Yesterday, I went out to a pond that I had been to before twice with no luck. On another pond, I had been trying some new things, and my favorite had been my Zoom Baby Bass Fluke Jr. I tied one on and finally got one to hook up at that pond!

She felt like a decent sized fish, and she jumped for me once! When she got closer, she would dive back down, and seeing the flash of white/gold was awesome to see!

She was a nice 3.5 lb fish, and I was very proud to have caught her. Here is a picture of her but it doesn't quite do her justice!

glad ur happy pretty fish u got. PLEASE dont lay fish on the ground like that.

Nice fish Nick!  Hopefully we can get some more like that when we fish this fall!

Us Georgia guys should meet up this summer when I'm back in town.

glad ur happy pretty fish u got. PLEASE dont lay fish on the ground like that.

What does it do to the fish when it is layed on it's side like that?

(I don't want to sound ignorant, but I'm just curious)

Nice fish Nick! Hopefully we can get some more like that when we fish this fall!

Yeah man! I'm looking forward to it!!

Laying fish anywhere has the possibility of removing the slime coat. Nice Fish!

Laying fish anywhere has the possibility of removing the slime coat. Nice Fish!

Is that why it is so bad to net bass?

Laying fish anywhere has the possibility of removing the slime coat. Nice Fish!

Is that why it is so bad to net bass?

Nick, here is a short read that will help explain.  Nice fish BTW.

http://www.arkansasstripers.com/fish-slime-coat.htm

nice fish for sure....

but your right...

the pic doesn't do it justice......not trying to be mean, just saying that for 3.5, it could have looked bigger(with the right camera angles and distance.......we know the tricks!!! 8-))

Nice fish bro, here's wishing you many more

nice fish for sure....

but your right...

the pic doesn't do it justice......not trying to be mean, just saying that for 3.5, it could have looked bigger(with the right camera angles and distance.......we know the tricks!!! 8-))

Haha. Yeah, man, I tried to do the "stretch your arms out as far as possible" trick, but my camera was also my phone. I was also by myself.  My scale could be off, but I wouldn't think so. I probably need to invest in a digital scale.

Laying fish anywhere has the possibility of removing the slime coat. Nice Fish!

Is that why it is so bad to net bass?

Nick, here is a short read that will help explain. Nice fish BTW.

http://www.arkansasstripers.com/fish-slime-coat.htm

Thanks a lot for that. It makes a lot more sence to me scientifically now.  I never knew it was so bad to do that.

glad ur happy pretty fish u got. PLEASE dont lay fish on the ground like that.

What does it do to the fish when it is layed on it's side like that?

(I don't want to sound ignorant, but I'm just curious)

Its not as big of a deal as most people make it out to be.  Do you not think that a slime coat is sloughed off when a bass races through a bed of hydrilla after a shad or when it blasts up through sticks to go after a frog?  What about that spawning female?  You better tell her to quit nesting because shes rubbing her slime coat off on the bottom.  What about the thick grass and lillypad flippers that drag their fish across the surface of the weeds?  

Fish replenish their slime coat very quickly... thats the job of cells that produce it.   Sure... you want to avoid doing anything unnecessarily damaging to the fish, but dont get ridiculous.  As long as your not sitting there rubbing it back and forth through the grass and trying to get every last bit off with a butter knife... the fish will be OK.