With the full moon and great weather yesterday, I went out in search of a big fish. With all the recent rains and rising water, most of the lake was stained and made it hard to sight fish. I started looking for bed fish around 11am and found a few smaller fish. I went to an area where I usually see big fish spawning. At 1pm I found the big fish and hooked up after 20 minutes. I fought her for about a minute, then she decided to jump and spit the bait.

Being this was the only good fish I had seen all day, I sat on her for 2 hours, just watching her movements and reactions to the bed. I never made a cast in the two hours, just observed her. When I thought she was ready, I pitched the bait up to the bed and had her caught with the first cast.

She weighed 10.10. Barely beating my Personal best of 10.05, which I caught 2 years ago, just one cove over.

Really nice! Congratulations.......
God Bless

Nice fish!

Great fish ! Thanks for sharing

Now that's patience, congrats! Did you catch her on the same bait she bit the first time?

Great story Mike. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Congrats. on that new personal best.

Congrats!

Couldn't happen to a better guy. Way to go.

Nice fish. Congratulations on your PB!

Always fun to beat a personal best.

Yeah she bit the same bait. Knowing she was probably still a little on edge after being hooked the first time. I threw the bait up on the bank and slowly pulled it in the water, avoiding any splash. Creeped the bait to the bed, one pop of the rod tip and she ate it. I think if the lure hit the water with a splash, she might have swam back out to deep water.

Congrats awesome catch!

Is that Texoma, if not which lake?

I don't see Power Poles or Talons. Please share how you kept the boat still without spooking her.

Very nice catch sir

If the fish are shallow enough, I back up to the bank and trim my outboard down in the shallow water. It holds me in one place as long as wind isn't blowing too hard. Been doing that for a long time.