Congratulations to Dominic Montalto for catching a 16 pound,12 ounce bass while fishing from the shore in Florida.His bass is one of the biggest bass caught in recent history and was close to breaking the official state record.He released his bass so she still has potential to grow even bigger than the current state record.

Awesome ! Is there a picture somewhere ? Any details ? 

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2017/04/13/estero-angler-leads-way-big-state-bass-catch/100430586/

If this is it ~ There's going to be questions.

A-Jay

32 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

Awesome ! Is there a picture somewhere ? Any details ? 

Yes plenty of pictures and he's officially in the TrophyCatch Hall of Fame Club.It makes me happy seeing a young man catching a bass that big from land in Florida and hope the state record gets broken either by him or a young man/woman who just fishes for fun.

My PB technically isn't even half of that. And it was huge to me ! Lol. What was the length do ya know ? 

Wow. Nice! Perhaps the angle is a little off.

That's a pretty fat tummy, eh? 

 

8 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2017/04/13/estero-angler-leads-way-big-state-bass-catch/100430586/

If this is it ~ There's going to be questions.

A-Jay

 

11 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

My PB technically isn't even half of that. And it was huge to me ! Lol. What was the length do ya know ? 

Don't know the length of this 16.75 pound bass but it's certified by State Biologist so that's good enough for me to consider it a extremely impressive catch from land.

12 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

Don't know the length of this 16.75 pound bas but it's certified by State Biologist so that's good enough for me to consider it a extremely impressive catch from land.

 

Ummmm.... It's impressive regardless of circumstances! 

 

Seen as how the world record is 22+ pounds. And bass have been confirmed to get 25 + lbs...  This is not far fetched to me at all... Seen as how it is a FLORIDA bass and a very high percentage of "huge" bass in this country are Florida strain....

 

I'm gonna guess 28" ? Lol

 

My PB was 24". I doubt I'll ever bust it in Ohio. Maybe I'll come down to Florida and do some bank fishing soflabasser style. 

 

Kudos to the kid . Right place right time. Happy for him . 

Great catch.  Congrats to him.

No no no, big bass are too smart! No way some 19 year old from the bank could catch such a beast. 

 

Right water, right presentation, right time. All three were there, no genius was involved. 

I started targeting it and just kept trying until it took the bait.” i like that part my luck it woulda swam off.

Sounds like it was spawning

That bass was certified by several experts and is the largest caught year to date in Florida. The picture I saw did not support the weight but the scale did! Congrats to him. 

20 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Yes plenty of pictures and he's officially in the TrophyCatch Hall of Fame Club.It makes me happy seeing a young man catching a bass that big from land in Florida and hope the state record gets broken either by him or a young man/woman who just fishes for fun.

Only problem now is, he will NEVER beat his new pb

 

But man, that had to one hell of a fight dragging that monster to the shore. Probably thought he was pulling in a log. 

25 minutes ago, iiTzChunky said:

Only problem now is, he will NEVER beat his new pb

 

But man, that had to one hell of a fight dragging that monster to the shore. Probably thought he was pulling in a log. 

The general area he lives in is known for trophy bass so he might eventually catch a bigger bass.He is very fortunate to have had the opportunity to catch that 16.75 pound bass and he is a true sportsman for releasing her.

2 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

The general area he lives in is known for trophy bass so he might eventually catch a bigger bass.He is very fortunate to have had the opportunity to catch that 16.75 pound bass and he is a true sportsman for releasing her.

I'll admit idk if I could have let that go. I'd probably have to mount that baby. It'd be a shame because it could get bigger but man, that'd be hard to let that thing go. 

Makes me want to go and respool all my reels with 50 lb braid! Congrats to that young man.

8 minutes ago, iiTzChunky said:

I'll admit idk if I could have let that go. I'd probably have to mount that baby. It'd be a shame because it could get bigger but man, that'd be hard to let that thing go. 

Yes it's hard to let go a trophy bass but it's worth it.These bass have the right genetics to create more bass that can potentially become trophy bass.Besides a cell phone can take excellent pictures,a tape measure can measure length and girth,a scale can weigh a bass,and a extremely realistic replica of the bass can be made.

I received an email from trophy catch yesterday regarding this catch.. I agree the angle doesn't fair well for a 16.75 but if they verified it then congrats on that beast. Some of those smaller ponds in Fl hold some monsters.

Nice fish.  Get a haircut now

1 hour ago, soflabasser said:

The general area he lives in is known for trophy bass so he might eventually catch a bigger bass.He is very fortunate to have had the opportunity to catch that 16.75 pound bass and he is a true sportsman for releasing her.

I hope your right about that but locally here around fort Myers and estero in the small ponds and canals even ten pounders are rare!

Wow! Good for him! A 19 year old kid casting swimbaits to a giant and landing it! I can think of a lot of other unproductive things that 19 year old kids can do instead of that. 

11 minutes ago, 1234567 said:

I hope your right about that but locally here around fort Myers and estero in the small ponds and canals even ten pounders are rare!

Ten pounders are rare everywhere but are much more common in Central Florida when compared to South Florida.I got family that live close to where this bass was caught and my cousins say +8 pounders get caught frequently by where they live.

My wife told me about that fish yesterday, which was taken from a private pond in Estero, FL.

From all accounts this bass is totally legit. I must say though, it's one of the heaviest bass

I'm aware of from such a southerly latitude (i.e. N 26.5). The long-growing season

in such a southerly clime produces a lot of double-digit bass, but due to a shortened lifespan

caused by thermal burnout, bass over 15 pounds are 'very rare' at a latitude that far south.

Most Florida bass weighing in the high teens were taken from latitude 27 and north,

and of course the former world-record was taken in south Georgia.

 

Roger