I've not been posting a bunch because of some life issues. My van tore up, and I had another car, a Chevy Tracker but it needed some repair before I could drive it. This took a while, and as a result I only fished 2 times in 3 weeks. During that time, I went through a spell of poor service too, so I wasn't able to check in as often.

 

Well, after I got my Tracker running, I took it to town and went fishing. I went to the heavily pressured public lake that I've mentioned several times. I like fishing this spot because it's a challenge. It's fun to catch a fish here and there when others say they've fished it, sometimes for years, and never caught anything.

 

I'd learned some about tying soft split rings with braided line, and I thought that this trick might just be something that'd give me an edge. I tied my favorite gold crankbait thusly, and had tried it a few times with no luck. It does feel differently though. It pulls through the water with less sound, less vibration, and overall is just "different" feeling.

 

Well, this day, I was by myself, I started working my way around one of the holding ponds that is attached to the north end of the main lake. These ponds are connected to the lake via a small channel, which the city dams up to hold the fish in case they need to work on the dam at the other end of the main lake.

 

This particular day, there wasn't a crowd, but there was 4-5 other people fishing. I fished a split shot rig a bit, with no success, so I switched to the crankbait. I caught a nice 1lb10oz bass.

 

I worked my way down about 20 yards, making a few casts. I was working the squarebill crankbait at a medium speed, probably just nipping bottom on occasion, in about 4 feet of water. I was sweeping the rod tip sideways to move the lure, but not letting the lure pause between sweeps, rather, just letting it slow down.

 

About 10 feet from shore, I felt a strike. I set the hook. I saw my line moving sideways to the left, I began reeling, and the fish ran directly towards me! I reeled as fast as I could. This bass knew all the tricks, he went right for a bush! A skinny bush, but a bush nevertheless. The shore line in this spot is about a 3' drop off. I held my rod out with my left hand as far as I could to persuade the brute to come free of the bush, all the while thinking... I am glad I have 12 pound Big Game mono, and not something lesser!

 

The fish emerged from the bush and just sort of submitted, swimming right to the shore's edge and the surface, looking right at me. I could see it was a very nice fish, and guessed 3-4 pounds.

 

By this time, someone was walking by. Three younger guys. I'd played the fish maybe 30 seconds, but it seemed like 5 minutes at this point. I was thinking... how am I going to land this thing without a net? I was reluctant to flip it because I didn't think it was hooked good enough, and I couldn't tell for sure, but I know there are some 6+ pounders in there, and I didn't want to chance losing this trophy regardless of weight.

 

Well the passerbyers saw the fish and congratulated me. They offered to help, so I let one of them hold the rod, while I collected my possibles, which consisted of my tackle bag and another rod, that were about 30 feet away.

 

I returned to the rod, and took it in hand, then I proceeded to walk up the shoreline about 40 yards towards the nearest spot I could reach the water, pulling the fish with me. The fish knew his environment well, and lunged for another bush, then a large stick that was in the corner.

 

After I made it around the bend, it wasn't far until the water was at foot level, and I was able to swiftly slide the fish from the water right up onto the shore, which consisted of short grass.

 

Without further ado, here is my new personal best, a weighed 4lb7oz, with my scale registering 3/4oz light.

 

 

 

I'm quite proud of this fish. I know that it's not the largest fish in the lake, but for me it shows that all the hard work I've done to learn the lake, and how to fish pressured waters is paying off.

 

Up until the above fish, I thought that the following was my PB, but I had not weighed it. I estimated it at 5 pounds based on my box that I had previously weighed.

 

Then, I caught this one:

and I weighed it at 3lb14oz, so I was pretty confident that the fish above was closer to 4 pounds, rather than 5.

 

Now, after catching the fish in the first picture there is no doubt about the one I didn't weigh.

 

The new PB fish was physically larger, and it was noticeably heavier to hold. Shame there wasn't someone handy to take a picture of me holding it.

 

I unhooked and released it. I thanked God, and I hollered whooo!

 

Then I got a text message from a friend that heard me holler. He said "you at the lake? I heard you whooo!"

Congratulations!!! Nothing better than that feeling of watching your PB swim away! 

Nice Bass ~

New Personal Bests are always a Blast

Congrats

A-Jay

You should be proud, that's a great fish. Awesome!

Congratulations!!

Nothing Better!!

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Congratulations on you PB!
Exciting catch too, thanks for sharing.

 

Nice work, congrats!

Congratulations! Those are nice looking bass.

Bazoo, nice job sir! 

Congrats. Good job 👏👏

Congratulations!

This post, just made my day, smile says it all!

 

Congrats!

Congrats. New PB's are always sweet.

Tank on the square bill for the win!  LOVE a crankbait bite - hoooo boy.  Congratulations!

Yahoo, Bazoo!!!

 

Anglers like you and @Pat Brown who fish pounded city ponds have my respect times ten. 

Congrats!

 

Hey! Congratulations @Bazoo on your new PB and having a small cheering section observing the battle!

Congratulations on the PB.... also for the best post on BR in a while. 

 

Congratulations Bazoo ! That’s a nice one. 

Congrats! 

Thank you all for the kind comments.

Congrats Good one there 

I added a couple extra pics I had, but just uploaded.