Bassin' Brad

7?? 11.34?? 13.5?? 9.84?? Whatever it is nice catch she's a beauty!

So yesterday mid-morning my boss text me and ask if I wanna take off at about 3 pm and go fishing...that was an obvious Yes! The lake was an 1.5 hrs away and we had to make a couple stops so we were fairly late getting over there. We launch the boat and the wind is smoking it pretty fast across the lake. We start off shallow in some stick ups and I'm fishing a T-rig with nothing to show for it and then my boss spots a lure hung on a small branch sticking out of the water and he says someone grab that as we troll by. So I quickly kneel down with my worm rod still in hand and attempt to grab it as we go by. Well I'm not sure what all happened but between the wind and waves everything else I lose my balance drop my rod in the water, I grab for it but it's sinking fast so lunge out of the boat and grab it! I swing back in and look, and I kicked one of my other rods over board when I lunged out. It's about $170 crankbait setup my wife bought me for Christmas. So I end up jumping out in waist deep water and tip toeing around until (thankfully) I found it! I still haven't caught a fish yet as we come up to a place where the rip rap makes 90° turn. I'm throwing a excalibur square bill (on the setup I just retrieved) when I hook into a good one. As I get her up to the boat she keeps surging and taking some drag and when I finally see her I start freaking out because she's only hooked by 1 little rear treble hook. So they grab the net and thankfully we get her in!! So all in all it was a good evening! She weighed 4.40lbs Not sure how this got posted twice. Mods, if you wanna remove one of these that would be fine.

Did you just correct a spell check FIVE YEARS after it happened or am I missing something?!?

Me too! I was hoping it wouldn't die...

Nice video...I enjoyed it!

Sorry to hear this! I wish little man a speedy recovery

What's this strange device called "payphone" you speak of? ?lol I think they make apps for things like that.

I was having the same issue. So what I did was post one picture, then edit my post and add another picture, and then edit again and add another picture. I post, edit, and add until I've posted all the pics I want. Lol I'm sure I'm going the long way around but it works for me.

One things for sure, you're back in action! Nice fish!!

WHAAAT?!?!? Why did they take gullible out of the dictionary?!? That just doesn't make sense!!! ???

What we have going on here is a common case of bass shrinkage. It's something every bass angler faces. It happens like this. The moment you set the hook on bass, is the moment it weighs the maximum amount. The moment you grasp the bass by the mouth and hoist it out if the water the dreaded shrinkage occurs! The bass loses as much as 30% of it's weight the moment it leaves the water. Next, you make the the mistake of taking a picture with the bass, another 15% is gone instantly. Then you commit the wost of the worst, you actually weigh it! This act of pure ignorance often reduces the fish another 20% and you are left with what was once a record breaking trophy and is now a mere "decent fish". This happens constantly with anglers and there should be more study on the phenomenon. Three weeks ago I was with a friend and he hooked fish that he instantly claimed was a solid 5+ lber on a light crappie setup, the fish was a beast! Only problem was the moment he pulled the fish out it became a high 3 low 4, by the time we finally put it on my scale it was only 3.27 or so. Classic example. You was certainly wise not to pull the fish out of the water, snap a picture and weigh her, by the time would have done that the fish would have only weighed 3.5-4 lbs. The reason @OCdockskipper has caught 30 lbers is because he's smart enough not to weigh them or take pictures.

1.5 lb crappie. I pitched my 5" T rigged senko into a bush and she inhales it and starts swimming off. Big girl with a big appetite....

A square bill is the only thing I've caught one on. It was a small channel cat. It fought like a loaf of bread.

@bigbill you should submit the bacon cheeseburger story to Outdoor Life for their humour page in the back......that cracked me up!? Do I believe in Big foot? Deep down I know there is no way they exist....but it's still fun to think they might could be out there. People always have and always will believe in mythical creatures, because its fun for them to think they could exist. How many of you have heard the same ole story of dam inspectors diving deep to inspect dams on huge lakes and come up with tales of catfish big enough to swallow a man?? Do they exist? No. But it's fun to talk about.... I'll be the 1st to admit that there is unexplained things out there, but I also know your imagination and eyes can play crazy tricks on you under the right circumstances.

Thats what I'm thinking?

Awesome! Any pics??

Had a good day fishing Fort Phantom yesterday in my new Bass Raider with a buddy. Water temp was 62°-63°. Caught about 20 bass between the 2 of us and several crappie as well, including a 1.5 lb slab. It was a blast because we was catching them shallow up in brush and they were good quality fish that fought hard. We were pitching T-rigged plastics into the nastiest cover we could find including brush and laydowns. Also caught a couple off of rocky shoreline. They would take off like a rocket for the brush when we set the hook and we would have to horse them out which was awesome. We both lost several, and he lost a good one in the brush and I had one that I couldn't hardly get turned from the brush and was peeling drag so I thumbed the spool to stop her twice. She got tangled up but managed to get her loose but came unbuttoned about 5' from the boat, she was a dandy. My best one went 3.8 lbs and his was 2.75 with several a piece over 2 lbs.

Ahh don't let it get to ya. It's a public forum and people will, and do say whatever crosses their mind (like I'm doing now) Just let it roll off you like water off a ducks back. When you get a $50,000 bass boat, $5,000 in electronics and 20+ years learning about the sport like some people have you will have confidence in stuff besides lures, but until then just roll with what you know.

Good write up and awesome pb!

So you can't defend yourself?? Are you supposed to just stand there and them flog you?? Makes no sense at all.

Have you tried a drop kick to the head??

Welcome and awesome catch!

Cavitron buzzbait.....

Hawg for sure!! Great catch!!