after seeing so many GIANT fish on here this year posted by jay, mattlures, supermatt, chris, and so many others i must admit i was getting a little frustrated.  to make matters worse, i lost what i'm pretty sure was a 10+ last week.  things have just not gone my way this year.  until today that is.  i happened to spy a real nice one on a bed.  once again, i felt like i was jinxed because i was on call today and knew the beeper could go off any minute.  i needed this fish to bite FAST and i knew just the thing.  i caught a little bluegill and baited him up.  she bit within 5 minutes, but i didn't give her enough time to get the gill turned around in her mouth and i missed her!!! >  well she was a different fish after that - very wary and spooky.  but i didn't rush her.  i gave her about an hour to calm down and she finally came back around but showed no interest at all.  so i pulled something out of my bag of tricks that i have learned with really tough sows - get the male fired up first.  so i turned my attention to him.  (the male was probably 5 pounds and she made him look small).  he kept pecking at the bait and boy did she ever get p.o.'d then.  finally she was like, "move out of the way junior and let me show you how to get rid of this thing!"  and boy did she ever.  she flared out her gills and the bream was engulfed.  i steadied myself determined not to make the same mistake again.  wait........wait..........NOW!!!!! i put the steel to her in dramatic fashion and the battle was on.  she gave a great account of herself but was no match for the 50lb. powerpro.  when she  rolled over to be lipped, i was amazed at her massive girth.  so entranced was i that i forgot for a minute that i actually needed to grab the fish and then celebrate.  and celebrate i did too, yelling like ike on crank.  she was 12-0 on the digital scale.  my pb for '08 so far and my 4th place overall pb.   released after a few pix to go make babies.  what a day!  hope y'all are catchin' some too.  

the horizontal shot.

the release.

Wow awsome fish!

WOW!.  Very nice HC.  What happened to the #4 mono though?

Sweeeeeeeet!

Nice bed fish! Congrats.

Very nice fish. I'm always impressed that you manage to take pictures that reflect the size of your fish.  I've never seen one pic of yours that you said was a 10lber that I wouldn't of guessed 11 or 12lbs on.

I'm always impressed that you manage to take pictures that reflect the size of your fish.

thank you. although i don't do near as good a job catching them or photographing them as he does, i learned from the article on chris' awesome site. i really think this is a must read for taking the best possible pictures of that fish of a lifetime. there is nothing more disappointing than ruining an awesome fish with crappy pictures. once the fish is gone (back in the lake hopefully), all you have are the pix.

What happened to the #4 mono though?

oh, did i say 50 pound powerpro? i meant 4 pound test. thanks for reminding me buddy!

Nice fish!!! 8-)

That's a big, fat girl! Congrats! 8-)

Congrats on a big beautiful fish. The way you worked the male to get to her is EXACTLY how I use my gill to get the females to bite. Well at least its the technique I us the most. I love the releas pis. Those always look cool

 Another NICE looking fish!!! You the Man, my friend

                         As Ever,

                          skillet

Congrats! That fish is awesome, I'm blown away every time with the pigs you stick. Hope you find your way to another soon!

paul that is great man!

i used a similar technique to get my fish yesterday. i put my bluegill lure right in the middle of the bed and jiggled it, all the fish were nose down on it, and then the biggest one moved forward and went to suck it off the bed  .

bed fishing is really fun! ;D ;D ;D

You're a stud man!

Nice job and great fish! BTW, is she northern strain?

It's awesome to see somebody from a mid south state catch the fish you do! Way to go!

CJ

What a pretty old girl  :-*

Nice pic of the release, that'll make a nice memory  

Geez!  That is a nice fish!! Awesome!!

Great Fish  . . . .

A-Jay

Amazing fish HC.

thank you very much everyone for the nice replies.  

BTW, is she northern strain?

i couldn't be absolutely sure, but as far as i know this is a northern strain bass.

Well buddy,

You certainly caught up with the big boys in style.

Great fish, fantastic pics, especially that second one!

8-)

Well buddy,

You certainly caught up with the big boys in style.

Great fish, fantastic pics, especially that second one!

thanks kent,  i appreciate that buddy.  i could never catch up with the cali guys though.  i see chris has done gone and caught another one. ;D  they seem to whack lunkers in bunches and i'm lucky if i get one over 8 in a month.  those guys have really been an inspiration to me and i think it is so cool that they are willing to share their knowledge and expertise.  curious that you liked the second pic better.  i was kinda fond of the first.  now if i could just get a nice smallie..... ;D

Good work Paul. Fast thinking on the bluegill and even more kudos for a clean release. What a thrill that must have been. Great to see someone catching big fish and doing all of the responsible stuff the right way vs what just happened down on Falcon Lake which resulted in a huge fish kill that took place after the last BASS event. Nice job!

Theres the 08 DD NICE WORK NICE FISH