Whats The Story Behind Your Personal Best?

[Gangley]

There are several ponds that I frequently drive by on my way to the In-laws residence, but I never considered fishing them because as far as I knew they were shallow drainage areas that were no more than 3 feet deep. While driving by one afternoon I decided that since I had a pole with me I would try it out just for the heck of it. The water was literally 3 feet deep all the way across, the color of chocolate milk, and choppy as heck because of a strong wind blowing. I fished for about an hour or so with a jig and never got a bite so I decided to pack it up and head home. As I was walking back to the truck I came across an older gentleman throwing a casting net out. I casually asked him how things were going and he said "just fine, trying to get some baitfish to fish with". I asked him if he fished the pond a lot and he said that he had fished it for 4-5 years and caught a lot of nice bass from it. Finding that hard to believe but not mentioning it, I asked him how big and he said "several in the 10-11 lb range, but nothing over 5 or 6 lately". I chuckled on the inside thinking that the older man was exagerating slightly and then asked him where. He replied "right here". Upon hearing this I smiled, nodded my head, and was about to move on when he busted out a cellphone and started showing pictures of some HUGE bass. I couldnt believe it! I thanked the guy for the conversation, wished him luck, then headed back to the truck thinking that next time I would bring a few different lures and try some other things out. As I got closer to the truck I decided to try one other spot for a few minutes just in case. I flipped the jig to an underwater culvert and let it sink to the 3 foot bottom and rested it there for 2-3 seconds before doing two quick short hops. At the end of the second hop I felt a SOLID thump and set the hook hard. It felt as though I set the hook into a power line pole. The line didnt budge and the lure never moved so I instantly assumed that I hung up on something and began to let the expletives flow until the line started moving off to the side. I quickly regrouped and started reeling in until the Curado's drag system began to scream in submission. She decided to calm down, after letting her run for a bit, and I lipped her out of the water. She was by far my new PB and I was stoked. She came in at 7.8 lbs or 7 lbs 13oz depending on how you measure.

The old man came over, looked at it and said "thats nice, but there are much bigger in here than that, keep at it and you'll find them"

I'll be trying, I promise you that.

[Raul]

No great story, no I did this and did that and so on, my PB ( 13.86 lbs ) was caught in Lake Emilio Portes Gil ( better know as San Lorenzo or Xicotencatl ) more than 20 years ago, I did nothing fancy, the lake has huge beds of elodea, the lake was low so it´s really cast to the openings and hopefully you´ll catch something before your lure gets tangled in the vegetation, I grabbed my trusty Rapala Shad Rap and cast it to a large opening, had barely began reeling when wham ! and the fish immediately ran into cover, no fight, I had to pull it from the weeds ( I bet it was a mass of 40 lbs of weeds ) after removing the weeds there she was, the truth is that the only satisfation was when I weighted her, other than that it was quite dissapointing.

[clayton86]

My 8lber PB came 2 summers ago bank fishing. I hit the spot right infront of the parking lot soon as I got there. I was walking around and had a snagproof boss rat tied on when I seen what I thought was a decent carp mulling around in the grass about 6th off the bank in a foot of water. I casted well past the "carp" at the time to the stump and Lilly pads. As I brought the mouse past the dark blob it just exploded all in an instant i thought that's it a carp set the hook and dragged it onto the bank in one sweep. I just looked down at a heap of grass with a piece of tail hanging out I started to pick the grass around it and then I seen that head and mouth I went totally Ike passing boats were looking as I was freaking out. It was so fat and big made that big rat like like a baby mouse in it's mouth. I had a passing stranger take a pic with my phone. I haven't had luck at that lake sense.

[kanasbassfisher08]

me and my wife always plan on going to the lake of the ozarks at least once a year and it was early june 2 years ago. the first morning was a bit disappointing only one dink on a popper and was really expecting a good buzzbait bite but no. so i decided after the morning to just flip docks all day and only one out of a brush pile at the end of the dock. so day two was a bit better catching 3 or 4 on a buzzbait and a couple more dinks on a popper. so again after the morning i decided to hit some new docks way on the other side of the cove and my second dock i flip i pulled up and felt weight and saw my line move for a couple feet thinking it was to late i set the hook and ways and it felt like the 2lbers i been catching most of the day til i saw it in about 4 feet of water and i started fighting it like the fish it was and after about 5 mins it let me get a hand on it to scoop it in the boat it was just shy of 8.5lbs. the funny thing was i had a new fansy camera phone that i took the picture with and i released it and went back to the house to brag about it and couldnt find the pic so i been trying to find that lady for proof but very nice fish!

[Nitrofreak]

My PB of 8 1/2 lbs came from lake Anna this past year.

It was a father/daughter day and a tough day to fish but my teenage daughter was KICKING MY BUT !!!

The first half of the day the score was 4 to 4 with her's weighing in at a respectable 14 lbs 2 oz mine was a little over 5 lbs, we set down had a couple of sandwiches and she is just hammering me with smiles and was not being too shy about who the better fisherman was so far...lol, the last half of the day continued to be the same for the next hour or so until the fish quit biting, after about an hour of no fish she decides to have some fun with me and starts casting her line right on top of mine and catching either my line or snagging my spot.

The end of the day comes... which is something I wish would have never happened but she called last cast and she runs to the front of the boat cast's her line just to the left of where I wanted to be, she turns and looks at me with a s**t eating grin on her face and says to me awwww what's wrong daddy did I take your spot?...I looked over where her line landed and put my Texas rigged 6" pumpkin seed/chartruse lizzard just to the right of hers and felt a THUMP!! I dropped the rod realed the slack and set the hook turned and looked at her and said NOPE!!

She still had the weight over me but I will never forget that day.

[steverowbotham]

My PB smallie was a 7.60 lber

I was fishing a 20 boat club tournament and I had a really good bag in the 24 pound range. I still had a high 3 I wanted to get rid of. I was working a jerkbait over a sand flat and watched a behemoth come up about 4 feet under the jerk and turn around. I pitched out a dropshot slammer and she hit within seconds. Best tournament fish of my life. We weighed 27.90 lbs and got beat out by a 28.05 lbs bag. Uggghhh!

But I got big fish at least.

[Ratherbfishing]

My PB (around 7.5 lbs) came on the outside edge of a ditch in standing timber. (I won't disclose the lake because it already has too many tournaments). We'd been "chased" off the remainder of the lake by swarming flies (this spring was terrible) and we hadn't gotten so much as a bite for over an hour when "Bessie" finally grabbed hold of my bait. I knew immediately that she was a big one. I remember hollering "Get the net! Get the net!" repeatedly. What's most interesting to me is that it's only been the past few years that I've used a crankbait very much but my two largest bass (the other one weighing in at 6 lb 3 oz) came from the same model crankbait: the Rapala Shad Rap. Same size but different colors (green and white). I don't own, work for, or hold stock in Rapala but sometimes I think I should.

[J Francho]

Another title could be "Bloody Fish Butts and Sticky Slime," but I think I'll leave it with these two quotes by Noel:

"Dude, that fish is bleeding from it's butt!"

"I though that was fishing line, but it was a big stringy booger coming off that fish!"

I don't have any explanation for all the gross things that happened to me today, but it was all worth it. Even the bad case of the dropsies I had early in the day.

Noel Good called me yesterday to invite me for a day on Erie. It took all of 3 milliseconds to make the arrangements. The weather was perfect, light chop on the water receding to glass, and bugs everywhere. ERIE! I love this place. Reminds me so much of my home waters on Lake Ontario, but way better structure and much bigger fish.

We started with jigging spoons,with Noel boating a few fish fairly quickly. I had a few on, but kept losing them. I discovered a bent hook, then realized I was using my 6-8 m/XF jerk bait rod, not the slower, beefier 7' MH/M that suits my style better. Get a 3X treble on the spoon, attached to the right rod, and I was hooking up.

The fish we marked stopped responding to the spoons, so we both switched to drop shot rigs. This is where we really started picking the fish off. Action was fairly slow, but with flourishes of catches. Many of the fish we caught we're spotted on the graph, and we would watch them come up to the baits, and then we'd really sell the bait. Sometimes two or three fish came right up to the bait. Most fish the came up off the bottom to the bait ended up on the hook.

Had I caught all my bites, we'd easily had a 50 fish day. I had plenty of technical issues, but was having a ball. Deep fishing in open water is one of my favorite ways to fish. Hook them, and Hang on!

Size wasn't all there, but we had two significant fish. Noel had a nice fish that was about 4 lbs.,and I set a new personal record for smallies that has stood since the mid 90s. I really didn't think it was a PB, until I got it on the scale, and the numbers kept going up and up, LOL.

"Noel, you just put me on a PB smallmouth!"

Erie smallmouth are like a different species of fish. Heavy, surly, and thick. Even their mouths are strong as hell. I bent hooks trying to get them unbuttoned for a quick release back to the depths.

Gear:

Spoons, St. Croix Avid AVC70MHM, Daiwa Alphas, 10 lb. Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon.

Drop shot, St. Croix Avid AVS63MLXF, Shimano Stradic CI4, 6lb. Seaguar InvisX.

Thanks to Smooth Drags Carbontex replacement washers for controlling those beasts!

Now the part you're all waiting for.....pics!

A decent fish finally, after fixing my "technical issues."

Noel with a pretty little chunk.

Look at the belly on this fish!

Here's what they were eating.

They are never ready to come in boat.

Noel: "This is the type of fish we want more of!"

5 lbs. 12 oz. Awesome fish, but I'm gunning for a 6 now!.

Another view of that fish.

Another great day on the water with a great host. Noel is a VERY good stick, and an even better host.

Thanks for the great day!

[GLADES]

Mine came as a teenager fishing on lake Kissimmee FL during a 3 day trip in 1975 while fishing with my father. My dad was good friends with the owner of Camp Mack so we rented a cabin over the water and a 17' Boston Whaler. I caught the 11.8 bass using a silver Johnson spoon with a frog colored pork rind attached.

That was the only fish we caught that day, but it still stands as my PB.

[Raider Nation Fisher]

My PB came from one of the ponds at the plant I used to work at. Back when it was the SAKS 5th ave. Warehouse, corporate office, distribution, and fashion show building the CEO had the pond stocked with bass and sunfish. This was maybe twelve or more years ago. When they shut the place down 5 or 6 years ago, everyone quit fishing it. Some locals fished it but that was pretty much it. When we started building the Pharmacy. plant that is there now, we discovered this pond. Now to the story. I had gotten off work about an hour early last fall and decided to go beat the banks. We were demoing a building at a different location so I had missed my lunch time fishing that day. I had gone back to a shallow cove that I generally had good luck in, and started throwing a Texas Rigged RI Big Unit at the downed trees and stumps on the opposite bank. I was pitching at a standing dead tree and letting the bait drop alongside it when she struck. I went to reel in my bait and i thought I had snagged a log. I jerked the rod to try an free my bait and this monster fish exploded out of the water. We fought back and forth for a good 6 or 7 minutes before I got her close enough to the bank to lip her. She weighed in at 9lbs 4oz. We had always seen some big dang fish out there, but this was the first one any of us had caught that weighed over 5lbs. Since then the locals have removed a decent amount of the sub 3 lb bass and a good quantity of the million plus sunfish from the pond. My buddy and I have seen some monster fish that have got to be over the 10 lb Mark swimming around in there. I've hooked one of them and my hook straighend when I tried to rod lift him instead of using my hand or a net. Looking at it though that fish was way over 10lbs. Ive seen my pb swimming around in there too, she has a black spot by her gill so I know its her. She's gotten even bigger too. And the wierdest thing about it all I have never caught another fish within a five yard radius of that tree since, regardless of what Im throwing.

[oldhippie]

golden shiner through 8" of ice, 7#,,,in southeastern wisconsin,,i live in tennessee,,took a vaction to try ice fishing,still caught me a nice'un

[Hooligan]

I upgraded three times last year from a twelve pound fish, all three upgrades were over 14. The first two were on Fork spooning, one on a Friday one on the following Sunday. (Both weighed in bag on certified Boga) A month later I was fishing an unmarked portion of an unmarked lake in an unmarked area of the unmarked state of CA. Ok, the lake is CLEARly marked, but that's another story... We were drop-shotting structure and I laid into a 14-4. The only thing remarkable about it, other than the size of the fish, is that it hit a 4.5" Robo in 19 FOW.

[Fat-G]

I think you guys will like this story.

I started fishing because of a VCU Summer Discoveries camp called “Go Fish”. It’s run by a catfish guide on the James and a VCU Fisheries Biologist. I’m still really good friends with both of them, and work for Mike, the guide, in the summer. During the Go Fish week we fished a few ponds for bass, catfished on the river, and waded a smaller river for smallmouth and bream. I actually caught a 10 lb. 2 oz. bass at one of the ponds on a live gill, but I don’t consider that my PB. Anyways, after the last year of Go Fish that I was young enough to do, I had the bug.

One of the catfishing days we stopped at a pond very close to my house and caught a bunch of bluegill to use for shovelheads later that day. I remembered where it was, and the summer after the camp, went back with my brother and dad. Earlier in the day I had bought a 6’6” MH Berkley Cherrywood and a Shimano Callisto to put on it, spooled with 12# Trilene XL. At this time I was still very new to fishing. I had three or four lures, one of them being a ½ oz. Booyah jig in black/blue. After half an hour of not catching anything, my brother and I saw a big fish cruising the shore. We both were trying really hard to coax it to bite, but with no luck. Keep in mind this is the first time I had ever gone fishing besides the camp. Right as we were about to give up and go home, I looked down and there she was just looking at me, no more than three feet away. I dropped the jig in the water and instantaneously she SLAMMED the jig. I was so excited I didn’t even set the hook, just pulled her up on shore. That fish weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz, and was the fish that kind of started it all for me.

I bested that fish two years ago, pitching the exact same jig on the exact same combo to a laydown at a different pond. That fish was 8 lbs. 15 oz. She had just spawned and was rail thin. Wish I had caught her a few weeks earlier. I'm sure she's over 10 now. I've had her pinned a few times, once on a wacky Trick Worm and once on a frog, but she has eluded me. It's weird, ever since catching her, the biggest I've caught from that pond is ~5, and numbers have gone WAY down. I used to go out and catch 20 fish a day, with the majority of them being 4-5 pounders.

[Goose52]

Hayden - NOW I know how you got started, and "hooked," on jigs so early! Great story!

[Colton Neal]

My best came on a small pond on a south central Kansas farm. It weighed 11lbs 2 oz and was only a few ounces away from the record which has since been beaten. It's now 11.8. I caught the fish in 2004 on a brown jig with a zoom trailer. Since then i've caught plenty of 9 lbers but i want to catch that record hahaha

[jojo&laken]

I was 9 years old and wade fishing with my dad during spawning season on Rayburn i will never forget it not only for the fish but because the fire ants were floating around on the lake in little balls. The lake was way up that year and i guess it flooded them out, but anyway i had a plum trick worm rigged wacky style on a finacky hook. I threw it out and let it sit (you know how hard that is being 9 yrs old) so i was playing with the balls of ant try to drown them and felt a tug set the hook the best i could when she hit the top of the water i didnt know what to do. I wasn't going to let my dad do it for me so i just turned toward bank and headed out dragging the fish to bank because i couldn't reel it in. She weighed 10 lbs 10 oz's If you have children take them fishing they will never forget it i promise

[fxdwgkd]

My personal best was on Father's day back in 06'. It was hotter than usual for that time of year. So I waited untill early evening to go out. I was fishing along a downed tree in the 2nd basin of Big Lake, whitley co, IN. I was using a firetiger crankbait on a fiberglass spinning rod with 8lb mono and running it on the bottom. I felt a small tug and then it was game on. She did not have a lot of fight in her so I did not think she was that big. She jumped and tried to throw the lure and I saw how big she was. All I could do was look at the guy fishing with me a say "NET"

Took several pics and measurements and let her go. Went to the dock and another angler was launching his boat. He asked how we did and I told him I caught a 6lber. He proceeded to tell me he had caught a 10lber on Sylvan Lake the same day. Something special must have been happening that day.

[Will2]

Last July I got my PB. Fishing at our local beach, Fishing had been great all day. Me and my son had about 4 to 6 bass each ranging from 2 to 3 1/2 lbs using a new stick worm ( green minnow). Every time we were about ready to leave another hit. Just about ready to head out for the day. I had a loop in my line down in the spool. Decided to cast it out, I didn't get the line out far enough, starting pulling out the line. After pulling the loop out, started reeling in line in.Hit the line just stopped. Thought I had a major snag after letting out some line in the current. The my drag started running. It was a great fight. After getting him I was shocked at his size. Took a couple of pictures and weighted him in at 13lbs. That was one of the best fishing days yet.

Both me and my son had a great day fishing.

[JIGFISHERMAN.]

Didn't weight my personal best largemouth or smallmouth....Oh well.

PB Large-10" powerworm-3/8oz head, early spring, in 97' I've caught enough big bass since then to put this one over 7lbs.

PB smallmouth, just under 5lbs in Aug 06' Pretty impressive consider just an inland lake, and in summer. Close to, if not 6lber in spring.

[LgMouthGambler]

Lets see..... One evening while having dinner at the local Brus Room, me and my Fiances uncle were throwing our chicken bones in the water and watching the snakeheads and other fish eat at them. While looking in the water, we noticed some pretty big bass swimming around in there. Now this lake that is in the back has plenty of bank spots to fish, so the next week, early on a Sunday morning I arrived to try and pull some big fish out of there. When I first arrived I decided to start by fishing under the structure of which is a back patio outside area. This area is about 7 feet off the surface of the water, and goes out off the shore about 30 ft. So as Im pitching and casting under this area, Im pulling in some decent size bass, but no big ones. All of a sudden I look and see a shadow thats moving under a floating piece of wood under the structure. I flipped my lizard out and slowly reeled past the piece of wood, and bam! She hit and started to run. Faught her for a bit, and thank god for braided line otherwise she would had broken the line on the cement pilings. The picture shown was taken by the surprised bartender that was opening the outside bar. Needless to saw, after she was making some noise about the fish, the manager came out to check out the fish, along with other employees. What a morning. She ended up weighing just over 8 lbs.

[Mattlures]

Randall wasnt this fish 16+ lbs that you caught off my bluegill?

Ha ha I think you catch so many momsters you forget some

Here is mine, also caught on my ultimate bluegill

This was a bed fish that was tucked under a huge round boulder. I was laying on my belly pitching it under me. All I could see was part of the tail. I had no idea she was soo big. After I hooked her I scrambled to get off the rock and on to shore. I admit I was a little rattled when she first broke water. She weighed 17.2lbs

[00 mod]

OK, well after seeing some of these monsters, I am a little ashamed at posting mine, but here it goes!

A buddy of mine, with whom I fish with quite regularly still, had been going down to a good friend of ours pond and fishing a couple of times. It was about 20 +- acres and FULL of buck brush and a lot of flooded timber. My kind of place. The very first time we went there, I caught a 4.6lb bass. We thought it was big, but most of the fish we caught that day were much smaller. Little did we know, we hadn't seen anything yet! This place turned out to be the best little fishing hole EVER! Within the 6 months or so we fished it we lost count of how many 5+ lb fish we caught out of there, and many were on topwater! If you have ever had a 20+ keeper day on topwater, you know what I am referring to!

So here's the story: We had been fishing this one "pocket" of buck brush where I had lost a monster on a jump, that I swore was over 10 and no one believed us, so we fished it hard every time we went in hopes she would bite again! I was fishing a black/blue jig ( imagine that) and my buddy was fishing a t-rigged Bieber(RI Sweet beaver, but we call em Biebers because the big girls love em). I had caught some and he was catching more, but that was OK, because I love my jig. He hooked into a nice 6 lber and it changed my mind! Thank goodness. Literally about 5 cast later I pitched the beaver right next to a thicket of buck brush and let it sink. Nothing on the initial fall and I bump it one time and it felt like the rod was gonna come ripping out of my hands! BAM BAM two hard taps before I knew it and the rod was bending with each one! I slam the hook home and it was one of those hook sets where you set the hook, but the rod just loads and all you feel is a head shake, rod never goes past 3 o'clock! Yes sir...I knew it was a big one! After a good little battle, our plastic coleman 2 man boat had spun around backed all the way up into another patch of buck brush, but we landed her. Quickly removed hook, weighed her with the scale we already had out after his 6lber the fish before. too 3 quick pictures and let her swim away! She was caught 3-30-11 and weighed 8 lb 9 oz.

Told the owner about it the next day and he was mad because I didn't keep the fish to mount it. I told him it's ok, I am having a replica made of it! Should be ready real soon.....hope the wait pays off!

My buddy caught an 8lb 1oz exactly one week later about 100yrds from the spot!

Jeff

[Randall]

Randall wasnt this fish 16+ lbs that you caught off my bluegill?

Ha ha I think you catch so many momsters you forget some

Here is mine, also caught on my ultimate bluegill

This was a bed fish that was tucked under a huge round boulder. I was laying on my belly pitching it under me. All I could see was part of the tail. I had no idea she was soo big. After I hooked her I scrambled to get off the rock and on to shore. I admit I was a little rattled when she first broke water. She weighed 17.2lbs

Matt that one was 15lbs 12oz which is almost as big as the other one by weight. It was my longest bass ever at 31 1/2 inches long so it's my personal best by length. It is close to the weighed weight of my other fish but in reality my other fish which weighed 15lbs 14oz and was around 28 1/2 inches probably weighed around 17 lbs when we caught it. It spit up what I am guessing was a one pound gizzard and a bunch of other partialy digested stuff while we waited on a good scale. I call it 15lbs 14 oz because thats all I have proof and witnesses of but to me in my mind it's a seventeen pound fish or right at it. Funny thing is how the lake has changed since I caught the first big one and the difference in the shape of the fish. Hydrilla got into the lake and our fish are starting to get the shape to really have some good weight to them almost year round. I just need to catch another 31 inch fish with the shape of the other fish.

[Mattlures]

Randall, you sir are a bad man. You catch too many big fish! I have a bad memory and I thought that fish was 16 and change. I apologize and I was givving props not trying to call you out. After I just reread my post it kinda sounded like that but its not what I meant. I have had 2 fish that I distintly remember spitting out big trout durring a fight. Both times it dropped my fish to below 10lbs and I knew they were both over. Each trout was between 1-2 lbs. Its is a sucky feeling when you see a big hunk of fish flying out of your fishes mouth. You know your gonna get robbed. I especialy feel for you because it happened on your PB.You got double robbed!

I think you might need to make a bigger version of your bait!

31 inches is incredible. I have never caught on close to that. If I did it might just beat the world record. I didnt measure my PB but I would guess it around 27-28in Your 31 looks old to me your other fish looks younger. Maybe you will find it when it gets to 30+ That would be a monster!

[Bankbeater]

Air temp was 75, and there was no wind at 5:30 AM when we got out on the water. My Dad was throwing a white buzz bait and had about 3 dinks by 6:00 AM, so I knew they were coming up. I was throwing a black jitterbug and starting my retreive as soon as the bait would hit the water. I hadn't gotten a single bite when we got over by an old road bed that went off into the lake.

I threw out over the road bed but I let the bait sit until the water had calmed down around it. There was a big swirl and a wave as soon as I started moving the bait. I knew it was a big one from the way it was bending my rod. When I got the bass over to the side of the boat it tried to make a run to the trolling motor. I saw that both sets of treble hooks were in so I wasn't too worried about the bass getting off.

Turned out to be bass that went 6-02. After the sun came up over the trees the bite shut down and we were on our way home by 10:00 AM.