No pics. But we have had odd very warm weather for February in Iowa the last couple weeks. So one of the ones about 1/4 of it doesn’t have ice. You bet I went and threw a ned rig lol. Saw lots of minnows and one bass flash when I walked up. Felt good to go try atleast. We have 2 more days before the weather gets cold again for a week. I may try again even tho the water is in the high 30s.

@Pat Brown: Some mapmakers used to write "Here be dragons" at the edges of their maps. Well, looking at that bass, I think "Here be dragons" is appropriate for California.

About the same conditions as yesterday - mostly sunny, breezy and warm. Fish weren’t biting any better, just two keeper bass - jerkbait, A-rig - but did get one of the oversize crappie (2-1/4) that made the trip a bit better.

Ponds are clear my daughter and I went out for an hour. Wind picked up to 20 mph steady. We are getting a cold front. Threw a 1/4 ounce rattle trap and same size jerk bait. No bites. A ton of filamentous algae to catch with treble hooks. And backlashed my reel beyond repair casting into the wind that picked up. Had a great time though! Can’t wait for true warm weather and the water temp to pick up!

11 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

but how big y’all think Damian’s latest is?

Definitely too big to weigh by her lip.

Monster bass.

4 minutes ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

Definitely too big to weigh by her lip.

Monster bass.

I tend to agree but she’ll probably be okay. Maybe his options were kill her and drive her corpse somewhere she could be laid horizontally or weigh her by the lip quickly and let her go to fight another day or have a fish story and guess at the weight forever. Fishing from a kayak you don’t really have a live well to stuff her in for hours driving around and really that’s probably not great for fish either. He probably did exactly what he had to do to get a weight.

I respect his choice.

2 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I tend to agree but she’ll probably be okay. Maybe his options were kill her and drive her corpse somewhere she could be laid horizontally or weigh her by the lip quickly and let her go to fight another day or have a fish story and guess at the weight forever. Fishing from a kayak you don’t really have a live well to stuff her in for hours driving around and really that’s probably not great for fish either. He probably did exactly what he had to do to get a weight.

I respect his choice.

Absolutely. Give situation best practice was executed

I’ll paraphrase what I read - in the wind it weighed 17.46 on a bubba scale and they tried to get California fish and game / DNR etc and couldn’t get anyone to pick up the phone with certified scales.

They found someone and with the help of a friend with a bass boat that had a good live well - they took the bass to a certified scale and it weighed 18.75 multiple times.

They took it back to the lake and released it safely and a friend told Damian in confidence that he broke state law transporting the fish - as a result it will not be a lake record. Scales needed to be brought to the site. Damian was fully transparent about this and owned it. To me though - he just cracked the top 20 biggest bass of all time.

18.75. Wow.

He caught a 6 and a 10 out of the same piece of cover a couple casts before this one bit. That’s why you keep casting to the tree! 😵🎯

That’s awesome!!! What a fish

@WRB-2.0 would’ve loved to see that big girl!

11 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

how big y’all think Damian’s latest is?

I'm good at estimating weight. I watch those YouTube videos of guys catching bass and can guess within a couple ounces of a bass's weight, but those are three to eight-pound bass. Damian's bass is in a class that's beyond my experience. I have seen plenty of ten, eleven, and twelve-pound bass, but his bass is far beyond those. I'm also guessing it's a Tom-sized bass, a 17, 18, or 19-pounder.

I posted the text above before reading the latest posts in this thread. So, 18.75 pounds is the actual weight. WOW!

With that bass he is now #14 of all time unofficially but in my mind it definitely is. Incredible stuff to see in my lifetime! You don’t see fish like that often and it couldn’t have happened to a humbler guy or a more serious hammer.

Wanna see proof of Damian’s prowess - go watch his double digit frog bass compilation. It’s like watching a Super Bowl highlights reel. Many of them are from the bank and the rest are from a kayak. His hookset is FIERCE with a frog - I’ve learned a lot from Damian just watching him fish.

51 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

With that bass he is now #14 of all time unofficially but in my mind it definitely is. Incredible stuff to see in my lifetime! You don’t see fish like that often and it couldn’t have happened to a humbler guy or a more serious hammer.

Wanna see proof of Damian’s prowess - go watch his double digit frog bass compilation. It’s like watching a Super Bowl highlights reel. Many of them are from the bank and the rest are from a kayak. His hookset is FIERCE with a frog - I’ve learned a lot from Damian just watching him fish.

Once again thanks Pat for new person to watch!

I've had the misfortune of fishing against Damian. That was in the Bassmaster Kayak Classic on Tenkiller a few years back, prior to having FFS or even a motor on my kayak. He was fishing how I wanted to fish but couldn't because of the wind in practice, I never got to check the docks he was fishing during the tournament. His skill with FFS and open water fishing is unreal. I've learned a lot just from watching how he does it. He's very humble and he seems to very much be "Me vs the fish", which is the same way I feel on the water.

One cool thing about Damian's 18.75-pounder is this: If he caught one that big, is there one even bigger swimming somewhere? More than one? A 21-pounder? A new world record? It's thrilling to contemplate even though I'll never catch such fish.

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've had the misfortune of fishing against Damian.

I'm glad that there's a stick that scares you, Clayton, because fishing against you would scare me. So, you're my Frankenstein and Damian is your Godzilla.

Now, IF I had a chance to fish with you and not against you, Clayton, I might not even fish because I'd pepper you with so many questions that you'd feel like you were pepper steak!

Bonk

Well here is my report of fishing lake Marian , the Kissimmee river & lake Kissimmee. Me & a high school buddy fished shiners for the whole day while our boat Capt fished a 7’ senko Texas rigged. We fished from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. The weather was mostly clear sunny skies with air temps from 60 degrees to 82 & the water temps went from 62 to 68 during the day. We were fishing post cold front about five days after with a continuing warming trend. The water on lake Marian was low visibility under a foot with algae present rather than brown tannic strain. Dirty green water. We fished until about noon. Then proceed to the river just below the locks with minimal current present. Lots of gar. Then went to south Kissimmee for the remainder of our day. We were totally skunked. One possible bass chasing a shiner into a rock bank at the lock & that was it. No other action for the day. Should have been a good day based on warming water temps prespawn. We covered water depths from 2’ to 6’ which is about all you can get from these bodies of water with low water conditions. Totally sucked. A true lesson in humility. Some days I get lucky but not today.

11 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Some days I get lucky but not today.

I appreciate your trip report, Dwight. You're such a big stick and your report shows that you can be fishing with decades of experience and despite all your wisdom, still be skunked. I expect to be skunked too a time or two come April, just like last year.

@thediscochef: Great fish, but I'm curious about the different background. You usually have mowed grass behind you.

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

If he caught one that big, is there one even bigger swimming somewhere? More than one? A 21-pounder? A new world record

Or how much would she weigh full of eggs?

25 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Well here is my report of fishing lake Marian , the Kissimmee river & lake Kissimmee. Me & a high school buddy fished shiners for the whole day . A true lesson in humility. Some days I get lucky but not today.

Bummer.

Certainly not what you guys where hoping for. But you made more casts than I did.

A-Jay

2 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I appreciate your trip report, Dwight. You're such a big stick and your report shows that you can be fishing with decades of experience and despite all your wisdom, still be skunked. I expect to be skunked too a time or two come April, just like last year.

@thediscochef: Great fish, but I'm curious about the different background. You usually have mowed grass behind you.

Combination of things there. The mowed spots y'all are used to seeing are a part of a waterfront campsite that gets mowed. We had a serious rain upstream over the weekend and the lake rose just over a foot. Since then, it's been 15-30mph south winds and bright sun - so a lot of muddy churned up water. This time of year that usually dictates shallows down here, so I dove into the brush and got to a stump I like. Fished a minimax along the edge of some invasive milfoil and got bit bites when it pulled free of the vegetables

@thediscochef , you’re a machine

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

@thediscochef , you’re a machine

clink clank
I am a beneficiary of the work of TPWD and the USACE, they do all the hard work. I just fish here