My wife had serious back surgery 7 weeks ago and is finally getting close to her old self and moving around better. As my son is going off to college to play baseball (and get an education) this week, we decided to have an end of summer family get together at the cottage. After my wife was settled down in the chaise lounge, I went in and grabbed a couple of rods as my cousin wanted to go wading and fish the docks and boats. Water was 3-4 feet deep at the end of most of the docks. I gave him a rod with a t-rigged senko on it and I took a rod and wacky rigged a senko on it. We were both doing pretty good. Fish seemed to be under every dock or boat, sometimes more than 1. Matt was learning but he was having some trouble skipping the lure under the pontoon boats that were tied to the docks with the motor facing out. I gave him a quick lesson but he was still clanking it off the pontoons.

In between docks, we would cast out to the inside weed edge. I had a tap and the line went screaming off. Set the hook and nothing. Pike or Musky took my bait. I decided to re-rig with a 7" Anaconda and let Matt fish the docks. We both got a couple more and came up to my favorite dock. A little deeper water, out farther into the lake and dug out around it causing weeds to grow around the area. Also, there was a pontoon boat facing out so Matt could skip the senko under it easily. He tossed under the boat and I cast at the end of the dock. Matt hooked a decent fish and as I was watching him, I felt a tap on my worm and set the hook into something big. Thought it was another Pike or Musky until it ran past me in 4 feet of water. Huge bass. Felt pretty confident about landing her as she ran into shallower water with nothing but sand bottom. Tried to jump a few times but could only shake her head. Finally lipped her and started shaking.

Definitely bigger than any bass I have ever caught and had those huge bug-eyes. No camera, as we were quite a ways from home, but I'm guesstimating 7.5#. One of the homeowners took a couple pix on his cell phone and said he would email them to me but haven't received them yet. I measured the length on the rod and when I got home my guesstimate measured 24-25" and the girth had to be pretty good as this thing had a belly as big as mine. Just goes to show, when your not paying attention.....

Same thing Always happens to me! Ill be working on my presentation etc and the bite will be slow but the minute I pull my phone out or stare into space I get something lol. Never fails.

Great story.  Congratulations on the new pb.

Congratulations on a terrific PB Ken  You're on a popular big fish Summer pattern, where docks are present and close to deeper water.

And I hope your photo turns out so you can "FRAME HER" 

Big O

www.ragetail.com

Thanks-

Not 100% sure it is my P.B. but if I was a betting man, I'd put down a ton on it. Still haven't got pix. Might have to wait till I make it back up and visit my neighbor.

Congratulations on the lunker of a lifetime from another Northener.. At that latitude, she was def. a one in a million fish.