Swamp Girl

My guess is that it weighs big.

A 24"-bass, which is far longer than any bass I've ever caught, would weigh, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife, 8.52 pounds. So, I goggled "8.5-pound bass" and found this video, which gives you lots of looks at an eight and a half pound bass. Focus on her belly and her head compared to the young man's hand and note her depth too. Like your bass, she's not bulging with recent feeds, but she sure is deep, which is another way to add weight: Gimruis, your Minnesota bass look like Maine bass: footbally, but not long. I expect it's because we're both catching bass halfway between the equator and North Pole.

This post is so informative. Thanks, Pat. And it ends with such grace and optimism too. All of us at BR are lucky to have Pat Brown cyber-fishing beside us.

There are some fishers who opined in this thread who have caught big bass beyond counting, like @Pat Brown, @roadwarrior, and @Dwight Hottle . I'd listen to them.

Thanks, guys!

They can take a foot of soft plastic into their mouths that quickly, huh, Kent?

I have some 12" worms and have thrown them, but not caught anything yet. How long do you wait to set the hook on a 12" worm? Kites: Robocop meant to add: And keep rock bass off the Latest Catch thread!

To be fair, we only have a slice of a second to decide how to react. One of the most challenging things that bass do to me is they spin my canoe. It's 15' 6" long, but only weighs 32 pounds, so it's sitting atop the water like a water spider and is pretty easy to move. So, for the first second of the fight, I'll be facing the bass, but then they turn the canoe and I've had fights where the bass is behind me.

W-w-wow!!! Post a rock bass and this is what you get:

Thanks! All good points.

WHOA! I'd be beyond tired. I'd need oxygen.

^Funny!" I make ^this^ same mistake again and again and again. I see a big one and grab the net...too soon. Heck, yeah! You write good trip reports. You put us in the boat with you, which might not be wise, given the size of your boat. ?

@TnRiver46, I've eaten a lot of northwestern Ontario walleye, from cold lakes where the water's so clean you drink it. I wonder how warm water walleyes compare. BTW, I always enjoy your mix of photos. Nice smallies too!

I've wondered and worried about falling into weeds. I wouldn't die because I always wear a PDF, but it would be hard to reach open water. I do feel safer launching in the early morning as opposed to evening. I've worked in some dangerous neighborhoods and they're typically quiet in the morning. Bad guys sleep late. Their awake time is late, not early. Why stop there? Why not tie another lure and a box of cookies to his line too? @T-Billy: How do you keep a gun dry and still have easy access to it? @keagbassr: Do you sometimes not catch big bass and simply not report that? I ask because you report so many big fish.

I was chatting with Pat Brown yesterday about not fishing my biggest fish bog for a bit. I'm thinking I'm going to wait until the weeds die back. We're at Peak Weed right now and I just can't wrassle those big gals out of the weeds. I wish I understood the mechanics of how they dive into the weeds and and immediately unhook themselves. They don't break the line. They simply pop free and it's not because they're not solidly hooked: I use MH rods, braid, and replace my hooks. That's why I fished a pond this morning, where there are far fewer weeds. For me, the creepiest thing about bog fishing is launching in the dark. The bogs themselves don't scare me. I'm at home on the water and I'm fine with the dark. I just don't like being in the dark on land. Once I launch, no bad guy could catch me, not with my swift canoe and my half century of paddling.

@Bluebasser86, your Kansas bass have the perfect shape: small mouths with big bodies. If they were just as dark as Maine bass, they'd be perfect. ? I hope you win the AOY. I'm cheering for you from far, far away.

Ha! ^This^ is my life. Bigger bass do the most awkward things to me in my canoe. They pull me into a tree one time and spin me backwards the next time, so that I'm fighting a bass that's behind me. Yeah, I pulled some off grass edges, but I ALWAYS catch some in the middle. I'll frequently work a weed line and then fan cast open water. I catch some of my biggest bass in deep, open water on. the. surface. Weird, huh? Congrats on two fives in one night. Quite an accomplishment. Here are a couple I caught one morning this summer: And a couple more I caught another morning, both 21.15-inchers: And here's a morning trio from about ten days ago: I love bulky bass. It means they're thriving.

Nice bass, Pat and Kites! Since it's a rainy day and perfect for a double feature (For you young folks, that's two movies for the price of one, preceded by shorts/cartoons.), I'm going to do a double feature, i.e. some medium-sized bass followed by the main feature, but with shorts to start the show and two intermissions. I caught 20 bass total and the first of the bigger bass was 19", but the second, bigger bass, while not as long, was chunkier. I swear that the blue heron likes to watch me fish. He followed me from one rock to another. I caught all 20 bass on a bone-colored, River2Sea popper, a white, 130 Whopper Plopper, and a shad-colored Keitech with a weighted-shaft hook. I rose at 3:50, launched in the rainy dark, paddled more than six miles, and I'm drained. It wasn't that long ago that I could do this every morning and evening and still be as bouncy as a bunny.

Take those footballs to the Colts' training camp!

I wish I were Jean-Luc Picard and that I had a number one. If I did, I'd hear ^this^ wish and say to my #1, "Make it so." I think we all do and the bonus of a boat is that you don't have to jump into the water to fetch a beast.

I am amazed at the size of the bass you catch from shore. FROM SHORE! You'd be landing DDs with a boat.

You're the man who jumped in the water and landed a giant bass. You have nothing to fear that walks or swims or flies this world. Remember this video I took of you?

Smart. My canoe can look chaotic, but everything is always in the same place. That way, I can reach for whatever I need without even looking first. I got stuck last week because I was in a different, smaller canoe so I could take the kid fishing. It was a two-person canoe, but shorter than my solo boat, plus we had his gear, so my system couldn't work. FWIW, I didn't fish this morning because tomorrow morning bodes to be even better. It's going to be in the mid-sixties all night tonight, which is unseasonably warm, nearly no wind, and raining steadily. I know you like to fish the rain too.

I know, huh? I upgrade some hooks on lures. The wonderful thing about the pricey hooks is that they're super sharp and hook bass better the horrible thing about the pricey hooks is that they're super sharp and hook us better. When I hooked myself last week, they slid into me like I was made of warm butter. Don't you have lures tied to outfits? I always have six or seven rods and reels ready to cast in my canoe.

Atta, Pard'! I see so many young YouTubers fishing barefoot and I shake my head. So many hooks on a boat.