’ll report back when the pb is busted lol

[BubbaBassin’]

On 6/19/2019 at 11:23 AM, Catt said:

February 3rd 2007 was a nasty cold morning with Northwest winds at 15-20 mph, a slight misty rain falling, and temperatures in the middle 30's. After having launched out of Jack's 944 Marina I made the short (2 minutes) run to the mouth of Bull creek trying to stay out of the wind and some what warm. Having rounded the corner I dropped the trolling motor, picked up my Rat-L-Trap rod again with the thought in mind of keeping moving and staying warm. My third cast was into the mouth a cut leading to a boat shed which I knew had stumps on the west side, after turning the handle 4 or 5 time my trap stopped solid, I tell Pat d**n to close to the stumps so I push the trolling motor handle towards the mouth of the cut while stepping on the switch. At the exact same instance my line starts zinging towards deeper water rod all bowed up & drag slipping; I immediately scream at Pat get the net. By now the boat is moving off to my left the bass is moving off to my right and I'm nearly on my knees in front of the console with the upper third of the rod in the water. Pat net in hand is now on the front deck killed the trolling motor and with a swift motion netted the hawg; which ends up weighing in at 12 pounds 8 ounces.

Honestly came here looking for your story. Was not disappointed.

[CI-200Bantam]

My personal best largemouth came out of Marsh Creek Lake in SE PA a few years ago. Scorching hot day in mid-August, perfectly clear water (we were in a drought at the time) where you could see all the weeds and fish slipping around 15-20 feet below the keel of our boat. Dad and I had caught a couple bass up 2lbs that morning on crankbaits and minnow baits, but nothing was biting after about 10AM. Right around lunch-time we're fishing a deep weed bed with jigs and I switch to a spinnerbait with orange and yellow in the skirt to mimic a yellow perch. After fishing that for a bit, I toss the spinner behind our boat and prop the rod on the floor and under the corner of the cleat in the back corner of our boat and sit down for a drink, trolling the spinner slowly cause we're cruising along the weed bed with the trolling motor running. As soon as I open my water bottle, the rod bucks like the bait locked up on a log and the drag starts running. I dive for the rod to make sure it doesn't go in the drink and fight the 6+ lbs bass that engulfed the spinnerbait, keeping it hooked after several jumps and tailwalks. As soon as it got to the boat Dad netted her and we both started shouting we were so excited!

[moguy1973]

I’ll have to update mine. Caught my new PB largemouth yesterday out of the same pond my previous one came from.  This one was 5.20lbs. Thought it was much smaller when it hit my wacky rigged senko but then it surfaced and then ran like a freight train to and under dock I was fishing from.  Didn’t want to come out but finally my wife was able to net it.