Early in the day yesterday I decided I wanted to go fishing.  Some afternoon storms popped up and started to sway that decision in the other direction.  All around where I live, people were getting hit with some pretty heavy rain, and I could see the lightning and hear the thunder all afternoon.

Somehow, the storms completely missed my area though, and at about 7pm last night I decided I would head down to the spot me and a friend found recently.  I figured I could get at least an hour to an hour and a half of fishing in before dark.

After hitting every red light on the way, I finally reached my destination.  Set up and threw out the trick stick on my line.  After a little bit, nothing.  Switched up to a frog... still nothing.  I was starting to wonder if I'd even get a bite tonight.  Finally decided to switch over to a smoke shad duper fluke.  That was the best decision of the night.  

First cast, fish on!  For some reason I still have a reaction to try to set the hook vertical and I think that may have been the reason I ended up losing 3 out of the 4 fish I caught.  The first two on my line were decent size, but as they got close to me they jumped and spit the hook.  

Starting to get a little irritated, I threw again right onto a nice sized log.  As soon as the bait hopped to the other side, I felt a fish.  This time I took my time and reeled in towards the fish and set the hook in a horizontal sweep.  I will have to thank you guys for that as I read that somewhere around here before.  Thankfully this hook was set well.  After a good fight and trying to keep him from getting caught on all the logs and branches around I landed this guy...

( Sorry not the best quality, took on a camera phone. )

I swear these pictures don't due him any justice.  I was by myself and my camera phone was not doing the job.

I was pumped.  I had never seen a LM this big up close, and caught by me no less.  I swear I could fit my fist into his mouth.  Definitely my personal best, but alas I don't own a scale yet so no way to know how much he/she really weighed.  It's ok though I know how big he looked and how fun the fight was, I was psyched the rest of the night and missed another fish due to some jitters I had.

Overall, this spot has paid off every time I have gone down to it.  I just hope it stays a secret a little bit longer  .

Nice fish. Kudos to you for applying what you have learned here.

good luck.

Nice fish and I like your pics, too!

Congratulations!

8-)

that is a nice fish

Nice fish.  Sounds like you are pretty excited about it.  Weight really is important when you enjoy it as much as it seems you did.

that is one great bass!!! i would say it is about 5lbs to 5.5lbs. just my guess from looking at the size of the mouth and the gut!

sweet fish!

its cool how you have you own little secret pond and it has some big ones!

Keep reading.

You will be surprised at the amount of free information you can gleen from this site.

Congrats on your catch.

Isn't it great when you land a big one?

Keep reading.

You will be surprised at the amount of free information you can gleen from this site.

Congrats on your catch.

Isn't it great when you land a big one?

To be quite honest, most of the current lures I using and the techniques I use with them have come from lurking these boards.  I really appreciate the info that is scattered about.

And, yes it was amazing to land that fish.  Especially, because I was so worried with all the logs and branches around.

listen i could tell that fish had to be up there in the lunker catergory , not even by the fish , the look on your face conveys exactly how big that fish is!!! :o