I'm curious as to the stories behind everybody's best bass catches. What happened?

Mine was on the Guadalupe River heading into Dunlap. My buddies and I put our yaks into the water under I-35 and started flipping flukes up toward the dam. A recent storm/flood has knocked a huge tree limb into the water and my pals made a bee line toward it to see what was in among the branches and submerged into the water. I held back and kept flipping in different areas working my way up stream. I approach a rock in the river and toss my Watermelon Fluke directly upriver from the rock about 18 inches and let the current take it around the rock. The second the fluke washes into the swirl downstream of the rock, I feel a thump. I tightened my line and set the hook, and brought out this beauty. I gave her a kiss, got a pic, and turned her loose to give somebody else a thrill.

Nice catch.

My 3 DD's came on a mag fluke in watermelon red. 2 fishing T-Rig and 1 on C-Rig.

Lake Austin in it's hydrilla days...

2 on the t-rig came off of one spot, everyone knows them as the pipes. September 2013, September 2014, about a year apart. Dragging these fish out of the structure is not easy. 20# flouro, no less. Feel the thump, rip the rod and crank is fast as you can to get them out of the hazards for break off. You hope they come up and not stay down.

My PB came in the same stretch of lake off a deep dock with a brush pile. About mid-day on a hot, sunny day, November 17, 2013. Was dragging the c-rig across the brush with a magfluke and felt a tick, set the hook and the rod doubled, she dove for deeper water and would not come up, took all my strength to hang on to the rod while she ripped drag, I won, and she got in the net. Our best 5 went 46 lbs, 10 oz that day with 7 total fish over 7 pounds, 2 DD's. I'll never forget that day.

I caught my first 3 DD bass on crank baits
1. There was a point that had schooling Kentucky's every evening. You could catch them on about anything but they were all small. I tied on a med diver bomber and positioned my boat right on retaining wall where I was casting towards the lake. The first two casts I got broke off. On my 3rd and last bomber A I backed off my drag and landed a 10.2. That was my first DD. I changed my line and went back and tried that again dozens of times and never could find the big ones there again.

2. DD 22 cranking at the mouth of a creek in 20' in the middle the afternoon in July. 11.01

3. Trolling a DD 22 with my wife in the boat in the middle of the afternoon in August. Same spot I caught the 2nd one. 12.8

This is long and a bit dramatic but I wrote it shortly after my PB catch to better remember the moment!

I cast my lizard into what appeared to be open water, perhaps 30 feet or so from the edge of a small patch of reeds that rose like a volcanic island from the deeper water that surrounded it. I can�t be certain how deep the water was were my cast landed, but I suspected it to be around 8 feet, so I counted down my lure for a handful of seconds until I was reasonably sure it rested on the bottom. When I raised my rod to lift the lure, I felt an unnatural weight that subconsciously registers in all fishermen�s brains as something other than a usual hang up. In that moment, decades of muscle memory from thousands of hooks sets before served me well as I struck home a mighty hookset that pinged my line like a baseball off the sweet spot of a bat. I knew immediately I had hooked an enormous fish as my rod bowed up under her weight. For an instant the fish and the rod were locked in a titanic battle of inertia, neither willing to submit to the other. Then realizing she was hooked, the finned giant made a run for the surface with one powerful stroke of its tail. While maintaining pressure I lowered my rod in a valiant attempt to keep the fish from breaching. She flashed near the surface, revealing herself for the first time, and I shouted to Justin, �She�s a giant, big fish, grab the net, big fish!� Then, as quickly as she had come up, she plowed off to deeper water with powerful strokes of her tail as though the hook, line, and steady punishment of the rod were little more than a nuisance to her afternoon feeding routine. In a few more seconds, my rod reached the end of its hyperbolic bend and the fish zinged drag as she drew out line. Having fought this battle in my mind countless times before, I was determined to better the beast as quickly as possible to minimize the chance of some great misfortune the odds of which I knew exponentially increased with the passage of each moment. I strained my equipment to the brink of failure, and turned the fish from her deep water run. When she gave an inch, I took and mile, and reeled madly bringing her in hot as a fighter jet. In the background I could hear Justin scrambling for the net, he shouted, �play her out she�s still too green we will never get her in the net!� At that moment the fish made a heavy powerful run straight beneath the boat. I followed her with my rod tip plunging into the water, all the while my buckled down drag sang once again under the strain. Then she turned again, and made a savage break for the surface emerging wild, gill plates wide, mouth open like a cavernous abyss, with a mighty head shake that threw water for yards. Justin shouted, �My god, she�ll go 11, maybe more!� My hook held, and the fish submerged again, diminished now; a defeated green gladiator. She made one last futile effort to run, but was turned again, this time into the net that awaited her. 26.5" 10.5lbs. April 28th, 2016.

Oh, great memories.

My 12 was over and done before I knew it. I flipped a jig into a tree with 65lb braid on and felt a thump, set the hook and realized I was hung in the tree. Then the tree started swimming away and about three seconds later it was in the net and over. I had to just sit down and take it all in after CPR.

My two tens were at the length of a cast on and XD10 with 12 pound line on. It was an epic battle that went on for ages. I would make some ground but then they would peel drag, jumping, thrashing and making me sweat. Those are the fondest memories because it seemed to last so long.

And that's why we keep coming back......

- 12 lb. on Amistad - On a bluff over 150 ft. of water. T-Rig small hand poured Blue Flake worm light weight in a huge crack on a bluff. She was at about 20 ft.

- 5 over 12 on Lake Oviachic Mexico. 1 on a DD22 - 1 on a T-rig Brush Hog - 3 on my custom spinner bait.

- 2 over 10 on Sam Rayburn both on my Custom Flash Shad Spook. Heavy Grass.

- 2 over 12 on Falcon both the same day on a 20 ft. slop next to the river channel. Both on a pushed up 3/8 pegged weight and a Yum Dinger large size. Semi-Crig..

- 2 over 12 on Ivie - one on T-Rig with Zoom Castic Choice Lizard and one on C-Rig 10" Red Shad Power Worm. Both right next to the river channel one on the Concho and one on the Colo.. In heavy river bank trees.

Great memories!

off a bed in Glade, I was anchored with a guide doing circles around me. She came on a white tube, fought pretty hard and was released.
Details: 23 7/8" football. Weight.. no idea, picture-no camera. Memory will never forget.

9 lbs 5 oz on a chatterbait with a white trailer...June 15, 2008...n my nabor's tank...hothothot...only bite i got that mornin'...how bout that fishin' rig

I went down to Falcon and threw a bait in the water. The lake did the rest.

9.51 that hit a jerkbait like a freight train. Lake Benbrook of all places. NO, SERIOUSLY.

Fishing with my husband on Choke Canyon in June, 2009. We were just fun fishing and I said, "Hey, we don't have our net out." Husband replied that we wouldn't need it.

After a while I started to complain that we were fishing too shallow. Husband told me, "Just shut up and throw your lure." So I threw a green pumpkin Minda Spear Worm over to a tree. Felt a bite and set the hook. she jumped out of the water and I said, "I think I need the net!!!!!" I reeled her in over some trees. Husband said that he was amazed that I got her in the boat.

I shook for an hour after that1 It was awesome. She was 11.4

Great story & fish!

If you had landed the one we saw twice by the dam at CB, you would have a great story....

8lb 15oz on a senko she jumped out of the water and spit my senko out then 1.5 hr later she bit again and got her in the boat this time then released her quickly back in the water both times got her on my go pro maybe i can download it here if i figure it out..