This is a beauty pageant. What was your most beautiful bass of 2022? The beauty criteria are yours to set. It might be the bass's coloration or shape. It might be the circumstances of the catch and your personal circumstances when you caught that particular bass. Here's mine and I picked her because most of the big bass I caught this summer were the offspring of a Cro-Magnon female and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The dame below was as lightly colored as a yearling and as symmetrical as a candy drop. She looked daisy fresh too, as if she'd miraculously avoided life's chisel all her years. She was 19.25 inches and a bass of the far north, so she'd lived a few years too.

That one looks like it has a very steady diet too!
 

Mine is probably this blemish-free beauty. 4lb 13oz, 20.5”. Not a mark on her, and very memorable strike on a spinnerbait. And the look of admiration on my face ?

 

I’ve gotten some very nicely colored smallmouth this year that I wish I had gotten pictures of, including one that was solid black. Slipped out of my hands over the side of the boat before I could take a pic. 

^That is a beauty!^ 

 

Thanks for sharing. I love fish pics.

I haven’t taken too many bass pics this year, and this little guy is a long ways from being the largest one I’ve caught so far this year, but it’s a lovely copper colour, and the fact that I caught it from the river that runs through the middle of my property is “beautiful”, to me. In about 30 seconds, I can walk across my field, and be catching a mix of largemouth and smallmouth within sight of my house, and not ever see another human unless I’ve invited them to be there. 
That alone is worth the mortgage ?. 

You have bass in your backyard??? You have turned me into a jar of jelly!

9 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

You have bass in your backyard??? You have turned me into a jar of jelly!

As someone that always wanted their own little pond to fish in since childhood, it’s certainly fun to own about a 1/2 mile section of a river ??

Beautiful? Got to be a Spot for me.

Maybe this one.?

I can see why you couldn't decide, Mr. Pig. Both spots are stunning.

A half mile of river, Way North? Whoa! Now I'm a Smuckers' factory of jelly. 

It also happened to be the biggest of 2022 but the year is still young. It was hard to measure but inbetween 21 and 22”

 

February 12, 2022

 

First bass I caught on a jig and first time I had been to this lake in 15 years. No bites for 2 hours and I was about to head home. 20".

57 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Beautiful? Got to be a Spot for me.

Maybe this one.?

Alabama Bass like the second pic of yours can't be topped imho.   Just incredible.  They have almost snake camouflage to them 

 

Great thread Katie, I could look at Bass pics for days

      The only fish this year I was able to get the whole fish in the picture, because, I didn't have to try and take a selfie of while in my kayak.  I landed it from shore right when another kayak angler was coming around the point.  He stopped and took my picture.  It was the first time I fished this lake, the bass in this lake are darker with more pronounced markings, than the bass in the other lakes I fish.

king fisher, your bass has an otherworldly beauty to it. Its belly is as white as freshly fallen snow, which makes its dark markings even more striking.

 

Mr. 87, that's a heckuva first fish on a jig!

 

Alex, I do appreciate the beauty of spots, but of all the bass, I think golden and green smallies with strong striping like Mr. 46's are the most beautiful. Glad you're enjoying the photos. I am too!

Both of these fatties seemed like beautiful representations of the genus.

A-Jay

Some beauties itt!

Not my biggest of the year, but a good looking bass and a rare picture that wasn't a selfie.   

 

 

It is harder to pick for me since I see them all beautiful. If I really have to pick one, must be this girl. Most of the big bass I caught after spawning so they are pretty skinny but long. This one seem to have football shape.

This is my most beautiful bass of 2022 based on her classic shape.

 

 

 

I also forgot about this meanmouth (smallie x spot hybrid). What’s our limit on number of submissions ol’crickety? 

3 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

This is my most beautiful bass of 2022 based on her classic shape.

 

 

 

Disqualified. Reason: fish too large 

No limit, Mr. 46! The winter is coming to Maine. Fish pics are like coals on the fire for this old Yankee.

 

However, Dwight didn't exactly post a fish pic. Clearly someone painted the Goodyear blimp to look like a smallie and Dwight posed with that.

 

I love the color and striping of the fish that A-Jay catches. I was hoping he'd add one or two to the gallery. 

 

Woody, yours is the shiniest bass I have ever seen. It looks like it's varnished!

 

SoCal, that's beyond a football shape. It looks like the football that a Tom Brady-hater pumped extra full for revenge. 

 

 

 

 

My best fish so far this year for shape. Too bad my brother held the phone sideways and had a finger partially over the flash which washed the pic. I couldn't be mad though because it was the 1st time he was with me when I caught a 7+. His reaction was priceless. Tried a ton of color/contrast edits and sort of salvaged it.

 

So many choices. This isn’t the best picture but this is my personal most beautiful fish.  It was pretty and large, but more important it was my first smallie over 4 lb and also my first smallie from this lake. I tried all of last year to catch a smallie because I knew they must be in this spot.  This was my first one that proved the point (with an exclamation point!)

 

 

this largemouth was fin perfect and super pale prespawn and cold. I hadn’t caught one this light in a really long time and loved it. the fact it was almost 4 lb helped too.

 

 

and this smallie is one of the best figured fish I’ve caught to my eye. Fin perfect, great color, and aggressive as all the best ones are. Amazing what a 3 lb smallmouth fights like.  It wasn’t where I would have targeted smallies but I learned something and now will. 
 

 

 

 

Tough one to answer.  They all are special to me. I would say the best are the ones caught with good friends.  

I’ll go with this one caught on a smallish lake in NY springtime. 

 

@ol’crickety my name is Nate so you don’t have to call me Mr. Shad, lol