paul.

cool looking rod and cool looking fish.

really chunky lookin' fish there. congrats.

great looking fish man. i wish your buddy luck with that backlash. looks like that one may take a chainsaw to fix.

X 2. i'm all about sleeping in when i get a chance. i have to get up early a lot for work, so i SURE ain't gonna do it when i don't have to. nice looking fish there man. good job.

sounds like a great family outing. real cool. your daughter is a cutie.

(she didn't really kiss it) ;D

o.k., so it's not a bass. while we were on one of our weekly night time adventures tonight, we happened on this big fella. maybe my lil' em has found her prince charming. as long as she sticks to these and leaves the boys alone, everything will be just fine. ;D btw, we practiced catch and release on this frog.

nice fish.

real nice man. that's great.

either way, nice one.

thanks kent, i appreciate that buddy. i could never catch up with the cali guys though. i see chris has done gone and caught another one. ;D they seem to whack lunkers in bunches and i'm lucky if i get one over 8 in a month. those guys have really been an inspiration to me and i think it is so cool that they are willing to share their knowledge and expertise. curious that you liked the second pic better. i was kinda fond of the first. now if i could just get a nice smallie..... ;D

chris that's an awesome fish man! beautiful! i'm glad i'm not the only guy on here who believes in live bait for big fish. i am amazed that you take better pix BY YOURSELF than most of us do when we have someone with us. btw chris, is there a way to tell just by looking at a fish if it is northern strain or not? if so how? you seem to always know what strain your fish are and i really have no clue except for what i've heard has been stocked in the given body of water. thanks in advance for your answer and great job as always.

fantastic! congratulations on a great fish.

very, very well said. sometimes we need to be reminded of that. thank you. congrats on your great trip.

wow!!!! that is an absolutely huge fish for that far north. congrats big time.

thank you very much everyone for the nice replies. i couldn't be absolutely sure, but as far as i know this is a northern strain bass.

incredible looking water there and obviously fantastic fishin!!! great job man. way to stick 'em.

we interrupt this post for an important news bulletin. do not attempt to adjust your computer screen. there has been a confirmed HAWG sighting in maryland!! fantastic buddy. i'm so happy for ya. there'll be more.

thank you. although i don't do near as good a job catching them or photographing them as he does, i learned from the article on chris' awesome site. i really think this is a must read for taking the best possible pictures of that fish of a lifetime. there is nothing more disappointing than ruining an awesome fish with crappy pictures. once the fish is gone (back in the lake hopefully), all you have are the pix. oh, did i say 50 pound powerpro? i meant 4 pound test. thanks for reminding me buddy!

the release.

the horizontal shot.

after seeing so many GIANT fish on here this year posted by jay, mattlures, supermatt, chris, and so many others i must admit i was getting a little frustrated. to make matters worse, i lost what i'm pretty sure was a 10+ last week. things have just not gone my way this year. until today that is. i happened to spy a real nice one on a bed. once again, i felt like i was jinxed because i was on call today and knew the beeper could go off any minute. i needed this fish to bite FAST and i knew just the thing. i caught a little bluegill and baited him up. she bit within 5 minutes, but i didn't give her enough time to get the gill turned around in her mouth and i missed her!!! > well she was a different fish after that - very wary and spooky. but i didn't rush her. i gave her about an hour to calm down and she finally came back around but showed no interest at all. so i pulled something out of my bag of tricks that i have learned with really tough sows - get the male fired up first. so i turned my attention to him. (the male was probably 5 pounds and she made him look small). he kept pecking at the bait and boy did she ever get p.o.'d then. finally she was like, "move out of the way junior and let me show you how to get rid of this thing!" and boy did she ever. she flared out her gills and the bream was engulfed. i steadied myself determined not to make the same mistake again. wait........wait..........NOW!!!!! i put the steel to her in dramatic fashion and the battle was on. she gave a great account of herself but was no match for the 50lb. powerpro. when she rolled over to be lipped, i was amazed at her massive girth. so entranced was i that i forgot for a minute that i actually needed to grab the fish and then celebrate. and celebrate i did too, yelling like ike on crank. she was 12-0 on the digital scale. my pb for '08 so far and my 4th place overall pb. released after a few pix to go make babies. what a day! hope y'all are catchin' some too.

great job man. what an awesome spring y'all are having. huge props to bizz and just. it's just gotta be my turn soon. i AM jealous (but i know those toads aren't fake).

that's very cool indeed. question. so does this mean we'll do a monthly contest from here on out and have a "points system" to determine an overall winner for the year? that would be nice.

largemouth. nice one too.