Starting point

[Fat-G]

Mine would be 5 pounds. I catch a ton of 4's and 4.5's. Anything above 5 for me is a great fish. Anything above seven is a hawg.

[roadwarrior]

Unless you live in Florida, Georgia, Texas or Kalifornia,

it's always 5 lbs.

8-)

[Steven Ladner]

For my area, 4 pounds is the starting point.

[skunked_again]

in Kansas anything over 20" (for me).

[Dad_Golf_Fish]

Unless you live in Florida, Georgia, Texas or Kalifornia,

it's always 5 lbs.

8-)

You must mean Southern California (We Northerners consider it a different state). We're hard pressed to see many over 3-4#'s except for the Delta and Clear Lake.

[Mottfia]

I personally think a fat two pounder is a nice fish but my eyes don't really start sparkling until I hit a four pounder

Mottfia

[FD.]

Unless you live in Florida, Georgia, Texas or Kalifornia,

it's always 5 lbs.

8-)

I guess I am spoiled.  5's are common, I had several 8's last year and saw a 13.85 weighed in a tournament a few months ago.

[flechero]

Funny question... because there are two answers. A weighed fish and a guessed fish. An actual weighed 5 pounder is a very nice fish (IMO) anywhere, except maybe in a trophy hunter's boat. For me, I'll gladly catch 3 and 4 pound fish- Belton is more famous for "bullets" which are 14" +/- ;D

Lots of people "say" a five is an average fish but as hard as I try and as much as I travel, I can't ever seem to find an average lake. And the fishing is alway "off today" when I fish with those guys. ;D But they do light up when they hook an actual 5 pounder. :

[Justin0530]

Up here a healthy two pounder is nice. Three and a half pounds and you got a nice fish. Fives and sixes are hawgs.....and not that common

[Dad_Golf_Fish]

flechero - That was the funniest thing I've read all week! Thank you!

[DINK WHISPERER]

Believe it or not(even in FL) a 2lb bass on my lakes in a very nice fish! There are hawgs but you have to be very precise/patient to get one!

[.dsaavedra.]

3-4lbs

[tritz18]

Up here a healthy two pounder is nice. Three and a half pounds and you got a nice fish. Fives and sixes are hawgs.....and not that common

agreed

[J Francho]

I might surprise you with my answer, given my location. Since I already have two LMB above 6, and a SMB at 5-0 this year, I went with 6+. I've got a PB NY LMB at 7-2, so I'm actually gunning for 8.  Any smallie over my PB 5-4 will do. But this is for my personal fishing. In a tx., it depends on the water, but five in the well is a start. Once I'm there, I look to upgrade.

[roadwarrior]

Lots of people "say" a five is an average fish but as hard as I try and as much as I travel, I can't ever seem to find an average lake. And the fishing is alway "off today" when I fish with those guys.

;D ;D ;D

[RoLo]

This is a tough question due to the difference in average weight between northern-strain and Florida-strain bass.

I've found that long-term statistics can be useful for providing reasonable guideposts and to remove misconceptions.

If you analyze a robust cross-section of bass weights (10s of thousands), you will likely find that Florida-strain bass

weigh approximately 50% more than northern strain bass (at each weight plateau).

As Roadwarrior pointed out, 5 pounds is a clear sticking point for northern-strain bass,

where a 6 lb bass may be regarded a trophy. For Florida-strain bass however, "9 pounds" designates trophy-class,

where bass weights tend to bunch up around 8 lbs. For this reason, the state of Florida set the benchmark weight

at "8 lbs" for their Big-Catch citation program. Even though Florida produces more 9-lb bass than any state in the union

setting the benchmark at 9 pounds would sharply reduce valuable input:

     Northern-strain Florida-strain

First-Plateau: 3 lb (nice fish) 4.5 lb (nice fish)

Trophy-Class:      6 lb       9 lb

Record-Class:      8 lb       12 lb

World-Class:      10 lb       15 lb

Freak-Class:      12 lb       18 lb            

Roger

[roadwarrior]

RoLo,

We missed your wit and humor while you were gone.

Great post!

8-)

[RoLo]

RoLo,

We missed your wit and humor while you were gone.

Great post!

8-)

Thanx Kent :-[

And it's nice to be back

Roger

[WRB]

Before Florida LMB were introduced to California a lunker bass according to B.A.S.S. was over 7 lbs when they had their lunker club.

In-Fishermen came along in the mid 70's and established an award program based on regional areas and types of bass; smallmouth, largemouth and Florida strain LMB, don't recall if spotted bass were included or what the regional weights were? I remember California and Texas and Florida was 12 lbs. and 8 lbs for LMB everywhere else and that weight is generally established today for a trophy size bass.

My personal weight for a trophy size FLMB caught in California is 15 lbs., NLMB 10 lbs.

What is a good size bass; anything over 4 lbs.

WRB

[tnhiker44]

I would think that five 3 pound bass would put you in a good spot in almost any club tourney... pretty much anywhere in the country. Five 5 pound bass would win you the vast majority of these tourneys. Thus my answer is three pounds. I have fished with clubs in both Florida and Tennessee and except for the very bad day almost always the winning weight is somewhere between 15 and 25 pounds for the club.

[fishfordollars]

5 lbs.

Anytime you catch a five it's a good trip. That's a quote from a guide, tournament fisherman, and friend of mine. His name is Pat Miller.

[grimlin]

I've only caught 1 5 pound bass in my 5 years fishing up here.

Average is right around 2 pounds for me.

I need to move down south again.  :-/

[Bassn Blvd]

For me, in S. Florida, it starts at 7 pounds.  Anything less is a "fun, nice" day.  

9-10 pounds gets a high five and bragging rights.

11-13 pounds gets talked about for a couple weeks.

14 and up gets mounted (replica)

[NasTMcfingas]

3# up here is a nice catch, but a 5#+ fish would greatly increase the size of your smile

[WRB]

The difference between a 4 lb and 5 lb bass is an accurate scale.

WRB