Went down to my neighborhood lake last night that I fish a lot. Lake is maybe 3 or 4 acres. I have fished this lake for a year now and have only caught lots of pounders and maybe a two+.

Well I am making long cast from the bank with some 8lb braid, Texas rig with a 1 oz bullet weight to get me some distance when suddenly my line feels sort of different. There was no bite, no tug, nothing, just a mushy feeling like I get all the time from the junk on the bottom fouling the weight. I did not even get a good hook set. I started to reel in slowly and think I have a turtle. There was no pulling or anything, just felt like I had a big grass ball and I am dragging it across the bottom. All around the pond is about 8-12 feet of small leaf pads that are a bear to get a fish out of if you do catch one and it runs into them. I reel in and as I get to the pads I start to feel a tug. I loosened my drag and let whatever is on the line make a few 3 or 4 foot runs from right under the top of the pads to the bottom. I still think I have a big turtle.....NOT....all of a sudden I see with my flashlight the BIG head and body of a bass as he breaks the surface and heads down!! He is about 6 feet from me and I am stunned! I was not able to get him out of the pads and he threw the hook.

I would have liked to have been able to drag him on out of the pads, but that is all right. Now I know that there are indeed some big bass in my little lake, so I can now approach them a bit differently and with a better set up. I need some heavier braid so that I can wrestle them through the pads. I also know that the bite of a big bass can be very imperceptable.

Still, I am encouraged to know that there are some big fish in the lake only few hundred yards from my house. I will be down there many nights this summer!!

That's awesome! I had a similar even happen to me fairly recently. I've fished my laked for 2+ years and have never been able to catch anything huge. About 4 weeks ago, however, I had a MONSTER come off right at the boat. It really encouraged me to keep fishing and ever since I've seen much bigger fish landed in my boat.

50 lb. braid should work.

id use 80 just to be safe....