"Man what a perfect cast!", I thought after I watched my zoom lizard fly around a bush and land straight down the middle of a culvert drain pipe. Steady rain the last two days has had a mixture of clean and muddy water flowing down the creeks and into the ponds, and the bass and bluegill are stacked up just on the edges of the current flow waiting for any morsel to drift by. Lots of bass 6-10" long populate this pond with the occasional 18"er that's usually skinny and not surviving well. I've fished this pond for three years and I have a pretty good idea of what's in it, so boy was I in for a shock as I watched my lizard flow out of the drain with the current and disappear into the murky water, then felt that normal little "thunk" and watch my line start moving out towards deeper water... I set the hook. But this hook set didn't follow with a fish coming towards me as usual. Instead the rod loaded up, and I listened to 12lb flouro SCREAM as the drag started peeling off my curado 70! Then I saw the belly flash and the enormous head and mouth come up and roll just under the surface. She took off again pulling drag but quickly gave up. I let out a few choice words in the process, followed by "you've got to be kidding me!"

I drag her onto the bank in complete shock and amazement, and immediately pick her up and runto the car, and my tackle box in the trunk, 50 feet away! I just had the rod and a bag of lizards in my pocket. This is a giant, and I needed my scale!? What?!? 

 

She weighed in at 6.74 lbs and stretched just a hair over 23". My new PB weight LMB! I weighed her three times because I really couldn't believe it. She's full of eggs and getting fed up for the spawn. Solid and healthy in a pond I never imagined could support a bass larger than 3lbs. I weighed and measured her, snapped a couple pics and got her back in the water for that beautiful release. 

I was still pretty much in disbelief when I took the pic, and was getting rained on having a hard time getting a good shot and angle to show just how big she was. 

 

Her length makes her a citation fish in VA. She's my 4th citation this year. Following up the 23" bass I caught on Sunday. I feel the bass gods are treating me well this year, and this will not be my last, nor my biggest giant bass of the year! 

Congrats! Nice catch!

Haha I love it, you sir are whacking them this year congrats!

 

also, that story read like a novel haha, when’s your fishing book hitting the shelves? ?

Great Bass ~

Congrats on the new PB

A-Jay

 

Congrats, enjoy the high!

9 hours ago, Fairtax4me said:

"Man what a perfect cast!", I thought after I watched my zoom lizard fly around a bush and land straight down the middle of a culvert drain pipe. Steady rain the last two days has had a mixture of clean and muddy water flowing down the creeks and into the ponds, and the bass and bluegill are stacked up just on the edges of the current flow waiting for any morsel to drift by. Lots of bass 6-10" long populate this pond with the occasional 18"er that's usually skinny and not surviving well. I've fished this pond for three years and I have a pretty good idea of what's in it, so boy was I in for a shock as I watched my lizard flow out of the drain with the current and disappear into the murky water, then felt that normal little "thunk" and watch my line start moving out towards deeper water... I set the hook. But this hook set didn't follow with a fish coming towards me as usual. Instead the rod loaded up, and I listened to 12lb flouro SCREAM as the drag started peeling off my curado 70! Then I saw the belly flash and the enormous head and mouth come up and roll just under the surface. She took off again pulling drag but quickly gave up. I let out a few choice words in the process, followed by "you've got to be kidding me!"

I drag her onto the bank in complete shock and amazement, and immediately pick her up and runto the car, and my tackle box in the trunk, 50 feet away! I just had the rod and a bag of lizards in my pocket. This is a giant, and I needed my scale!? What?!? 

 

She weighed in at 6.74 lbs and stretched just a hair over 23". My new PB weight LMB! I weighed her three times because I really couldn't believe it. She's full of eggs and getting fed up for the spawn. Solid and healthy in a pond I never imagined could support a bass larger than 3lbs. I weighed and measured her, snapped a couple pics and got her back in the water for that beautiful release. 

I was still pretty much in disbelief when I took the pic, and was getting rained on having a hard time getting a good shot and angle to show just how big she was. 

 

Her length makes her a citation fish in VA. She's my 4th citation this year. Following up the 23" bass I caught on Sunday. I feel the bass gods are treating me well this year, and this will not be my last, nor my biggest giant bass of the year! 

 

Great Job!!

 

 

 

 

Mike

That is how you get it done .....

 

Keep that scale and tape near-by.

 

Awesome fish and great narrative. Congratulations!

PB's are always sweet. 

Nice fish, great pic!

 

Good write up and awesome pb!

Thanks for the great comments guys! Still feeling the buzz off this one! Just incredible to me that this fish has been under my nose for three years and I've never seen or caught her. I make a very thorough visual check of this pond every year at spawn looking for these female bass, and I've had a lure on literally every inch of this pond and never seen or caught anything over 2.5lbs. And I've run everything from buzz baits and whopper ploppers, to crank baits, jerkbaits, jigs, worms and just about every other kind of soft plastic bait in there, including the same zoom lizard at spawn time last year! I finally got luck enough to toss the right lure right in front of her face when she was hungry! 

 

And my book should be out in about 20 or 30 years!  

Congratulations on catching your new personal best bass.