Hey guys. For context I’m a new fisherman. I only really started a little over two months ago. Bass is what got me interested but I had no idea how to find them till about a little over a week ago and I’ve had some luck since. With that said about 3 days ago I hooked into what might’ve been my biggest yet (my pb is 16 inch 3lb). When I went to lip it I hesitated. The idea of holding fish before wasn’t something I was into originally but as I started catching them I quickly got over it and enjoyed it... but this fish scared me a little. I had to grab it though cause it was up on a rock. My soft baby thumbs were feeling this thing thrash like no fish before it. I wanted to get to my old hand me down scale but the more I couldn’t keep a good grip on the fish the more I lost confidence in accurately scaling the thing let alone getting it on. That’s when I noticed my finger had punctured through the lip, and the fish had blood on its tail (don’t think it was caused by me). I didn’t wish to harm the fish any further so snagged two quick pictures and released it... wondering if it was my pb. To be honest I had a ton of adrenaline in the moment and would handle it all differently if possible. I’m going back to the spot tomorrow to measure the metal tube since that was kinda the idea behind me snapping a picture of it against that.

 

But how big do you more experienced fishermen guess it is from these two pictures? 

 

I would say close to 5#, maybe a little over!  Nice fish

 

4 lb 14 oz

 

 

Congrat on your PB, that is a nice 5lb bass for sure. The longer you fish you will like “bass thumb”. Those bloody tail might be post spawn bass.

11 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

4 lb 14 oz

 

 

Nah - look at the scales at the side of the gill plate for scale... 4 lbs 10.25 oz.

 

Regardless - thats a dandy fish.

4.5 - 5.25 post spawn female.  By the look of the belly she's already laid her eggs.  Would have looked even bigger pre spawn.  

5 hours ago, VolFan said:

Nah - look at the scales at the side of the gill plate for scale... 4 lbs 10.25 oz.

 

Regardless - thats a dandy fish.

 

 How did I miss that?