No braid on cranks I only use braid on frogs and punch rigs.

CrankBait 1007, I feel your pain. To date my best is 9.36 however I had a fish on years back before I was really addicted. She came up and did the tail walk twice and spit my power worn right back and me, I sware I had set the hook deep. Now looking back Im sure she was bigger than my 9.36, that was probably the start of my addiction!

I lost a giant on Fork a few years back. It wallowed down the side of the boat with her head out of the water and then turned and came back toward me down the side of the boat wallowing the whole way. Then went strait away and snapped the 17lb Big Game like it was sewing thread. I think she was at least 14 or 15 lbs. A week earlier I netted a 12.5 lber and the fish I lost looked muck bigger. Losing that fish was the best and worst memory I have of a big fish.

Jerry i could only imagine one 12lbs.

NO! Had what felt like a really great fish hit a square bill on Toledo Bend. 20lb braid....bent the rod and BAM, she was gone. I never even got a look.
Catching would have been great but, I really wish I had at least got a look at her.
Broke 20lb braid....man...had to be a good fish.
JMO
God Bless

Nothing worse...unless it's in a tournament. I feel your pain.

I would rather see the fish. I have had two big ones surface and the bait came out and three that I had no control of and never saw them.

Man I think its cool you learned to fish right handed and reel left handed. Wish I had done that when I started out!

Had a grass carp hit a chatterbait(I dunno why!!) before and WOW the huge splash and wave created by that thing when I set the hook!! my buddy was about 100yds away and turned towards me cus he heard it! it stayed hooked up long enough for me to see it and had to be 3.5' long.

also using a 1.5 crank along riprap hooked up with something that screamed out into the middle of the Red river(I had a 14' johnboat and turned the trolling motor on high to catch up!) and proceeded to just head shake and stay on the bottom(I was using 12lb line) and after about 30 mins(had drawn a crowd watching from shore at this point) having never gotten to actually gain any line back it turned upstream and bolted so I used 1 hand(not a foot steer t-motor) to swing the boat back around and it almost broke the surface, created a huge swirl, and the crankbait just pulled free... I couldn't tell you what it was- catfish, drum, gator gar, sturgeon- as I've seen all of those caught in the Red before but I tell you after 30 mins I sure WISH I could have seen it. had a friend with me in the boat the whole time and he never saw it either.

soooooo if I were to ever hook up with a DD bass then I would WANT to at least SEE IT!! that way I could have those memories and NOT the "what was it?!?!?!" constantly in my mind.