Getting the hang of it, less trout more bass.

[Growbug]

If you have seen my last couple of posts, then you will know that I have been trying to pull in a Bass or two for the kids to see, and i have been getting epic fails.

So, tonight whilst the kids and mom are at Karate, I sneak out to one of the local ponds and start throwing my Senko. Got very boring very quickly for the first half hour as i worked my way around the pond, throwing at likely looking stumps, deadfalls, weedbeds, etc. Then twitch twitch twitch.... fish on.
Hmm... still no Bass.

But I kept on moving, covering the shoreline until i got to a piece where i had a fallen tree on either side of me.
The left tree got a bite the first time I threw the Senko.
BASS... about 16-17"

Then I turned to the tree on my right. Threw the wurm and started crawling it ever so slowly across the bottom. About halfway back WHAM, and i thought I had just hooked into an old German U-Boat, the line started whistling off the reel as a LARGE fish buried itself under the tree.
I had no idea about this, but it seems that Largemouth Bass have the ability to turn themselves into large rocks that sink to the bottom. The fish just wouldnt come back up. Slowly I managed to gain line, only to have him pull it back out again and head straight back for the tree.
I have no idea how long, but it felt like a while, and my arm was starting to ache when the fish went quiet and let me pull in the line bit by bit. When I got it to the surface it saw me, and went down again for another couple of mins.
All this time there was another fisherman shouting that I needed a larger net as he saw the fish and there was NO way that i was going to slide it into the trout net i had brought.
Finally got the thing to the bank for a quick photo and release.
So far this weekend I have managed to smash two personal records.
Based on the fact that the cork on my rod handle is 13 1/2" long, I am guestimating this fish at about <strike>23</strike> 20 ish inches, and it felt like about 7lb range.
Anyone else care to give me a guess on the weight??

 

[TTFishon]

7 or maybe even 8 lbs is a good guestimate. Looks like you're getting the hang of it. Nice fish!!!

 

[Hawk]

Beautiful bass Bro.
Well Done.
Thanks fer the pic.

:clap::clap::clap:
:dance::dance:
:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Hendo30]

Great fish!.....I love the story along with the pictures. Congrats on the personal best. Now its time to smash those records. To bad the kids werent there to witness the fight. Thanks for the C&R.....we appriciate it.:clap:

 

[jawjacker]

Nice one on the ol ugly stick you lucky dawg that one is gona be hard to beat. Good job!

 

[Growbug]

I am loving this Ugly Stik Lite. 7ft Med, its tip is sensitive enough to feel almost everything, but the sticks got enough backbone to really put the effort in to keep a large on from burying in the brush. The guy who was watching me land the 7lb+'er mentioned that he was impressed that the rod was bending ALL the way through the handle, when i mentioned it was an Ugly Stik he just laughed and agreed about the 'almost unbreakable'.

 

[colbypearson]

nice bass! looks healthy, its hard to guesstimate a bass weight when there isn't much to compare it to there is a world of difference in a 21" bass and a 23+" bass, the last two 8lbrs on the dot i caught were 23.5", i believe a prespawn bass weighs more because the eggs (well duh) but i feel like the eggs retain more liquid weight then a bass eating and breaking down some food items, since your fishing a pond i would assume that most of the bass are post spawn BUT that bass looks very very clean so i think its most likely prespawn and hadnt dropped its eggs yet so if its truly 23" it would probubly be 7.25-8lbs it looks fat but not too crazy fat, but then again its not the best view..... its hard to say 22" and fat is almost 7lbs i would say and 23" and fat might be 7.75 or so but it all depends call it what you want to call it either way nice fish, not that it matters to me much but did you release it? since its a pond that could be one of the biggest bass in it and those kind of genes are what you want swimming around it doesn't show many signs of age for a fish that size. GOOD JOB!


may sound odd but i measured the fish with a piece of paper on my screen, to get maybe a better estimate i marked the paper and compared it to the rod, it measured to the edge of the red lettering past the ugly stick logo, considering the rod is angled i would take a tad off that measurement, you might get a better idea of length if you took your rod and measured from butt to the logo and took off just a bit since the rod is angled LOL! let me know what you come up with

 

[Growbug]

Thanks for the check of length, etc Colby. I did the paper trick, then transferred it to rod, etc; from the butt to the Red L in 'Lite' its 20.5", so 20ish" fish.
Yeah that 3" probably makes a large difference in the weight factor as well.

I don't have any prob's getting corrected for the length. I am far from used to guesstimating the length etc when i just want to get a photo and get it back. Yes, the fish went back. I try to get all my fish back in the water, keep a few now and again that don't want to be revived, but that's the nature of the beast of fishing. I particularly wanted that beast back in. The only thing I was thinking was "what size is that going to be in a year or two??"

 

[ryan808]

nice bass brother, welcome back to the forum I haven't see you for in a while

 

[colbypearson]

if its 20" and fat its typically about 5lbs, i say a fair estimate for your fish given the circumstance is around 5.5-6lbs, GREAT JOB!