I was going to take the kayak out last Saturday, but my kid had a headache and my stomach was a little rough from doing the Death Nut Challenge 3.0 the night before (nobody even told me I was only supposed to eat one of the nuts!), so we got a late start.

 

So once we felt better, we headed down to one of our shore spots and nobody was getting anything. I guess someone got a perch when I went to pick up dinner, but that was about it. As it got dark, fish started jumping out and I caught a small rock bass, but nothing for a while after.

 

A little while later, my son said to me that he wasn't really fishing his drop shot because he couldn't see much of anything but if he was, he would fish the culvert next to me. Now the culvert is pretty much collapsed but historically has big fish so I wasn't targeting it as hard as I normally would, but what the heck, I threw my drop shot out in front of the culvert and got bit.

 

I figure this fish was in the 4s somewhere. Another guy fishing came over and lent me his net and he said it has to be a 5 pounder, but I'm pretty confident it was a little shy. From the fight it put up, I was a little bummed that it wasn't much larger.

My kid took the picture and didn't want to walk over to the light, so sorry you can't see anything.

 

Still my largest bass of the year. I got my kid a spinning rod for his bday, and he's been getting all the big fish usually on a drop shot.

Nice fish!  Congratulations.    

 

And, please forgive me if just maybe one of my first thoughts was that perhaps you should have posted this in the BR Worst Pictures thread.

3 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Nice fish!  Congratulations.    

 

And, please forgive me if just maybe one of my first thoughts was that perhaps you should have posted this in the BR Worst Pictures thread.

That's fair lol

Every big fish I've caught in my life is in my head. High res in my head. Perfect lighting in my head. Vivid and clear. Yours is too.

 

And CONGRATS!

Congratulations!

On 9/14/2022 at 2:41 PM, ol'crickety said:

Every big fish I've caught in my life is in my head. High res in my head. Perfect lighting in my head. Vivid and clear. 

Same here, but the big ones that got away, I remember even more clearly. Two 7#+ LM, two 30"+ Saugeye, 50 something inch musky, 40#+ flathead. All lost at boatside. Being so close, yet so far from all those PB's just adds fuel to the obsession, but man what a deflating feeling when it happens. 2:49am, 54 degress out and heading for mid 40's, I'm getting ready to go chasing after another.

On 9/23/2022 at 1:52 AM, T-Billy said:

Same here, but the big ones that got away, I remember even more clearly. Two 7#+ LM, two 30"+ Saugeye, 50 something inch musky, 40#+ flathead. All lost at boatside. Being so close, yet so far from all those PB's just adds fuel to the obsession, but man what a deflating feeling when it happens. 2:49am, 54 degress out and heading for mid 40's, I'm getting ready to go chasing after another.

Yep! All the big ones that you don't get in the boat seem to have stronger emotions attached than the ones you do get in the boat. Even though I'm catch and release, I still want the satisfaction of netting them all. Caught several nice ones Sunday but the one that sticks in my head is the big Smallie that came unbuttoned when she jumped. Durn... I hate it when they do that!

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Yep! All the big ones that you don't get in the boat seem to have stronger emotions attached than the ones you do get in the boat. Even though I'm catch and release, I still want the satisfaction of netting them all. Caught several nice ones Sunday but the one that sticks in my head is the big Smallie that came unbuttoned when she jumped. Durn... I hate it when they do that!

If they jump and come off, you just gotta say at least you got the fun part out of her 

Congrats! Nice fish and sounds like a great time with your son. He might be catching the big ones, but sometimes you just gotta remind 'em that Dad's still got it.

 

And stand a little further back next time, I can still make out some shapes! ?