BammerBass

I lost my appetite.....

Thornback, I too find it surprising that fish your buddy caught, weighed only 2.12 lbs, just looking at it one would think k it was at least another lb bigger. But then again I suppose things aren't always what they seem. This bass of mine was around 16-16.5" and me and a lot of others thought it would be around 2.3-2.5 if I wanted to take the high estimation but my scale weighed it as only 1 lb 4 oz.

I wish I could say "im stuck with a 7+ lbs for the biggest"..........

Mine is probably Crappie, main reason being they are a lot of fun to catch, especially if you can grt into themnwhen they are schooling and are biting good. Every so often when I fish id keep a few crappie to eat, they are one of the best tasting freshwater fish in my opinion. Also, I juat love the coloration on the black crappie, something about that black and gold coloration makes them quite photogenic.

No offense but those 15-17" bass sound a bit underweight for their length. Muat have been somenskinny ones.

Nice fish indeed. And a good looking furry companion along with you as well.

That is quite a rotund shad indeed. They fight hard too, got into a school of em one morning while crappie fishing (didnt catch any crappie ), but caught these one after another. They are fun to catch, obviously none I caught werr as big as yours.

So I decided to make it my background. Not a huge fish, not too small either, bout the right size to take a shot of by oneself. I know holding them horizntally is a lot less stressful on them, but i did not keepnher that way for long.nice pat on the belly and she was off to her usual.bassing ways. And yibthis does have a bass in it, but since it was about a phone background, I thought it belonged here instead.

Nice job!! Looked lik that 1lb 10 oz bass tried to bite you, lol.

What a hawg!!

Actually, that is a very smart and clever thing to do. Always nice to know when you caught fish, what you caught them on, line type and lb test, hook size, lure type and color, weather conditions, water conditions and clarity. All of that is very valuable information for future outings. That is a pretty good bit to keep up with, but it is an excellent idea. Doing that can also probably give you information into what kind of patterns the fish may be in, very heads up to do that.

Thanks for the kind responses, it is indeed a nasty little thing that seems to always stick around bit at other times it is easier to deal with than others. At times it is like a dinosaur chewing you apart and you feel utterly helpless, m and other times, it is indeed more like a nagging ankle biting childish that you can pretty much just side step and shake loose of it. Right now it is more of the dinosaur. As bad as it is i have to keep reminding myself that it could be far worse and others do have it far worse right now. But whenever you are unable to do what you are moat passionate about in life, it makes it difficult to shake. I think there was about a 2 or 3 day span where I didnt post here.im always excited to hewr about others catching a nice limit or their personal best on here, but all the fish talk and not being able to go just really weighed me down. And yup I was unable to sleep, as the time stamp suggests.

It is always wise to keep in mind that no matter how bad one may have it, there are others that have it equally as bad and in many cases, even worse off. We have to appreciate the good fortunes we have had anis ryd do have, and realise they are not to be taken for granted, as again, there are folks in the same shoes, and folks in much, much worse situations, be it financial, health, etc. We must keep those people in mind whenever wethink we have it bad. That said...... I have slipped into a state of utter depression, as you know my story, I had about a 3 year gap where neither me or my father had the opportunity to even wet a hook, and that just tore me to pieces, fishing is pretty much my passion, if there is time and opportunity to go, I WILL go, I've learned to enjoy it so much, even on the days that aren't quite as successful in terms of catching fish. This brings us from this October to now. We finally had the opportunity to go fishing after a year of a lot of OT @ work, and then my father unfortunately being diwgnosed with prostate cancer and needing surgery last year. Fortunately it was found in time, no spread to bones, lymph nodes, or other organs, it was still within the prostate, albeit just barely, path report said there was a sample that seemed to show a positive involvement at a surgical margin. He did fine after thst, well we thought anyway, then 15 days later, he runs a fever of 103 and doctor wants him for exam immediately, then as we were going to the car, he collapses in the gravel, white as a ghost and looked to me like he was dead. He was not however, and got him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with bilateral DVT at the back of the knees and bilateral massive pulmonary emboli. He would spend a couple nights in icu at a larger facility, and 3 nore days in a regular room, followed by months of rehab. He is now currently better off, much better thsn the dsy he collapsed to be sure, but the fortunately, enough damage was done to prevent him from working at the steel plant ever again. Naturally this bummed him out, but he has lewrned to cope, though he stillnhas those days, and I dint blame him at all, I would probably be th same way. And this summer being a year since the blood clots, he said we were gong to do some fishing, but here nfortunately was not able too, as this time, I broke out in body wide hives 4 different times, basically stayed broke out the entire summer, minus a couple weeks I had taken steroids. It even got so bad a specialist told men I could die as my lips jad started swelling one day and now I must tske epic pens every where I go, and keep them at reach at ALL times. Then just as suddenly as they came on, they fissappeared about th fist of September. Dad told me to stay inside another month to be on thr cautious side as we still weren't sure what caused the reaction (still dont know). Finally the second weekend in October, got to go fishing for th first time in 3 years, as we felt finally both of us were ok to go. Went that second saturday with live worms, and caught several small bass and one brim. I was not really concerned with how much and rhe size of the catch, I was just beyond happy just to get to go again!! Went again thst following sunday, and boy what a day that was. Ended up with an epic fish battle as the first fish of that day was a bass, waa not expecting it, as I had a fish tackle on, but when I got it to the top my heart went flying, because in knew beyond shadow of a doubt, thay was the biggest bass id ever hooked!! And I know a guess is just that.... a guess, but jist looking at it, and getting it up to thr side of the pier and hldingnit there while dad tried to find a way to get down to it, we both figured it was most likely at least a 4 lber.... but then the line finally gave way after five minutes of holding it.... Naturally I was sick to my stomach, yet excited at the same time of almost catching a big bass, ans after that, it just got better, caught several nice bluegill and some rather large shellcracker, seemed every time id cast that live worm and floater, something just seemed to be waiting each time as it did not take long at all to get another bite. All this made me thirsty and hungrier for more, and after a couple weeks, went again, this time catching a nice crappie and several decent drum, and a nice little 3lb channel cat. The following week, went again, and caught my first ever November bass 16 to 16.5" 2.3-2.5 lb largemouth. I was thrilled with that, very thrilled asonce again, tthay was the first bite of the day, and I never expect to actually hook or catch a quality bass, I always expect bluegill and shellcracker (which is fine with me if thatbis indeed all I get, im jist happy to fish!!) But now with my health being in question again, and the weather being cold and lousy, it appears I will not get a chance to fish again any time soon, and this has me utterly bummed out. I got to were looking at my bros and reels becamendepressing, and talking about or watching YouTube videos of fishing made the depression that much worse. But I also feel selfish for feeling this way, as I said, many people have gone through far worse and dont jave the opportunities I have had. Heck, as I mentioned, my own father went through a time where it looked like his LIFE was in jeopardy, and yet here I am whining about not being able to fish? Makes me mad at myself, and it makes me feel u nappreciative and essentislly a slob. I want this to go away, but its not something I can just wish away.At my young age, I really should not be complaining like this, but it just feels like after finally getting to (briefly, anyway) return to my passion of fishing, that my heart has just sunk knowing it may be a while before I get a chance again, and nobody's guaranteed tomorrow, and just the idea of not going fishing ever again is really bringing me down..... though again, if that's the least of my worries, I am in better shape than a lot of people are,and for thwt, I am most definitely grateful, and absolutely hate it for those that are less fortunate. But dang, those not being able to fish thing just really has me in the dumps...... I hate writing such a depressing novel, but I felt like I needed to cut loose and air it out.

I bet that bluegill put up an epic fight.

Now thats a beefy bluegill!!! Nice bass as well.

Awesome, not bad at all for your first spinner bait bass. Sure, not a giant, but not a dink either. Good work.

Im responsible for this as I said it myself. Last time I went fishing, roughly a month ago it was around 55 degrees air temp, no telling how cool the water was, wind was blowing about 20 milesn an hour. After not getting a thing on live bait after 20 minutes, I decided to go to my panfish jig. I said to myself "you gotta be kidding yourself, 20 mph wind, cool water, and a 1/16 jighead...... no way am I going to catch anything, a complete waste of time and gas to get here, but ill throw a my trusty panfish jig out just to say I tried...." low and behold, about the second cast after I said that to myself, I hooked up with a solid 2.5 lb largemouth(and ended up with a couple nice drum afterwards as well).

That wasn't just beating the cold front, that was flat out conquering it.

nothing quite like actually SEEING your fish torpedo the bait/lure huh?

That 20 incher is very thick for its length, 6 lbs id say on that one.

that bottom one is quite chubby for a dink.

never has anything more truthful been spoken. Ill gladly take a few dinks over the big 0 every time, and definitely cherish the opportunity just to even go. I wanna go again so bad right now but I can't and it has honestly caused me to fall into a nasty bout of depression.

So it's near unanimous then, any largemouth under 12 inches is a dink. All pretty good opinions if you ask me, and on the flip side, bass that are 14" to 17" or 2lbs and higher are decent bass in my opinion, as they have begun to "fill out" once that threshold is reached, as long as they are healthy and feeding well they start getting that "thickness" you see from quality bass. Also when conditions are less than ideal, especially for novice, less experinced fisherman, 1.5lbers are nice quality in my book.

Nice. Did you get a chance to weigh them?

Mine is two different occasions. First one came while I was in elementary school and we went fishing at a local creek on a saturday, hooked up a 19 lb carp in a steel brim hook that I know fought for a good 20 minutes. It was on a zebco 33 reel on a zebco red rhinos glow tip rod. Every time we wouls get it nearly up to the net it would take back off sown the creek, and on that 10 lb line, thought for sure it was gonna get off. But finally, after many attempts 20 minutes later we netted it and it was as long as my legs back then. Heck of a battle, and to this day, that is my personal best fish of any species. Other occassions came a few years later, senior in high school, went fishing for bluegill and crappie by an old pump house, and behind us, there was some backwater. Anyway, as i was retrieving my line to make th next cast, while straddling the tile, some big fish comes out of absolutely nowhere and darts through that tile and jumps a good foot and a half out of the water....... scared the ever living daylight out of me, and made me fall back on my keister, and got me soaked in the process. I remember a couple older gentlemen laughing it up pretty good, saying theyed have probably looked every bit as scared as I did. I mean i could have touched the thing it was do close, not sure what it was, carp most likely, but it was a good 2 feet long, and possibly more. All i onew at the time was shock because i absolurwly was not ezpecting a fish to come barrelling out literally under my feet like that, and especially not a 2 foot long fish.didnt catch much thst day, but boy, that ordeal sure made it wuite memorable.