BammerBass

oh certainly I agree a 5 is definitely doable. Heck I lost one mid way up that same pier a couple weeks ago, and I could tell just by looking at it that it was a solid 4, which defi iteky woulda been a personal best for me if I had successfully landed it and got her in my hands She had thst little light rod bent into basically a U. Did grt her up out of the water and it looked like she had a mouth almost big enough to put my fist in..... but my I patience/overexcitement caused me to lose her shoulda just let her tire down a bit more and work her over to the bank where dsd would have been able to ease over snd grab her. But hey, lesson lewrned from thet battle I think helped me land my last one, or else I may have lost it too to overreagerness. Dang it now I wish I had a hut right there to live in and go out there every darn day lol. All this talk in this topic and all the other topics ia makings water at the mouth for more way I carried on when inflamed that 2lber any seasoned "vet" woulda laughed at me, or anyone else for thet matter would have thought was nuts (theu would likely be right if they thoughts LOL). Ah but that rush I got from that fish was awesome, took me back to my days as a kid, and that is ehst its all about, enjoying the day and having fun.

short and to the point, but great answer.I wasn't trying to start a competition or anything, I just wanted to get a general idea of whst it may have weighed, it was sorta fun taking guesses and eberything lol. It was between 16-16.5 inches in length (couodnt get a real down to the 1/8th inch mea s urement cuz she was too feisty lol, but she wss over the 15 inch minimum length so she was a "keeper if we had decided to keep it and some of the other drum n bluegill/shellcracker. Main thing is we got her back in the water so she can spawn more beautiful bass in thr future, and i had a blast catching her, especially on that light rod. And I used the weight estimator tool on here last night after reading similar posts and they mentioned the tool. I put in the 16 inch length and it estimated it at 2.32. Ill take thst every time!!

Hawg!!!! Nicely done.

Reposted the two little basslets since I must have messed something up in the original post. gonns take some getting used to if i post more pics in the future (which i hope to do).

http://i57.tinypic.com/149qhlc.jpg' alt='149qhlc.jpg'>] Well this may be garbled and I hate to spam, but just thought id share some of my catches in that "sweet spot" of mine. The crappie bit on the silver minnow/tiny shad panfish assassin like the bass did, the shellcracker bit on nightcrawlers and boy were they feisty!! Just imagine if those things grew like lmb do...mercy. that little catfish bit a chicken liver set up on a b aitcast rig with 17 lb test line, dropped straight down to avoid the hassle of backlash. And hey those bass, at least I went in the right direction with them increasing in size till I finally caught that 16incher .... and perhaps maybe that one little bass is a spotted bass? Looks a bit different from the typical largemouth in this area. And the crappie, it doesn't have the veerticle bars of a white crappie, but doesn't auite look like a black crappie either, possible hybrid of the two? Lots of fun catching those fish.

I have indeed recently heard they sre good to eat, but it has been a long belief of mine that they are not. Have I been misinformed? Many anglers get ticked off and disappointed when they see one of these on their line, but they still fight hard and are fun to catch, regardless of how edible they are.

Awesome, looks like that worked out very well. Gorgeous and healthy fish.

10" to 12" would be my average . So any time I get over 1 lb I get excited, and anything over 2 ia just icing on the cake....... I have low low standards.

That's a nice one!! What ya catch it on?

For those of you who do both, do you have a preferred or set cutoff point for keeping vs releasing? For me l, firdt thing obviously is to make sure it meets local length requirements, and for my area, largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass must be 15 inches or longer to keep. As I've said before, I've not caught a whole heck of a lot of bass because im just simply not good at it, but when I have caught keepers, I've gone with the 2-3.5lb range for eating. Anything less than 2 is best to let grow a little more and over 3.5, I think releasing them is a good idea to help preserve quality fish in the local waters.

J Francho, I bet your bass was at least another quarter to half lb bigger than your scale said. That is one beefy fish!!! Id love to cstch one like that.

im bout 5'10 and fat. Lol. My knuckles ans fist are on the above average size.

Oh I did have a cheap scale thst I used, and it didn't even reach 3/4 of a pound. I know that couldn't be right. I've got so much to learn about fishing it ain't even funny. Bout all im good at rigjt now is live bait and crappie jigs and thats it. And weighing them I jist stink at .

Oh wow. Just......wow. Heck of an hour indeed!!!! Bet that was exhilarating.

17 inch drum caught just a few minutes after my bass in my previous thread. Hit a 1.5 inch black shad panfish assassin.

Oh yes I say 8 is definitely a good estimation. That fish has it all, length girth, belly, 8 lbs is definitely in the equation on that one. Well done!!

Nice on both!!!! Definitely no less than 7 lbs!!!! That is far bigger than any bass I have caught. That first one I would say upwards of 8-8.5 lbs. The head and mouth on that first one....... wow!!!!!

Oh man if only could catch one like that some day. Nice fish man, almost 5 lbs!!

Yeah lol I thought 2.25 was a good guess because when i got it up, it was very healthy appearing and had nice symmetry to it all the way around. Felt of its belly and therr was definitely some good meat there. Again i will NOT claim it to be a 5 lber becsuse i know full darn well that is just not the case lol.

Ill settle for anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5 its SOMEWHERE in that range most likely. I dont get to go much these days, so any time I manage a fish over 15 inches in length, im pretty happy. I've tried strictly flst out fishing for bass by using heavier line, medium to medium-heavy spin casting outfits. Plastic lizards, plastic worms, buzzbaits, crankbaits, spinner baits, and never had success. So I know im definitely no bass angler. I just stick to the "easy" fish like bluegill, and hope I grt lucky enough at some point to cstch a crappie or decent bass. I believe some things you can practice and get better at , but I also think there are certain things that you'll either be good at it, or you'll stink it up, no matter how much practice you have. And in regsrds to bass fishing, I definitely fall into the category of being bad at it, and no amount of practice I can do will change it. So yeah one like this one for me tickles me and is a "good catch" in my mind but for those who sre good bass anglers, thats below average. Skilled bass anglers can catch multiple 3 and 4 lbers and be like "meh, ive had much bigger", b, cause indeed they have. I dunno how id react if I ever hung a 5+lber. Id probably run around in circles and lose my mind.

lol I wouldn't lie and try to say it is a 5 over because I know thst would be a bunch of bull lol. But I think 2.5 lbs is a fair estimate. Between 16 and 16.5 inches length and being healthy looking 2.5 seems a reasonable guess. Again nothing to really write home about, but big enough to have fun with, especially on that light set up. The one I lost the time before looked like it was a solid 4, but alas, failed to get him up the pier before the line snapped so that doesn't count.Seems I've found a honey hole for several kinds of fish

Nah. Old barge loading pylon/pier. I've caught a bunch of Drum on those jifs, several nice bluegill/shellcracker on nightcrawlers, a crappie on a jig and a couple catfish there as well on chicken liver. Seems that moving water attracts all kinds of fish therr, with the catfish caught on the deep aide of the drop off. Doesn't appear thst it has been fished too heavily.

Tennessee River. Off an old barge loading pylon/pier. There is a pretty good current in that area and there is a nice little drop off where the water goes from.about 5 feet deep to about 18-20 feet. That bass came in from the deep side of the drop off and hit that little bass assassin on the fall. I use a slow retrieve with that little jig and occasional twitch. That bass bit as the lure fell.back down after a twitch. I've caught several smaller 8-10 inch bass and crappie on a slow but steady retrieve with no twitching. The bass seem to realllllly like that silver shad/tiny minnow 1.5 inch panfish assassin. I've caught svere decent size drum on the black shad colored panfish assassin.

Never go without my license. Before in even set foot out the door I makensure it is in my wallet. And when I arrive at th destination I check again to be sure, before I even so much as touch any of my equipment. Too much to risk by not carrying your license with you.

It kinda shocked me it even bit. Temps were on the cool side andnit was windy, so I figured brim and crappie would be what id be catching that day. I had been to thwt same location a couple weeks prior and watched bass chase minnows along the shoreline and give some bluegill major heck. Had a blast catching this thing on that light rod and 4 lb line. Might not be a trophy fish, but still quality in my eyes. And it was on the chunky side too. I wanted to get a straight pic of thr belly to show jist how chunky it was, but dad told men to quit fooling around and told me to get back out there, and so I did lol. No more bass that day, but a couple decent drum, and 1 17 inch drum.