SLOOOOOW but new PB

[.dsaavedra.]

we had easter dinner at my aunts house and my dad and i brought the boat so we would fish. after dinner around 3:45 people started leaving so my dad and i drove down to the lake (my aunt lives in the neighboorhood surrounding the lake, 1 minute drive to the lake).

it was cold and windy and we were having a sucky time. we fished shallow we fished in weeds we fished in lily pads we fished deep, we couldn't find fish.

i don't know how long into the trip it was, probably close to an hour and a half, when my dad hooked up with the first fish in about 10 feet of water, fishing with a 7" red shad Hookup worm.

he was very excited to catch this fish and the first time it jumped, it cleared the water, and he got a look at it and said that it was a nice fish and might be his PB, i laughed at him because i knew it was clearly a pound and a half.

it turned out to be a nice healthy 14"er

a while later we turned the corner in the lake and started fishing around in there. its pretty shallow, not much more than 3 or 4 feet, lots of lily pads. only a few were still up, most were dead under water (as was the case with the rest of the lake).

i found a nice cove and made a cast into there, and i was just talking about how i was gonna catch a fish, and on my first cast i had a fish down there playing with my 6" black/blue ***. i let it play with it for a few seconds then set the hook and came up empty. my dad said i was too anxious. i made a cast to the same spot, and sure enough that bass was back, and i let it have this bait for a good 5-8 seconds. when i felt the line tightening up on its own, i nailed it, and brought in this nice healthy 13" bass.

after that my dad started casting into the same cove.

not but 10 minutes after that, my dad casted his 7" red shad Hookup worm close to shore, and soon after the bait landed in the water, got a strike. he hadn't even begun his retrieve yet. he wasn't really sure if the fish was on or not, and was hesistant to set the hook.

its a good thing he did.

he set the hook and i immediately knew it was a great fish, because his rod had a nice bend in it. a bend that most fish don't put on a rod on the hook set.

i asked him if it was a nice fish and if it was fighting hard. he said (a little embarassed that he thought his last fish may have been his PB: "yeah, its alright".

i knew it was better than alright, just from the way it was fighting.

he fought it and after a pretty long, hard battle, got it close to the boat. when it was about 7 feet away from the boat, i could see the golden color glowing underwater and could tell it was a monster. then it came up to the surface and splashed around a bit, and then with one big whip of its tail it threw water everywhere and dove under the boat.

i got real scared. this thing was pulling so hard now, that my dad's rod was bent in half. this rod was curved no less than 3/4 of the way down. the fish was well under the boat, and still fighting to get to the other side of the boat. i was so scared that the hook was going to just rip out at this point.

somehow my dad managed to get it back up to the side of the boat, and i saw that thing's giant mouth.

i reached down there, and fumbled around to get a thumb in its mouth. it took me 3 attempts to secure the fish, and what was probably only 10 seconds, felt like forever.

i finally got my thumb in this fish and it was such a feeling of relief and awesomness.

as soon as i lifted it out of the water, my dad and i both said "holy $%^&!!!!!!"

i handed the fish over to him, took some pictures, measured it, weighed it, and let it swim off.

here it is, my dad's new PB, a healthy, strong, 22", 5lb 8oz largemouth bass!

the worm barely peeking out of that bucket of a mouth:

[Prisoner 13]

Nice fish!

[firefightn15]

Wow, now that's a pig!  Nice fish dad, congrats. 8-)

[mlpauley]

nice fish   :o

[Bassaholic84]

Nice fish Congrats to you and your dad

[paul.]

excellent!  congrats to you and your dad both.  awesome trip and great report dave.

[Fish Chris]

.dsaavedra. slow ???

For a lot of the trips I do, 3 fish would be like a "numbers" day ;-)  LOL

And you got a PB too !  

Congrats on that fatty,

Continued success to you,

Fish

[senile1]

That is a well-proportioned 5 and a half pounder.  Beautiful fish!  Congrats to your Dad!  

[Siebert Outdoors]

congrats

[Ky_Lake_Dude]

Wow you could have told me that fish was 8lbs and I would have believed it. Congrats to your dad  

[Big-O]

TEEEEERRIFIC and great write up.....FATTY FO SHO  

Big O

www.ragetail.com

[Troutfisher]

Such FAT fish!  Great job!

[Culln5]

Congrats to your Dad!..... The best part of this story is that you're able to fish with your Dad!

[Paul Roberts]

Ya know...I don't get to say this often but....

I'm wondering if that fish doesn't weigh MORE than 5-8. I mean 22" with that kind of body condition, might push 6. You should check your scale -calibrate it.

I use a 2.5# and a 5# barbell weight and put 'em in one of those plastic shopping bags. I check my 10# scale at 2.5, 5, and 7.5#.

Your Dad might actually break his PB again -in your living room LOL.

[aarogb]

    Great story and a even better fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mrlitetackle]

thats a fatty if ive ever seen one.........props to your dad!!!!

looks like a great day to me.!

[nickb]

Dang! It looks like she's going to pop any second!!

[justinrose40]

Congrats, on the nice catch. I agree with the comment on checking your scales. It can be hard to judge a fish from a picture, but I fished a tournament last weekend and three of our five keepers where between 20 and 21" and all three broke five pounds on the tournament scales. I don't have a picture to compare it to, unfortanetly, but I don't remember any of them looking that fat.

Congrats again.

If you had only caught the big fish in an evening of fishing, I'm not sure that I would call that slow, not on my lake anyway. It took all 8 hours Saturday for us to put together our 5 fish limit.

[.dsaavedra.]

i have checked the scale with those 2lb,  1 piece, molded lead barbels. the kind that are used for aerobic excercises, not the kind with interchangeable weights that are used for body building.

i've also checked the scale with 5lb bags of sugar etc., stuff that is measured from the factory by weight.

the scale has always come out within 1 ounce of what the item is supposed to weigh.

i do want to get a new scale though, i want to get a berkley digital lip grip, because i don't like how i have to push the hook through the fish's lip with my current berkley 50lb scale.

thanks for the comments!

[Jake.]

Nice fish.  

i do want to get a new scale though, i want to get a berkley digital lip grip, because i don't like how i have to push the hook through the fish's lip with my current berkley 50lb scale.

Try putting the hook up through the gill plate. That's what I do whn I use a scale with that type of hook.

[.dsaavedra.]

i've put it in the gill plate and had fish thrash around and tear their gills, and i've also put it "under the jawbone" (see senile1's avatar) and i've had fish fall off.

so i sharpened the hook and i just stick it through their bottom lip, behind the bone.

[Bassin_Fin@tic]

Thats a beautiful girl! Can I have her number?