I'm still pretty much in shock. I took my kayak out to the hot side of Lake Anna to get my fix like I have been all winter. Today was a really tough day, wind was blowing hard, making 90% of the lake unfishable from a kayak, water temps were low, and the waves coming over the nose and side of the kayak had me soaking wet. 

   I'm not one to throw in the towel because of less than favorable conditions, so I ended up paddling for around 2 hours to find some protected water that was warm enough. A toasty 64 degrees compared to the 54 I started in. 4th bite of the day I lean back on the shakey head and start winding. Wow feels like a good one, then she *tries* to jump and I realize what I'm in for. I was only a few feet from a set of bridge pilings and that's exactly where she was headed with my 8lb leader. Somehow I managed to paddle myself away from the bridge and coax the fish into open water. A few heart stopping moments later I was able to lip the fish and bring her in the kayak with me.

WOW what a fish. She measured 25" long 17" around, my last PB was 24" so I can at least call it a PB even without a weight. She wouldn't have bit anyways if I had a scale in my kayak!

 

Not sure if I was okay to hold the fish like this, give me some feedback please. I was a little excited

Nice catch!!!!

Wow....great looking fish!!

As far as handling the fish goes, I have heard that larger fish, like the one you caught, should always be supported by the body and the mouth but who knows.  I would have been excited too!!

 

Good job

What a beast

That's a tank! Man you guys gotta start buying scales!!!!

Very nice fish!

Beast fish

Freakin' toad right there! She is very healthy. Great catch!!!

Wow ~ what a GREAT BASS ! ! !

And on an 8lb leader to boot, really good work.

Congrats on the new PB.

A-Jay

 

Wow big fish!!! Great job with 8 pound!

WOW. Now that's a hawg.

That's a monster! Good catch!

Congratulations on a great catch. 

IM jealous...... end of story

Congrats. She is a toad. I would not worry about a vertical hold on bass. There is no evidence suggesting that it causes any harm like it does to some other fish species. 

Congrats on the beast!  Beautiful fatty!  Great job on small line as well!

Jeff

 

                                                 CONGRATULATIONS!

                                                             

d**n dude 

Solid fish

Holy Smokes that is a fat girl!

 

Great fish, bro!!!

Awesome! Congrats.

Hold looks OK. Support in top photo, hanging straight in 2nd. Wouldn't do it for a long time with such a fish though. I try  to be aware that I'm not tearing or over-stretching tendons in there. As we get old tissues are less forgiving; most probably this holds for fish too.

what a fish man!!  congrats!!

Awesome bass! For that water that is serious trophy! Congratulations, sounds like you had to earn that one with the weather.

p.s. - you have to be careful with the vertical hold on a big bass without supporting the weight as you can get some stretching in the narrow connective tissue at the base of the neck where the head meets the body of the bass, it can cause a miss-aligned jaw, particularly if the bass does not hold still and starts bouncing around

 

14 minutes ago, Turtle135 said:

Awesome bass! For that water that is serious trophy! Congratulations, sounds like you had to earn that one with the weather.

p.s. - you have to be careful with the vertical hold on a big bass without supporting the weight as you can get some stretching in the narrow connective tissue at the base of the neck where the head meets the body of the bass, it can cause a miss-aligned jaw, particularly if the bass does not hold still and starts bouncing around

 

I will keep that in mind thanks. This fish was very cooperative and pretty much was paralyzed until I released her.

Congratulations on the PB!  That's a beautiful, fat fish.

Great fish on 8lb .. I recently caught the biggest fish I'd ever caught ON 8 LB line. the fight is more fun then bigger ones I caught on big braid