New PB: The Sequel

[Swamp Girl]

24 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Thanks! I'm out of reactions, so I'm thanking you the old fashioned way: with words!

 

You and I have both had good fishing seasons!

[throttleplate]

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, @throttleplate!

[throttleplate]

Oh crap i am sorry, i accidenteley posed this on your PB post, iwill delete the contents and post on catch pic forums, sorry about this.

[gim]

@throttleplate I think you mistakenly posted this in the wrong thread. Did you intend to post it in the latest pics thread? This is ol’ crickety’s PB thread.

Just now, throttleplate said:

Oh crap i am sorry, i accidenteley posed this on your PB post, iwill delete the contents and post on catch pic forums, sorry about this.

The photo police is coming’ for ya!

[Swamp Girl]

14 minutes ago, gimruis said:

@throttleplate I think you mistakenly posted this in the wrong thread. Did you intend to post it in the latest pics thread? This is ol’ crickety’s PB thread.

The photo police is coming’ for ya!

 

Hair cop. Species cop. Photo cop. BR needs to hire some more cops! They're overworking you, man!

[J Francho]

I'm retired, and things have gone to hell. 
 

congrats on that mule

[Catt]

5 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

This year, I've landed six big bass at this morning's bog and lost five.

 

6 of 11! Dude that's pretty dang good!

 

Ya gonna lose some & that number will go down with experience!

[throttleplate]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Hair cop. Species cop. Photo cop. BR needs to hire some more cops! They're overworking you, man!

[Fishlegs]

Congrats!

[1984isNOW]

It's an honor even sharing internet space with you Katie, if you're still looking to adopt an older son I'm still available and I've updated my resume to include homemade pizza skills, small engine repair, and rides on my bike

 

[Pat Brown]

One thing I keep coming back to is that you caught that fish in Maine!!!!  And she's like completely spawned out.

 

You got your work cut out for you next spring/this fall when they are full.

 

A 7 lb largemouth up north is like a 12-15 lber down here.  That's a heck of an accomplishment.

[1984isNOW]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

 

A 7 lb largemouth up north is like a 12-15 lber down here.  That's a heck of an accomplishment.

Simultaneously encouraging and disheartening, I need to move

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

You got your work cut out for you next spring/this fall when they are full.

 

I caught a few of those full fish this past spring. If Tom Brady had caught them, he would have looked for valves to deflate them.*

 

*FWIW, I love Tom Brady. 

 

 

@T-Billy said that ^this^ bass cracks him up because she looks like she's astonished. She does, doesn't she? Her shape makes me chuckle. She came from a beaver dam and took line several times. I think she was astonished that I pulled her out of a mound of wood. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

It's an honor even sharing internet space with you Katie, if you're still looking to adopt an older son I'm still available and I've updated my resume to include homemade pizza skills, small engine repair, and rides on my bike

 

So kind and so funny!

 

I wrote in another thread that I'm taking a kid fishing tomorrow. He caught a four-pounder on our last outing. Fingers and toes crossed that he catches a five-pounder tomorrow. It's bog fishing, so I expect he'll hook one. Landing it is an entirely different proposition. He won't be alone, so that will increase his odds. As all solo paddlers know, it's hard to play a bass and net it too and impossible to position the canoe while playing the bass. I so envy guys in bass boats that don't rotate or get pulled into weeds when they're playing a bass. Of course, bass boats can't go where I go.

[GaryH]

Congratulations. Great job Katie…???

[MIbassyaker]

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

A 7 lb largemouth up north is like a 12-15 lber down here.  That's a heck of an accomplishment.

 

Here are some data that give perspective on the rarity of a 7-pounder in the North:

 

Michigan has a tournament registration and reporting system that releases data every year on catch results across the state: https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/fishing/fishing-tournament-information-system

 

While tournaments are of course only a small snapshot of bass fishing (e.g., not all waters, not all anglers fish tournaments, not all catches are weighed, etc.), the system gets a ton of data on many of the more popular waters, and we can use these data to see what our expectations for sizes should be for a reasonably-skilled angler. 

 

Looking at the summary reports over the last 4 years, 434,644 bass were weighed in tournaments, including 339961 (78%) Largemouth and 94682 (22%) Smallmouth. 

 

In weigh tournaments, average largest bass weighed was a high 3lb-er each year (3.77lb-3.9lb), while length tournaments the big bass was 18.56-18.85 inches.  18" or 3# is really a pretty a good fish up here!

 

A total of 16542 bass weighed were 4lb or 20 inches, or more.  That is, only 3.8% of the TOP 5 bass weighed/measured by anglers/teams in tournaments statewide were above the 4lb/20 inch mark.

 

And while there are a number of 6lbers reported each year, there were exactly 7 bass over 7lb, and 5 bass over 8lb .  That's 12 bass over 7lb, statewide, over 4 years, among 400k+ bass weighed, and who knows how many more caught.

 

And of course some of those larger fish were goby-stuffed smallmouth on St. Clair & the Great lakes, rather than inland largemouth. 

 

They don't exactly grow on trees!

[Blue Raider Bob]

23 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

If I were a Bass, I'd want to live in the areas you fish......your fish are always so pristine and healthy.    

No way Alex! If you were a bass living near Katie, your butt would be in the canoe!

And BR would be viewing your pictures! You'd be a lot safer living near me!

[Swamp Girl]

38 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

No way Alex! If you were a bass living near Katie, your butt would be in the canoe!

And BR would be viewing your pictures! You'd be a lot safer living near me!

 

I would be ever so gentle with Alex Bass. I'd get him back to breathing that good ol' bog water ASAP and slip him back into the water with all due gratitude.

 

1 hour ago, MIbassyaker said:

A total of 16542 bass weighed were 4lb or 20 inches, or more.  That is, only 3.8% of the TOP 5 bass weighed/measured by anglers/teams in tournaments statewide were above the 4lb/20 inch mark.

 

And while there are a number of 6lbers reported each year, there were exactly 7 bass over 7lb, and 5 bass over 8lb .  That's 12 bass over 7lb, statewide, over 4 years, among 400k+ bass weighed, and who knows how many more caught.

 

WHOA! They are rare. I think I had a seven-plus-pounder hooked twice this year. Those two bass felt larger and stronger than my five and six-plus-pounders. I hooked them both on a Stradic 4000 with 17-lb. braid and the drag tightened way down and they still took off running and didn't stop until they unbuttoned. A five-pounder couldn't budge that drag. I've since lightened the drag a lot so as not to provoke those big bass to apply their full power. I've returned to the two spots where I hooked them and my hair prickles as I cast. 

[Alex from GA]

Great fish.  I've been in FL for a bunch of winters and haven't caught a bass that big.  I was in Maine a few years ago fishing for smallmouth in my kayak but never thought of a LM near that size.  In one afternoon on a lake I caught a 3 lb LM, a smaller smallmouth and my first northern pike.  Great state with lots of fishing.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Alex from GA said:

Great fish.  I've been in FL for a bunch of winters and haven't caught a bass that big.  I was in Maine a few years ago fishing for smallmouth in my kayak but never thought of a LM near that size.  In one afternoon on a lake I caught a 3 lb LM, a smaller smallmouth and my first northern pike.  Great state with lots of fishing.

 

Thanks, Alex. It is a great state. It's going to be 52 degrees when I launch tomorrow morning. I'll paddle a winding river to the bog and only the otters, beavers, and my fishing buddy and me will be awake. Well, here's hoping the bass are awake too! I want my young fishing buddy (He's 11.) to catch his first five-pounder. 

[T-Billy]

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I would be ever so gentle with Alex Bass. I'd get him back to breathing that good ol' bog water ASAP and slip him back into the water with all due gratitude.

Uh Huh... You'd get him back to that good ol bog water... Right after you picked him up by the bottom lip and took a bunch of pictures of him hanging there naked, and then make him pose on a bump board for ya!!! THEN you'd put him back and rush home to post those pics on the interweb for all to see. 

Poor ol @AlabamaSpothunter bass. ?

[Swamp Girl]

21 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Uh Huh... You'd get him back to that good ol bog water... Right after you picked him up by the bottom lip and took a bunch of pictures of him hanging there naked, and then make him pose on a bump board for ya!!! THEN you'd put him back and rush home to post those pics on the interweb for all to see. 

Poor ol @AlabamaSpothunter bass. ?

 

OMG, you're right. However, if Alex were a bass, having read my posts, he'd know that a Whopper Plopper is the Devil's instrument and he'd convince a pickerel to clobber it, which doesn't take much convincing by the way, and then he'd sit back and laugh as the pickerel wriggled and thrashed and made me ever so miserable. 

[WRB]

Awsome bass Katie?keep on rising the bar!

Tom

[T-Billy]

Katie it just occured to me, your new PB just tops my PB of 6.63#. My Money's on you to up the ante again before I do, and I'd wager a good sum on it.

On 7/31/2023 at 11:09 AM, ol'crickety said:

 

Anyway, she's my third six-pounder+ this year, in addition to four five-pounders+ and 32 four-pounders+

LOL. That's so awesome. That's three or four really solid years for me. 

[Swamp Girl]

16 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

That's three or four really solid years for me. 

 

Tim, it's been the best year of my life. I'm amazed at my good fortune, both in living in a place where big bass are abundant and benefiting from the BR Brain Trust (TM). 

 

17 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

My Money's on you to up the ante again before I do, and I'd wager a good sum on it.

 

You know that I think I've twice hooked bass over seven pounds in 2023, based upon their pulling power. Landing such a fish is another story. So much has to go right for me to do that, such as the lure stays buttoned if they jump and they don't plow through lure-shedding weeds.