bassman31783

In 2001 I went deep sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico with my friend & his family & some of their family friends. The boat ended up having 15 people or so on it which was a ton of fun but much too crowded if you ask me. The captain took us to a spot about 40-45 miles off the coast & we started fishing. So far that day we had caught a few sharks (biggest of the day was about 150#, some kingfish, some red snapper, & an amber jack. One guy on the boat hooked a huge hammerhead & fought him for about an hour & a half before losing it. Well about 30min after that I felt a bite & set the hook which sent the reel to screaming. The captain immediately yelled out for me to tighten the drag which I promptly tightened down all the way which didn't make a bit of difference. Whatever it was stripped the line all the way down to the spool then the rod tip broke which broke the line. Nearly yanked the rod right out of my hand. The captain just looked at us & said "now THAT was a big fish".

Man that's an awesome fish. Big congrats.

Just another tool to use. I do like them very much though.

Beautiful fish as always T. Good job.

Holy crap that's awesome. You'll just have to fight the Monkey even harder now though. ;D

Nice fish. Tell her congrats.

I couldn't agree with you more. I have 2 friends that work 1st hand in the SAL program for Texas Parks & Wildlife & they say the same thing. Fishinflip415 I understand your point but you actually couldn't be further from the truth about our "genetically altered" fish. From what they both have said, on separate occasions, is that the fry bread from a SAL bass do not grow any faster or get any larger then just a "normal" fry. Of the many many years they have been testing, they have yet to come to the conclusion that genetically superior bass produce genetically superior bass. One has been with the program since 1994 & the other has been with the program since 2006. Secondly there are many SAL bass that don't even make it alive from one of the few holding stations in TX to Athens TX where the tests & breeding take place. If for some strange reason a WR bass is caught out of Texas, the chances of it being a product of the SAL program are as slim to none as chances can get.

Looks to me like you did good.

Awesome. Congrats on the new PB.

Welcome to the BR family.

No matter what, they are all fun to catch.

Those look fantastic. Really good job.

Really nice job.

Honestly, anything. Square bill cranks, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs, topwaters, etc...

Watermelon / red flake Pearl / sliver flake Black / blue flake

Senko!!!!!

Really pretty fish. Congrats. Great point Paul. When I first got electronics on my boat I always tried to find fish to catch & never really succeeded doing it that way. Now I use it to find bottom changes & hardness like you stated and low & behold my catch rate from using my electronics has gone up 100x.

Good gosh those are tanks. Great job.

I'm going to go on the high side of the guesses so far and say 7lbs 4oz. Awesome fish though.

Great job as usual.

Man that's really cool.

Prayers sent my friend.

Geez, last time I ask a ? on these boards. I feel like I high jacked this thread to a whole different topic. ;D ;D ;D my mistake :-/ Glad to know what it's called though. Thanks J. Now that that is all cleared up. Back to the awesome fish.

If that happened I would probably end up saying yes. I totally get the reasons why many on here would say no. However for me I live in Texas where a new state record would be anything bigger then 18.18 & I would want my name attached to that fish. Secondly I fish lake Fork, which owns 34 of the top 50 caught in Texas, so it gets hammered ALL the time. Now if I caught it in a really nice small unknown lake then I would be torn.

Mine has to be my PB. For about 3yrs I had been trying to beat my PB of 7lbs 4oz & I just couldn't crack it. I had caught so many in the 6 1/2 - 7lbs & even had a few on that would have been better but never got those in the boat. On 4/2/09 I called up my fishing bud & said let's go fishing tomorrow. On my way from Denton to Tyler that night at 1am I got stopped by a cop for going 74 in a 60 (which I thought was 70). The next morning my dads truck battery was dead & I began thinking "is what kind of day it's going to be?" Well on 4/3/09 my fishing bud & I made it up to Fork after getting weathered out of our 3 day March trip. I remember getting on the water, going to a decent spot (but not either of our favorites) & saying a little prayer that it would be a good day. 5mins later I feel that familiar bump bump & set the hook. Immediately I knew it was a nice fish & told my bud to "forget the video camera, get the net". Once we got it in the boat I knew without a doubt it was the biggest fish I had caught. Ended up being a shad over 9lbs. Since that day I have caught 3 other bass that have broken my previous best of 7lbs 4oz. Now I'm just needing to break into the DD club which will happen soon.