Favorite Bass You've Ever Caught and Why?

[.dsaavedra.]

my favorite is my first bass. i was 12 or 13 i think and i can't describe how happy i was when i caught that 16" bass.

but this is an interesting fish, its 4lber from the same small little farm pond i caught my first bass, and between my dad and me, we have caught it about 5 times, we identify it because its missing the bottom half of its tail. we named it jimmy.

[Dave D]

This way my first biggin'! Also the fish that got me hooked on bass fishing for life.

Caught in the spring of the year throwing my favorite bait at that time, 1/2 oz chrome\blue Rat-L-Trap.

21" and 5+ lbs. She was full of eggs, and I'll never forget her.

[tholmes]

My favorite is the first good bass that I caught on an artificial bait. Fishing with my grandfather in an abandoned gravel pit with my then new Mitchell 301 and Conolon rod, tossing a Lazy Ike (yellow w/red spots) along the edge of a weed line. Hooked up with a fat 4 lb. bass. I'll never forget the thrill.

Tom

[TheBeast]

The next one.

[RoLo]

In the late 1940s, when I was knee-high to a gopher, I was casting some memory-obscured surface lure.

I repeated the chuck-and-wind ritual with no real expectation of results.

Suddenly I noticed a V-shaped bulge in the water that was rapidly closing-in on my lure!

That fish inspired me more than any other fish in memory, and the mystery fish was never caught.

Roger

[Stan Wright]

We were finishing up a successful day on Lake Fork when my guide suggested we check the spawning beds for "Share a Lunker size bass. (11+ lbs) I suggested that he catch the fish, it would look good on his web site... I'd watch. 

He finally located a 12 pounder after spotting several 7 and 8 pounders. 

He was trying to get the big bass to take a worm when I noticed a bass about 8 pounds near the back of the boat.  I picked up my fly rod and cast a sinking fly right on top of the spawner.  Hook up.

You know how after you've fought a fish all the way to the boat and it is sitting vertical in the water with just it's head sticking out?  They are always good for just one more jump.

I said: "I bet if I slacked my line that fish will jump and throw the fly." I bend down all the barbs on my hooks.

I no sooner dropped the rod tip than that big bass started tail walking down the side of the boat and tossed that fly right up onto the carpet.

I turned to the guide with a big smile and said..."Did you see that? Sweet."

He looked at me and said: " Most anglers would give their left arm for a fish like that...  and you say...'I bet he'll throw the hook if I slack my line'.  You fly fishermen are crazy."

That ended a perfect day on the water.

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[BassThumb]

Mine was my PB smallie, 6 lb. 1 oz scaled. It was caught when I was about 15 years old, just a mile away from home while my bike was chained to a tree in the woods. It was August 1998 I think, and I was moving away from shorefishing with livebait rigs and getting into wet wading and flyfishing. I was scouting out what would become my personal playground for the next decade until I was able to afford and store a fiberglass rig, the Beaver Islands on the Mississippi River in St. Cloud. I had just picked up flyfishing for bass that Summer and was also learning how to tie deerhair bassbugs. I was using my first bassbug that I tied that I was actually happy with, a bulky 7" white and olive Dahlberg Diver with red and gold tinsel. This added to the appeal of the fish, for sure.

The bass was in a deep, slow eddy and sandy boulder field area that was just out of the main channel current. This area had been yielding nice SMB and walleyes and I began and ended most wading trips there. My PB walleye, a 31" fish that I didn't weigh, also came from that same stretch on a jerkbait a few years later. I still can't believe the smallie didn't saw me off because it kept running into those boulders over and over again for at least a few minutes. I could feel the line grinding on those pitted granite boulders. I lucked out. My tapered leader snapped on a dink maybe an hour later.

I wish I had taken a pic of that nice looking dark smallie, but I didn't have one at 15, and likely wouldn't have carried it anyway because of the risk of getting it wet. Slipping and falling was all too common in those years before purchasing my first pair of felt bottomed boots. haha

[OrlandoFisherman]

Mine was a LMB about 5-6lbs or so, i cant really remember because it was a few years ago now but its my favorite because as you can see behind me the river isn't that wide but this beauty was hiding in there and put up a nice fight

[UGLY STIK]

It was my 1st LMB , only 17 " but it was awesome.I was alone in a rowboat on a large lake near my home.It was a warm overcast day.I was getting ready to call it quits , made my last few casts , on the 3rd cast he struck !!

felt like I was struck by lightning , the line went thight , my heart stopped beating...then he went airborn , it was the most beautiful sight , Ive been in luv ever since.   

[wisconsin heat]

the nxt one 

[Huntnfish]

5.75 lbs, won the sectional for our IHSA bass fishing team. Never been so pumped up in my life

[.dsaavedra.]

In the late 1940s, when I was knee-high to a gopher, I was casting some memory-obscured surface lure.

I repeated the chuck-and-wind ritual with no real expectation of results.

Suddenly I noticed a V-shaped bulge in the water that was rapidly closing-in on my lure!

That fish inspired me more than any other fish in memory, and the mystery fish was never caught.

Roger

reminds me of what got me started in bass fishing! my mom took me to the park a lot during the summers, and once when i was about 12 years old, i was fishing for bluegill (like i did every time) when all of a sudden out of nowhere a huge bass came flying in and ate one of the bluegills i was targeting! i'm sure the bass was only 15 or 16 inches or so, but i'd never seen a fish so big in the water in my life. i instantly tied on all the old junk tackle from my dads tacklebox that he had when he was a kid and tried the rest of the day to catch a bass. didn't catch one until a few months later. 

[ziltoid]

My personal favorite bass happens to be my first, and it really opened my eyes...

I was much younger, I always read "slow is the key" for large mouth with plastics.. Well, my definition of slow was impatiently fast..

My first outing with a baitcasting reel yeilded, a birds nest.. While untangling that birds nest, my 7" watermelon worm sat there in the water for oh.. 20 seconds, not moving at all... I manage to untagle the line, decide to reel in and recast, as it only landed about 5 feet from the shore, and there was a 3 1/2lb bass on the other end.

I didn't learn a d**n thing that day. It's taken quite awhile for what happened to really sink in.. To be honest, I've always been an ocean fisherman, while I have fished a few times for bass, it was never really a priority. Now im here to give it a shot

[Nitrofreak]

I think my favorite one was one that I did not catch but rather the first ones that my wife and daughters caught.

The look on their faces and the sheer happiness that we got to share was priceless and unforgetable!

[CAdeltaLipRipper]

Mine is my PB largemouth cause of the story. I had bought a new frogging stick and we went to the delta 2 or 3 times on my birthday weekend ( November). The last day was pretty good and i started throwing a white stanley ribbit frog around cover and over mats towards the end of the day. All that time my friend and my dad kept saying "You're not gonna catch anything on it just give up".I would continue to use it and my dad said "I swear if you catch something on that today I'm freaking mounting it". Well, we decided to fish the docks when we were about to leave. Each set of docks has some cover and grass mats at the back. There was a stump sticking out of the water. I took a cast with the frog and i wasn't paying attention when out of know where a 3 lber comes 4 feet in the air with it and i yell "Woohoo!Frog fish bab....it came off. I was a little irritated and my dad was laughing. We tried one more set of docks. About 10 to 15 minutes of daylight left.

                   I take a few casts with the frog on that mat, pumped up now. On about my 3rd cast, an 8 pounder jumps 3 or 4 feet all the way out of the water with my frog, it hit right when that frog got almost to the edge of the mat into open water. It's a buzz frog too, you know the kind with the paddley legs?I'm completely stunned, but when this fish hits the water, i set that hook like no other.I feel her goin through those and she has my rod bent over the side, strippin' drag from my diawa. This thing was a freight train. i'm worrying that she might get off. After about a 2 minute battle, i work her around the motor and she's on her side. My friend grabs the net and starts tripping over poles. Gt your freakin butt over here! i was yelling at him. He nets the fish and when he lifts up, she thrashes and almost leaps out, but he kept it going up so she stayed in.My legs were a shakin and i see that big hawg mouth. I grab her lip and Dananananant! i lifted that beast up in complete amazement. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!Wooohooooo!Suck it!Suck it!Yaaaaaaa! i'm just goin off on my friend and my dad.I guess they were right...i wouldn't catch a fish off of that frog.... i would catch a MONSTER! ;D. I gave them alot of crap...and i still do  . We took pictures and filmed the release, i will put that on youtube shortly  . That was all in the last 10 minutes of day light... i couldn't believe that catch!My dad yelled happy birthday when i brought her in hehehe. I remember when i got in the truck and we were pulling the boat out of the water i told my dad "You know how you said you'd mount a fish if i caught one on that frog?Well, i think that one would actualy be worthy of mounting  ;D.This was November 2008

[flippin and pitchin]

THat's easy, the one in my attached pic for sure.  Ryan is my god-son and has MD and lost the use of his legs and arms at age 11.  He wanted to go bass fishing so his Dad and I set up his wheel chair ( safely !! ) and hit the lake.  I had to cast and set the hook and help Ryan hold the rod and reel the bass in.  It was awesome !  I just helped.  If Ryan had not been struck down with this terrible disease he would have been a hot stick some day.  He had to move to Ohio with his familty a year ago.  If anyone in the Medina Ohio area ever sees a kid in a motorized wheel chair wearing a Ranger hat, tell him hi from Uncle Doug.

[jtk63]

This one is my favorite and I really dont know why :-?