I've never landed a double digit largemouth bass. Ever. My biggest is almost 6 pounds.

But, when I lived in San Diego, I had a few hookups with truly BIG bass. The water in lakes like Poway is crystal clear down to 20 feet or more, so you can see the bloody things when you're hooked up.

Hooked into a big momma bass on a bed with my trout rod one day while shore fishing, and she snapped by 6# line easily. I could see the fish swim back to her nest. Little while later, a guy came by in a little boat and caught her on a plastic worm. That fish weighed a bit over 14 pounds (they do grow big on a diet of stocked rainbow trout).

23.74

Man, this hurts to read. I feel for you. That had to be the longest 10 minutes in history.

Mine was 32. You need to up your missed fish game.

Hurts and still 'Haunts" me. This fish was a toad.

Falcon lake back in the late 80's. Hooked a fish about two points down from the public Ramp.

Middle of the summer, hooked in about 20 feet of water on a Jig. She came straight up shook her head and threw that jig like she knew what she was doing. We guessed her from the size of her mounth to be 12-14. Dang big fish.

Never to this day have I hooked a fish that looked even close to her size.

Had my dad fishing with me what was back in 96 or 97 the McDonalds Tourney on Fork. Was in the cove straight across from Lake Fork Marina pitching a 10 inch power worm up at the grass edges and didn't feel it hit bottom then realized it was moving off to my right very slowly. I set the hook and the battle was on. She rolled a couple times but never came out of the water much. She went down and got under a limb of the only tree in sight. I could feel the line rubbing the limb so I flipped the TM wide open trying to get to her as quick as I could. Just as I got within about 5 feet she pulled really hard and belly rolled again. I could see the 10 inch worm hanging out of her mouth which didn't do past her gill plate just as the line snapped. I was using brand new 20 lb Big Game line. I sat down on the bow with my feet in the water without saying a word for at least the next hour. I estimated her at 13-14 lbs--It only took a 10 pounder to win the tourney that year! The story I heard on that winning fish is that the guy was a preacher. The fish got hung up 8-10 feet down, so he dove down and untangled her with the rod still in his hands.