Sure, having a bass thumb is cool and all... But for me, the sign of a great day on the water is whenever my ribs are bruised and sore from setting the hook and fighting fish all day. Sure I'm not the only who gets this side effect from a good day of fishing...

I caught around 20 bass on Saturday and more than half of them above 3 pounds and my thumb was bleeding but that has happened before when you know you’ve had a good day in Florida is when you’ve had to almost fall in the water because you can’t lift the fish with your rod. Tightlines everyone.

I can relate.

Had a wide open jig bite south of the border that lasted three days . . . . 

By trips end my left side looked and felt like Rocky Balboa worked me over like a side of beef.

Good Times

A-Jay

 

Haha It took me a while to figure out where the mysterious bruises and discomforts to my lower ribs were coming from...may sound dumb but I never put two and two together! Needless to say, I’ve got a good bruised rib cage from this weekend.

For me, the sign of a good day is a bandage covering the spot where I’d hooked myself. Never happens when I get skunked. 

I don't lip my fish for the most part, so I don't get the bass thumb real bad. The gloves I wear prevent it some also when I do lip them. I've got broken blood vessels all over my left side from all the years of setting hooks, a lot of them are probably from setting the hooks on flatheads in heavy cover with 130lb braid, but some probably from all the bass hook sets. 

Did I lose more than 5 lures?  Did I have more than 4 backlashes? Did I lose a 3lb+ fish? Did I bury a hook in myself? If the answer is no to all of these, then it's been a good day on the water.

 

As for a pure fish count perspective, if I've caught 1 fish, then I have at least proven to myself I can catch 1 and it's been a good day.

On 5/30/2018 at 2:14 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

a lot of them are probably from setting the hooks on flatheads in heavy cover with 130lb braid

Sheesh I haven't heard of people using this lb test of line for anything other than heavy duty offshore fishing...

On 6/4/2018 at 12:17 PM, bhoff said:

Sheesh I haven't heard of people using this lb test of line for anything other than heavy duty offshore fishing...

That's often not enough to pull one of these back out of a log jam.

On 5/30/2018 at 2:14 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

I don't lip my fish for the most part, so I don't get the bass thumb real bad. The gloves I wear prevent it some also when I do lip them. I've got broken blood vessels all over my left side from all the years of setting hooks, a lot of them are probably from setting the hooks on flatheads in heavy cover with 130lb braid, but some probably from all the bass hook sets. 

I work with my hands all day, bass thumb would literally make my day a living hell. I get a lot of hack for not lipping my fish, but I don’t fish for a living. 

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

That's often not enough to pull one of these back out of a log jam.

Hahahaha point made...