Largest fish I've ever seen.

[Bird]

Rephrase, largest bass I've ever seen while fishing.

 

Today was a day we set aside to simply fill the live well.

Using nightcrawlers we caught large bluegill, yellow perch and channel catfish.

 

I caught a very large bluegill and during the fight on ultralight tackle I felt a big thump. 

A giant largemouth had my bluegill in it's mouth and he surfaced right at the boat before our eyes.

We were amazed at the size, we both guessed 11 - 12 lbs.

He surfaced again and spit the bluegill which is already filleted.

 

This was only a 38 acre lake but obviously houses at least 1 very large fish.

[ironbjorn]

Better start fishing with live gills.

[LonnieP]

I had the exact same thing happen about 20 years ago. Probably a 12 pounder. I’ll never forget it

[GreenPig]

Nice! That'll get your blood pumping. They just love to surprise you.

[Alex from GA]

While fishing a pond with my buddy he caught a huge bass and I lipped it for him.  A couple of years later he caught what we think was the same fish only now it was larger.  It was in the same place in the pond.  Way over 10.  I could put both fists in her mouth.  

[Ski]

[Captain Phil]

Years ago I was fly fishing on the St. John's River.  I hung a small bass about 10 inches long on a popping bug. The bass was back in some weeds.  When I pulled the bass over the weeds, a huge bass grabbed my fish.   I saw the fish and it was well over ten pounds, probably closer to 12.   The big bass fought me up to the side of the boat, then let go of my fish and swam off.  I've seen this happen more than once.  Once with a mud fish on the line as bait.

[Bird]

56 minutes ago, Ski said:

Very similar scenario except was not able to land the bass.

Thanks for sharing.

[gim]

I've had that up here with muskies and heard of it happening in Canada with large northern pike.  I've had about a 15 inch walleye on and a 50+ inch muskie t-boned it boat side.  It really sends the blood pressure upwards.

 

At least now you got the address of that monstrosity @Bird and being that its only 58 acres, even better.

[Swamp Girl]

I love these stories! I once fishing for eater yellow perch on a hump in Lake Michigan and my hooked perch suddenly stopped. I thought maybe it had hooked the bottom of the boat, so I looked over the side and into the eyes of a monster pike. Yikes! He pike released my catch and sank back into the black.

[Dwight Hottle]

I have experienced a big pike that T-boned a good size pike over double digits & then proceeded to pull drag like crazy. Never got to see it before dropping the bait but really wished I did. These experiences certainly keeps our interest.  

[gim]

7 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I have experienced a big pike that T-boned a good size pike

Large pike are essential in many bodies of water here because they are often the apex predator in the absence of muskies. We’ve over harvested them for too long and now we’re stuck with lakes that are full of small aggressive snot rockets because there’s no big ones left to help keep the smaller ones in check. They are indeed cannibalistic.

 

The MN DNR started realizing this problem before it was too late about 20 years ago. I was an intern for them back then and doing surveys on small lakes that were considering a slot restriction on pike.

 

It takes a northern pike about 15 years to reach 35-40 inches here. Removing just one or two per season in a small lake isn’t sustainable. It’s going to take another 20 years to fix the problem here.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve posted on here many times, bluegill is the main course every single day on small bodies of water and the bass are always bigger