I hear ya! I haven't posted on this thread yet because most people would not believe what I have seen in the waters of Cali. The land of the Giants for sure.

The biggest I saw in Texas was either the one swimming leisurely in Mustang on Fork, or the one that jumped and broke my line and my heart on Falcon. Both looked in the 13 lb range.

I almost forgot, saw a couple with their backs near the surface at the Bell...those were probably mid teen fish.

Great fish by the way.

I caught a 15.0 from Cam Bell that was 27 long by 23 girth that was an absolute beast. Maybe yours was 21" girth. My waist is 32" if that puts it into perspective.

Yeah, I looked at the info on the back of the photo in my album and it was a 21 1/2" girth. Looking for the photo with the fish with the 31" girth. It was in the 13 lb range but was stuffed with Lake Perris stocker trout. Man, I miss those days when they would stock the trout and you would sit in the cove throwing Castaic Trout baits for the big girls. I was always surprised when you would catch a 6 lb bass off them big baits but loved when a 10 plus would latch on.

I would give up Bass Fishing in Texas if that is what you were catching, it would be a killjoy to fish for Bass here after catching so many big fish there.

Bad execution and inexplicable mishaps have been the cause of a lot of heartbreak for me.

The first was at Amistad in October of 2006 or 2007. Fishing a ridge in the afternoon, a low-pressure system moved in and the shad started popping over one end of what I where I was. As I trolled over I could see stripers and pods of 2-5 pound bass pushing the shad up, and I began casting a bone Super Spook in front of them.
It was one of those moments where you are looking at the right place, at just the right time. 30 feet in front of me I saw a shad bust out of the water and get eaten by a 2 pounder and immediately a giant bass engulfed both of them. I started shaking and backlashed while trying to cast to the spot. Once I picked it out I threw in and instantly got such a strike that my spook launched several feet up in the air and came back with a bent line tie and hook hanger.
I saw several other huge fish over the next few minutes and caught fish almost every cast. Never hooked up with one of those bigs though. I have seen 17's and 18's up close and in person, and I would match that with the average size of the 8-12 bass I looked at that day.

I've had over close calls, but have been fortunate and blessed to have boated most of my big fish hookups. Had a day at Fayette years ago in the summer when my partner and i found a mega school. We caught 19 over 7 pounds inlcuding a 10.4 and an 11.2. We did break off and lose several that were bigger, but in the heat of the moment it didn't hurt too bad.

Yep, that is why I Crappie fish now. Vail Lake had some big crappie too.




I did fish Texas lakes quite a bit and caught a few double digit bass including a 13.91 but didn't know about the SAL program so I took a few pictures and let her go.

Here are 4 bass from Vail Lake that were all over 10lbs that were caught on the same day. The lake biologist wanted to go out with me to learn how I was catching all the big bass. That was the day I lost the one that was close to 20.



I just wish we had camera phones/Go-Pro's back then so I had more pics of all the DD bass I caught.

In college at Lake Talquin in February in Florida. Arm stretch this and that... two biggest fish I've ever seen. I did not catch the biggest one, but wasn't turning down a photo op. With our scale, weighed the biggest at 13.06 and the other one just shy of 10.

That lake has some chunks caught out of there lately.