What's your most memorable bass?

[A-Jay]

4 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Beautiful fish and great stories everyone!   

I could never pick a single fish, to me any fish over about 8lbs is a story and memory deserving of my favorite.     

Little surprised by the overwhelming amount of LMB being posted.   Even the  Menderchunk Mastro chose a big ole Gina 😁 

 

Agreed , it's tough to pick just one if there's a few to choose from.

But you've shamed me into it . . . . . 

My PB brown bass was over 7 lbs and came in 2017.

However I landed one this past April (2024) that was also over 7lb (just barely).

Perhaps I'm a prisoner of the moment but . . . . .

The wind was pretty stiff (one reason I went to this Lake Menderchuck).

I had already landed a bunch of plus sized bass but when this one struck my jerkbait

and I felt her weight, I went into 'Auto Big Fish Mode'. 

Most of the time these bites aren't bass. 

Despite not knowing for sure, I really took my time bringing her to the boat.

Was especially hard not to get over excited but I managed to keep my cool.

Once she was on deck, I was pretty pumped.

Be a while before I forget this one.

A-Jay

[MonsterZero]

My mother worked various nursing jobs when I was growing up. Sometimes hospice, sometimes nursing homes, sometimes home visits, etc. At one point when I was about 9, maybe 10, she was working with an older couple who lived on a private lake whose real name I still do not know. But she worked it out with the couple that during the summer, my brother and I could fish from their dock, provided we did not make a nuisance of ourselves and did not leave hooks on the dock. We were meticulous about littering, so no worries there.

 

One day in particular, we were getting ready to pack it in, and I was about to reel my line in. I was sitting cross legged on the dock with my rod straight up, nightcrawler on the other end, chatting with my brother. Out of nowhere, the rod bent once, then doubled over. I set the hook, started the fight, and eventually landed a (for the time) good sized bass. No idea how much it actually weighed, but to a 10 year old it was pretty big. I remember pulling the hook out of the roof of its mouth and it was hardly even hooked; it had bent the hook in the fight, and the barbs were not even in it anymore.

 

I hope I never forget that one.

[Pat Brown]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

my PB at Castiac in ‘93 was a amazing bass for power and it’s jumped clear out of the water after hooking about 100’ away. The big girl looked like maybe 12 lbs at a distance. This bass then ran towards the boat then under it and out the opposite side running another 100’,  I knew it was a bass because it jump but fought like a big stripe bass. When I hand landed this bass it looked like a record to me and very exited. 19.3 lbs see my avatar.

Tom

 

 

Tom if the lists I have pulled up are mostly correct you might just have caught one of the top 20 bass ever caught!  🏆🏆🏆 

 

That's quite an achievement sir.

[Bankbeater]

Mine would be my first jig bass.  I had been learning to fish with a jig all season.  I had gotten some bites, but was unable to get any hook ups.  I cast over near some water willows and felt a solid thud.  The bass wasn't very large, but it was an accomplishment.

[Dwight Hottle]

 

My most memorable smallmouth is my current PB at 7.47 or 7lb-7 3/4 oz. My buddy didn't want to go that day because it was supposed to rain & be cold and he preferred to go to the casino instead. So I fished without him & was really happy with the outcome. His luck at the casino sucked & it was a short trip for him. When I got back I asked him how the casino trip went and he said not very good. That's when I told him I got a new PB & showed him the pictures. I think I said something about his luck might have been better if he fished instead. 

 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Dwight Hottle said:

 

My most memorable smallmouth is my current PB at 7.47 or 7lb-7 3/4 oz. 

Just such a crazy Huge & Thick smallmouth !

If you added one single inch to it's length,

it would probably be close to 10 lbs.

A-Jay

 

[DogBone_384]

My most memorable bass is my next personal best...

[Swamp Girl]

No way would it be my PB. She wouldn't even crack my top five because she was a wimp. My PB was a pregnant lady.

 

Perhaps the bass pictured below. I've caught longer, thicker, and heavier bass, but she was as difficult to land as the best of the bigger bass. I caught her in a narrow river choked with weeds. I hooked her in the night. I was alone. She ricocheted off mid-channel weeds and then ran for reeds and if she'd reached them, she would have freed herself as they nearly all do. So, I stabbed in her direction with my long-handled net, as she was pulling my canoe into the reeds too, and caught her right before she reached freedom. Even then, she was dripping weeds. She was also a perfect specimen. 

 

[LrgmouthShad]

Without a doubt, this dandy from a tiny NY reservoir I used to bank fish all the time. The reservoir is deep, clear, and rocky without much cover to speak of. I planned where and how I would catch this fish. A warm front hit the state mid-march of 2022. The reservoir thawed and got to a temp of 50 degrees fast. I hit the tail end of the long warm front when I returned from a spring break. The day I selected to fish was heavily overcast with light wind. I like these conditions for a prespawn single bladed spinnerbait bite. The water was so clear, I figured I had to wait until it was nearly sunset to get the optimal darkness to fool the larger bass with a spinnerbait in that clear water. I fished a jig for a couple hours prior and caught small fish. Then, as soon as it neared sunset, I brought out a spinnerbait I had recently built. It was a zorro short arm with a black lumaflex skirt with blue tinsel and a discontinued Zorro metallic blue blade. I've since lost this spinnerbait. I got the parts from an old-timer. It was one of the best spinnerbaits I've ever used. I started throwing this freak spinnerbait around a large overhanging tree where I knew that bass or one similar would move up to to stay protected from preying birds. It wasn't long before that fish bit not too far from the bank. The fish jumped three times before I hauled it up on land. A few people walking the street came by to congratulate me and one took my photo. Weighed just over 6lbs... good bass for up North but unlike some of the freaks I've seen on here.

[12poundbass]

I have plenty of memorable bass I have caught over the years, from my first bass to my PB. None of them compare to my son’s first bass. Unfortunately, I can’t find the picture at the moment.
 

Another one though was this one. It was a team effort. My wife, son, and I were bridge fishing one day. I went back to the truck to grab a Senko for my wife. My son, 8 at the time, decided to grab my baitcaster which he didn’t know how to use, and decided to cast it. He gets a bite, sets the hook, and the fight is on! He quickly struggles to reel it in so my wife decides to help. The bass is jumping like crazy, she gets excited, and chaos ensues! She can’t reel it up to the top of the bridge so I come over and take it from her, let line out, and I go running down to the bank to land the fish. We all had a good laugh and walked away with a good story.

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

18 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

We all had a good laugh and walked away with a good story.

 

That is a good story, a family affair.

 

50 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Weighed just over 6lbs... good bass for up North but unlike some of the freaks I've seen on here.

 

It's comparable to a nine-pound-plus Southern bass, so it is a freak.

[papajoe222]

Although not my biggest, the first one to come to mind was about 49yrs. ago on my first trip to Table Rock. I had been doing good the two previous days, but hadn't boated any over 3lb, so I headed out of the tributary we were camped on and down the main channel about three miles. I spotted just off fish breaking where the channel swung close to shore. I'd read about targeting fish below the feeding frenzy, so I cast a 1/2oz. jig with a single tail grub and counted it down. When I got to 19, I lost contact with the jig. I began reeling as fast as I could to recover the slack in my line and set the hook on a solid 5lb. bass. She was the first of seven bass I boated before the feeding frenzy ended. They were all in the 20in. range. I didn't bother to waste time weighing them.  I've been back to Table Rock many times since then, but never experienced that again.  That first fish ignited my passion for fishing deeper water.

[Swamp Girl]

26 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

I began reeling as fast as I could to recover the slack in my line and set the hook on a solid 5lb. bass. She was the first of seven bass I boated before the feeding frenzy ended. They were all in the 20in. range.

 

That sounds sooooooo exciting. I love hooking more than one big bass on a trip.

[VTFan]

My new PB caught last August while fishing with my brother. 8 lbs 8 oz, 23" long. Here in Virginia that's citation on length and weight.

[Columbia Craw]

My most memorable bass was eleven inches long.  My best friend, who I lost almost three years ago, had a son, Ryan. Ryan had MS and was wheel chair bound and had limited use of his arms and hands.  Ryan wanted to go bass fishing so bad.

 

Rick and I set a date and we went to my home lake here in Washington. Rick is pictured on my avatar.  We lift Ryan after securing him in a zip and strap Mustang. This was huge because it supported Ryan in an upright position.  I secured Ryan’s chair on the back deck with tie downs.

 

We fished after a long easy ride around and I helped Ryan cast a Senko.  He/we got a bite and we set the hook. Ryan gave his all to reel and together we got it to the boat.  Rick lipped Ryan’s personal best bass which was 11 inches.  Rick took copious amounts of pictures.  We whooped and yelled in excitement. Ryan, in his Ranger hat, was giddy.  Rick caught a couple small fish before Ryan was too tired to stay out longer.  We tied up at the resort, moved chair and angler back on shore to have a soda and relive the experience. Ryan left us four years later. Rick began wearing Ryan’s blue and yellow Ranger hat.  I lost Rick a while back. I have the Ranger hat they wore.  That is my most memorable bass by far.

[BassKat]

@Columbia Craw Your story was the one this thread really needed. Thanks for sharing. A lot of good work could be done in the fishing realm with kids such as Ryan. 

[Swamp Girl]

@Columbia Craw: Thank you.

[TheSwearingAngler]

Saw this thread the other day and just got around to coming back to post… read Columbia Craw’s post and no longer think my most memorable fish is even close to as special. Thank you CC for being a kind individual, not enough of that anymore.

[Bucks Bass and Bourbon]

My first smallmouth experience growing up in northeast Wisconsin. Bay de Noc, northern Michigan walleye fishing with my dad at the mouth of the Escanaba River as a kid. Felt the familiar tick on my ultralight rod and when I set the hook the drag started ripping off like a bat outta hell and before I realized what was going on it jumped at what in my 12 year old’s mind was a mile away then *snap* and it was over. I stood there stunned until my dad looked over and said “Well that was probably a big smallmouth.” 
I didn’t even know what a smallmouth was. I will never forget that. Now I’m in my 40s and smallmouth is all I think about. I live in central Michigan and want to go back and find that spot sometime.