This fish deserved its own post, I would rank it as top 5 in my craziest fish catches ever. I was on the Ohio River near Weirton, WV, on the WV side. I was walking beside a set of train tracks to go to a spot where my friends and I fish for walleye, hybrid striper, and white bass. It is a pretty good hike so we have to carry in a lot of gear, all of which is packed away. My friend lives in the area and had never caught a bass from the area we walked through, and he is an EXCELLENT fisherman.

 

As usual, my eyes were picking apart the shoreline while we walked, and I spotted a pretty nice largemouth as it cruised up to a weed edge. I didn't have anything rigged up, and the only suitable rod I had with me was a 7' medium action baitcaster with 12lb fluoro. I scrambled as fast as I could to open my bag, get a finesse jig out, and tie it up. Shockingly, the bass stayed put. I was standing on the side of the train tracks at this point, a solid 10' above the water level, and flipped my jig way out in the river. I swam the jig back in to where the fish was, and let it settle on the bottom before I shook it. I instantly felt two sharp taps and set the hook. The fish went nuts, and my buddy somehow slid down the extremely steep bank feet first, and scooped the fish in the net as soon as his feet hit the water!

 

The fish was absolutely gorgeous and weighed 5lbs, 7oz, my biggest WV bass so far, and I am pretty sure that is a large fish for the Ohio River. She didn't look like she had ever been caught before either!

 

Nice bass! Congratulations on your biggest WV bass! ?

that's what makes fishing more fun, the crazy things that we will do to catch a bass. that is a great fish for the ohio.

A 5lb bass is huge for WV.. our bass just don’t grow like they do in other parts of the country..

Congrats!! Really nice bass!

 

That is a nice bass, I live just south of you and I usually catch smallmouth. Good luck

Very nice Largemouth for the Ohio River. I live down the river in Catlettsburg, Kentucky and haven't seen anyone report a bucketmouth of  that caliber out of there. Congrats on your catch!!!!