Don't you love these guys ??? :-)

[Fish Chris]

So I'm launching the boat yesterday and I see a guy launching a high-performance bass boat. He has to ask me what I'm fishing for {because I'm fishing from a 14ft aluminum}. Bass, I tell him... preferably a monster

Yea', he says, "I hear you. I caught a 13.7 lb'er here last year... that's my biggest". Wow, I reply, "Did you know that these are Northern strain bass, and the lake reord here is only 13.4 lbs" ? "Really" he says ? "Wow ! I brought them a picture of it, and they didn't even tell me I caught the lake record" ! {while I'm thinking to myself, that maybe they smelt the same odor of BS that I was smelling about right now}

So I go on to tell him that as much fun as the big Northerns are, I actually come here for the giant Smallies. "Yea', he says, "I caught a 10 1/4 lb Smallmouth last year". So again, I ask him, did you know that the Lk. record here is 9.8 lbs, and in fact, that 9.8 lb'er crushed a 30 year old CA state record ??? "Yea, he says"..... but the marina was already closed..... and we couldn't find anybody with a certified scale.... and yada... yada.....

I took one more moment to pop open my camera case, and show him my cameras, and certfied scale. I told him that catching the kind of fish that he was, he might want to invest in something like this......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway, how lucky am I to meet the one guy who has caught the lake record Largemouth, AND the Lk + state record Smallmouth too ! :  

> This is why I carry my fish photo album < Their are just so many catches that I wouldn't even want to mention, if I couldn't back it up.

Plus, it's always kind of funny to mention several big catches, and people are like.... yea, yea, yea...... and about the time they are thinking you are full of BS, you can say, "Oh BTW, I have my album right here if you'd like to see some of these fish I've been talking about"......

So you break it out, and now the same guys that were like, "Yea, yea, uh huh, yea......" "Are like, "HOLY $^%$ ! Joe, Jim... come check this out !!! OMG !!! Oooh Ahhhh !

I'm always thinking, "What ? Why the sudden change of heart ?

Funny how this works, huh ? :-)

Peace,

Fish

[senile1]

If someone doesn't know you I can understand some doubt until you pull out the proof of a big fish story, or stories.  The "stories" that some people tell are amazing.  The guy you spoke to has to know that his stories aren't believable.  

[done]

See, I would be gullible enough to believe it. Despite numerous times I have been shown otherwise, it is tough for me to think someone would just make something up like that.

I mean, personally, I don't fish to impress others, just to have a ton of fun, if I catch a lot of fish, I am real happy, if I don't I am happy just the same. I just LOVE to fish. I usually do not even take a picture (too much PITA to pull my camera phone out).

That being said, glad you caught him on those stories. At least he kept the weight in the realm of actualy biologic possibility (vs, I caught me a 30lber last month).

[South FLA]

I take everything ANYBODY says with a grain of salt, unless there is documented proof or I saw it first hand, but nevertheless, fisherman are known to tell "fish stories."  Anytime, someone is BSing me I basically smile and say "Really, Wow!"  No reason to burst their bubble.  

I am guilty or rounding up myself.  If its 7lbs 8ozs and its not a tournament fish, you bet your butt, I'll be telling my buddies yeah I caught a 8lber  ;D.  

By the way I caught a huge snook approaching 40lbs if not bigger with my brother while wade fishing the Intracoastal, at the time we did not bring a camera nor could we keep the fish, but you bet your butt the memory is ingrained, its your choice to believe it or not  

[Tuckman]

I almost always weigh, take a picture, and release my fish, but its funny how time can distort the memory...I sure cant remember a time when a released fish lost weight myself...I caught a huge rainbow trout the other day that me and my friend guessed at about 7lbs but she looked huge in my phone picture, and after sending it to a few of my buddies in a matter of minutes she had grown to 8lbs and was showing no signs of slowing down. I saw one of my fishing buddies yesterday and he said he had heard I had caught a 9lb rainbow, I was like yea man, but I released her and she was filling up on eggs so she might be a bit bigger by now...

[Olebiker]

There is a small lake, Lake Munson, on the southern edge of Tallahassee.  It is a beautiful little lake surrounded by cypress trees.  It has a history of water quality problems so there are few people that fish it.

A guy was putting his equipment away one day last year and was telling me about all the big bass he had caught at Munson.  I guess he could perceive my doubt so he went to his truck and brought out a photo album full of big honkin' bass.  I won't doubt him again.

Funny thing was that he had a Ranger boat full of Berkley Cherrywood rods.

[Mottfia]

Its hard to take a stranger's word on somthing as crazy as that. I'll give you props for not busting him hard right off the bat, Chris. That was pretty sly to throw in the record thing to him. Maybe that will even out his stories some...if he even thought about the point that you were trying to make    

Mottfia

[fishizzle]

I am that guy!!

[J Francho]

I like to let that guy carry on, and dig a deeper hole.  Its entertaining to me.  When he asks how I did, I'll say something equally ridiculous, like, "I caught three dinks."

[Fish Chris]

Fishizzle ! You had me tripping for just a second ! You kind of look like that guy ;-)  LOL But I see your from CT.... We are in CA :-)

Hey, I fish (and take fish photos, and weighings), first and foremost, for myself too. But also, for anyone who likes to see big fish photos, and here big fish stories !

Tell you what I else, "I wish" more guys would break out photos of their personal trophy catches ! I love seeing them ! It gets me stoked ! Of course that turns me into the guy that says, "Yea, yea, uh huh, yea"........ "Holy #$#$ ! That's a hog ! Great fish ! You da' man" ! :-)

I guess the whole point of my post (since I always seem to have somebody come back to ask me, "What's the point of this post" ? )

is that, as somebody pointed out > It is within the realm of biological possibility, that this guy did, in fact, catch both a 13.7 lb Northern bass, and a 10.25 lb Smallie...... But he {and everyone} should be well aware that their are a WHOLE BUNCH of guys that just blow a lot of smoke about big fish catches. And unless you have some kind of photo evidence, your likely to be brushed off as "just another one of those guys".

Personally, I can't imagine having worked as hard as I have, to have no photos to go back to look at, and relive those experiences, and to share with others who are into the same thing, or worse yet, to get shoved into the same box, with a bunch of BS'ers.

Peace,

Fish

[Fish Chris]

I like to let that guy carry on, and dig a deeper hole.  Its entertaining to me.  When he asks how I did, I'll say something equally ridiculous, like, "I caught three dinks."

;D I love it !  ;D

Fish

[bassmajor]

If I am at the lake when this happens I always say I've only been catching small ones.  I don't want this guy honing in on my honey holes out there.  

I usually lie about the fish I catch....I just say the fishing was slow and all I got were dinks.  There are too many lazys out there that will follow me around if I say the opposite.  

I know many of you don't ice fish but its really bad during the winter up here too with this sort of thing.

[Fish Chris]

Bassmajor, I hear you.

But it's really funny how I get mostly ignored by "serious bass anglers" because of my boat. I mean, I can't be a "real" bass angler, who catches anything worth mentioning, from a 14ft aluminum, right ;-)

Tell you what else..... I've heard all the jokes about my camo paint job, "Oh, is that so you can sneak up on the big ones" ? Yea, dude. That's it.

But I'll tell you, I can see their 21 ft glitter rockets coming from the other side of the lake..... while they often get so close to me, with my camo boat, often sitting in 2 feet of water, up against a earth, rock, and tree background, that I'm wondering when their going to finally see me..... and then, 200 or 100 yards out, I hear that big 225 wind down.... putt around for a minute, then shoot off at 70 mph in a different direction ;-)

Anyway, I'll usually tell them about hogs I caught "at the end of a trip".... But good luck finding me the next time ;-)

Peace,

fish

[SnowBass23]

I almost always weigh, take a picture, and release my fish, but its funny how time can distort the memory...I sure cant remember a time when a released fish lost weight myself...I caught a huge rainbow trout the other day that me and my friend guessed at about 7lbs but she looked huge in my phone picture, and after sending it to a few of my buddies in a matter of minutes she had grown to 8lbs and was showing no signs of slowing down. I saw one of my fishing buddies yesterday and he said he had heard I had caught a 9lb rainbow, I was like yea man, but I released her and she was filling up on eggs so she might be a bit bigger by now...

I'm with you!  I think part of our bass fishing "culture" is the telling of fish stories.  I myself will certainly round up to the next half pound if nothing is on the line.  If I'm actively competing with buddies then I'll snap a pic of the fish on digital scales.  And to be honest, I expect the same kind of exagerations from my fishing buddies!  There's certainly a difference between exaggerating and outright lying in my book.  Last year my wife caught a big ol' hog of a bass right after the spawn had ended.  This fish had an enormous mouth and was just as skinny as could be.  She weight in just over 6 lbs.  Now, we all know how much heavier a large girl would be before spawn compared with after.  So that day I kept saying how a month prior she was probably around 7.5 Naturally, by the time I got home she was pushing 8 lbs.  As I told the story to friends she kept gaining a Qtr. pound at a time, until finally she was a 9 pound bass.  Somewhere along the way my wife asked me one day how big her bass was, and I couldn't remember the real number.  

I'll always say I've just caught a couple of dinks when I see someone on the water unless I know them.  I'll also *cough cough* lie about what I caught them on when a stranger asks.  If they were all on plastics then I caught them on spinner baits.  If they were on cranks then I caught them finessin'.  If it is somebody fishing with kids, especially the ones that rarely take the kids out to fish then I'll answer honestly about what is or isn't working.

[JUST]

Chris

The same thing happens to me when I launch my 15' Boston Whaler and the big bass boat guys ask me what I'm fishing for. When I say bass, they seem surprised and of course I can't be a serious bass anglers with that boat. I'll tell you what though; one of my favorite things in sticking fish in front of those guys.

[Bass Dude]

Wow Fish Chris---you met a real winner there!!!

I bet he's one of those guys that catches only 5 pounders in tournaments too!!

[WRB]

Chris, you are a lot more open to on the water fisherman then I am. I will talk to fishermen off the water or in a setting like this where I can keep a lower profile. Sharing information to help other catch bass is giving something back to the sport. Sharing a lot of photo's is good if you are promoting yourself or a product.

Back in the dark ages we didn't have digital cameras and film camera tend to overheat when stored in a boat for a long time period. The old Polaroids fade to black in time.

Sent you a pic of a giant bass in my old Lund tin boat, miss that old boat.

WRB

[done]

Bassmajor, I hear you.

But it's really funny how I get mostly ignored by "serious bass anglers" because of my boat. I mean, I can't be a "real" bass angler, who catches anything worth mentioning, from a 14ft aluminum, right ;-)

Tell you what else..... I've heard all the jokes about my camo paint job, "Oh, is that so you can sneak up on the big ones" ? Yea, dude. That's it.

But I'll tell you, I can see their 21 ft glitter rockets coming from the other side of the lake..... while they often get so close to me, with my camo boat, often sitting in 2 feet of water, up against a earth, rock, and tree background, that I'm wondering when their going to finally see me..... and then, 200 or 100 yards out, I hear that big 225 wind down.... putt around for a minute, then shoot off at 70 mph in a different direction ;-)

Anyway, I'll usually tell them about hogs I caught "at the end of a trip".... But good luck finding me the next time ;-)

Peace,

fish

LOL. I hear ya on the boat. I got a customized 1446 jon and I have actually had someone tell me it was "cute". Course when we both got back at the end of the day and he got skunked and I was hitting them all day long, well the "cute" goes away.

It is not always true but fairly often on Wylie the guys who hit 'em good are running around in Pond prawlers, or jons like mine. Does not take a$15,000 boat to catch bass (of course it doesn't hurt either  )

[Fish Chris]

Does not take a$15,000 boat to catch bass (of course it doesn't hurt either  

Actually a big, expensive boat (with a big, gas guzzling motor) would hurt me a LOT ! If it costed me 4 X's as much to operate, I could only fish 1/4 as often as I do. If I could only fish 1/4 as often as I do, I'd only catch 1/4 as many fish. If I only caught 1/4 as many fish, their would be a 75% chance that my biggest fish would be smaller ;-) See how this works ?

Actually, my biggest bass came from a place that allows "no gas motors"..... So, make that a 100% chance ;-)  LOL

Peace,

Fish

[zaraspook_dylan2]

Its hard to take a stranger's word on somthing as crazy as that. I'll give you props for not busting him hard right off the bat, Chris. That was pretty sly to throw in the record thing to him. Maybe that will even out his stories some...if he even thought about the point that you were trying to make

Mottfia

lol i like your quote

its true

[Ima Bass Ninja]

He probably has spent 40,000 on that new boat but has yet to land a  decent fish and is probably compensating for his obvious lack of fishing knowledge compared to someone in a 14ft jon boat( I base this on you knowing state fishing records and him not). Any way its the same in all sports fishing, golf, hunting, whatever you will always have somebody with excellent equipment that has to  "upgrade" there performance ( i.e catch a 3 lb call it 5, or shoot 85 on the course and call it 81 in the club house) in order to justify the large amout of money they just spent to there peers.  You should feel good knowing that you walked away from that conversation with no doubt that you are the better angler.

[BassmanDan]

Maybe that was Mike Long in disguise Chris   ;D. I've actually had someone lose their cool and accuse me of lying when I truthfully told them what I caught one day when we were done fishing the same lake. Needless to say that person is "over the top" competitive and I just walked away to let him stew in his own juices. I'll tell you how many I caught and what I got them on but not where...finding them is half the fun anyway.

[Fish Chris]

Hey BassMan, that's why I usually tell them, "Yea ! Great trip ! Wanna' see the photos" ?

Do you think those couple of guys in high-per bass boats (the ones that had the really tough trip) would have believed me about the 10.5 lb Northern bass, or the 5.7 lb Smallie that day ? Heck no, they wouldn't have.... unless maybe if they knew me.

Anyway, great photos are just too easy nowadays, with modern digital cameras (even when fishing by yourself) for anyone to have any excuses.

Peace,

Fish

[DINK WHISPERER]

I guess everyone with a small boat gets this huh!?! I always get weird looks when i launch my 16ft boat. It's a glitter rocket as Chris calls them but just a smaller version. I like smaller boats because imo they go through nasty, shallow stuff a lot better!

[fishinfiend]

What a jackleg!  ;D