I know mine came my junior yr in Highschool. I was fishing a Golf Course pond that was near my house. It was early evening , late spring, fishing a rapala shad rap fire tiger . I casted past a rock piling and started reeling . The line just stopped and started going sideways. I set the hook and line went to peeling. After what seemed like eternity I get close and see her and damn near passed out. My previous best was right at 9lbs and this was lot bigger. I waded out a little to get her and as soon as I lipped her the line broke. An ol’man that lived on the course watched it all and hollered “don’t release her yet let me get the wife’s scale”. He came out with a laundry basket and scale and after zeroing the scale she weighed 12–14 ounces. Turned her loose and watched her swim off. Since that day I’ve been trying to break the 13 mark. Sure wish We had cell phones back then.

Lake El Salto March 17th, 2003 10:45 PM. We had been camped at Salto for 10 days fishing mostly nights. This particular night we were fishing a bluff with a 4' wide ledge 12' down then dropping to 35'. We were steadily catching 7-8 pound fish on 1/2 oz jigs dropped onto that ledge, probably a fish every 10 minutes. The previous night, I'd had my [censored] handed to me by a huge fish on a long sloping gravel point with one lone mesquite tree about 15' deep way out on the end of that point. Since we were catching pretty much carbon copy fish on this ledge and had been for some time, I finally cajoled my partners into leaving the ledge to go after a truly big fish. We moved across the lake to that long point, got the boat positioned where I wanted and chunked a C-rigged Zoom Mag Lizard (Green pumpkin) up on the point and drug it into that mesquite tree and got that big thump! Wrested her out of the tree (65# braid mainline, 25# Pline XXX leader, 5/0 Owner XXX strong hook) after a brief tussle, got her into the net. I couldn't get the hook out as it was buried into the rear of her tongue so I clipped the line and dropped her into the livewell while we got the scales and camera ready. Upon opening the livewell to retrieve her I was shocked to see the water was blood red and she was floating belly up. We weighed her on a set of Cardoza spring scales (high quality scales) and she was a little over 13 1/4#. Took some pics and tried to revive her to no avail. She now resides (with that hook still in her tongue) on a chunk of mesquite along with a 10 3/4# from Guerrero.

Mine was a 13.20 caught in Lake Waco a few years ago. I was prefishing for a championship that our group was going to have on the lake two weeks later. While I went to Waco (Richfield) my last two years of high school and 4 years of Baylor, I was into jet boats, cars, music, and girls, and not fishing. So I felt I needed some time there to at least attempt a game plan.

As luck would have it (really was luck in hindsight), there was a pretty good tourney going on there that day and I was trying to observe what the locals were doing, all while trying to find some spots with fish and not get in there way. I fished a lot of useless stuff waiting my turn to fish the “fishy” [censored] they were fishing. Trees, rock piles, points, etc. I had a green pumpkin Biffle bug tied on as I approached “the island”. There were several boats on the protected side....did I mention it was this time of year and winds 20-25 outta the north? Well, I approached and all the good spots had a boat sitting there, so I stood hard on my MinnKota Maxxum 70! My little Nitro boat was tossing and turning. Horrible boat in rough water, I might add. Well....I casted my flipping bait up to the shallow edge of the island, around some big rocks. While trying to hold the SS Minnow off the island, I thought [censored]! I immediately got hung on some rocks. It didn’t budge. I reeled down on the rod to prepare to break off some Tatsu with a tungsten weight and a Trokar flipping hook....then realized the ROCK WAS MOVING! I started to panic, since I was in a really bad position to fight such a large fish. Boat was spinning the motor around towards the rocks and the little trolling motor was struggling. I banged the troller into the rocks and broke the heading indicator and cables. I was screwed. The fish had wrapped around the trolling motor shaft at least twice during my struggles. I then did the stupid/safe thing. I started the big motor and backed away from the island. Steez rod and Steez reel laying on the deck. Well! The line somehow held and I was safely away from the rocks. I then turned my attention to what was a big fish, surely about to bust off. I lifted the troller and unwound the line. And started reeling. She was done fighting and just let me lip her from underneath the bow. I weighed her and it was 12-14 pounds on an old spring scale. So...off I went to a marina. Certified scale was 13.20. I called TPWD and they said it would be a few hours before they would get there for a sharelunker donation. So. I just took the pictures. Show it to a few people, then released it back to the spot I caught her.

Caught a limit two weeks later that didn’t weigh what the one fish did alone.

Was fishing falcon for 2 weeks second day hadn't figured out much yet and it was late in the day.I flipped a jig to a bush on a virtical bluff and felt a thump attempted to flip a 10 1/2 lb toad over the gunnel of my skeeter bounced off and my buddy ended up lipping it.we both flipped out and strait wore them out the rest of the time there.

I just had a topo map and no new fangled gadgets. I found a spot that dropped from 30 to 35ft. Dropped a small grub down into a giant school of 10lbers

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This shoulda been for all the PB under 10 pounds and I wouldn’t be salivating over these DD fish caught that I’m still chasing, but at least I’m caught all in every lb class up too 9lbs. Lol, but I’ll still keep casting away!

Shots fired

Live baiting with 6 inch shiners with A guide named _______, caught my three best all on fork

Back in the early 2000's on our annual spring trip to Rayburn I caught an 8.7lb and a 7.5lb on back to back cast. We put them in the livewell and when we got back to the store at Powell Point I asked if it was okay to weigh them on their scale. I go out, get them out of the livewell and weigh them. All the guys eating come over to see what I've got. After the 8.7lber they all start razzing me about what a waste of time it was, nobody weighs fish if it's not around the 10lb mark. After they simmered down a bit we explained that when our tournament season kicked off on the Ohio River most winning weights won't exceed 8lbs total for 5 fish. We released the fish, showered and went over to the restaurant to eat. When I walked in the room they all stood and gave me a standing ovation... lol... 8.7lbs is my personal best largemouth... 6.5lbs for Spotted Bass and 7.2lbs for smallmouth... Dan

Caught my first 12lber in March of 2008 on a topwater lure. I'll never forget that strike. She weighed 12lbs 1oz on my scale.



My 2nd 12lber was on Lake Ray Hubbard in August of 2018. I thought for sure it was a flathead. She stayed down and wouldn't surface for quite a while, and she was pulling drag like it was nothing. Took her to Bass Pro Shops on the lake and had her weighed. She was 12.05lbs on their scale. They filled out the Sharelunker forms for me and she was lunker #1157.
This picture is right before her release at BassPro's boat ramp.

Nice Fish

Was fishing in a club tournament in late October of this year on O.H. Ivie.

We were fishing shallow and catching fish up to 1.5 lbs on almost every cast. Told my buddy we weren’t going to win on these fish.

So around 11:00 I moved to an offshore point. It was about 15’ on top and dropped off to 30’ on the edges. I was throwing a 5xd in 18-22’ pulling it through the tree tops. We were there for about a half hour with out a bite. Was contemplating going back to the bank and weeding through enough small fish to maybe catch a decent fish. Then dragged that crank bait through a tree. Felt it it hit the first branch so stopped reeling and just gently tapped my rod to get it over the branch. When it got over, I cranked the reel 2 or 3 times and felt it hit another branch. I stopped reeling and gently started tapping the rod trying to get it through. I felt a very subtle pull on the rod so set the hook just in case.

It was dead weight for a little while like I was pulling in a branch and it was swimming diagonally towards the boat. Thought I had a 4-5 lber. But as it passed up the boat it started stripping line. Now I’m thinking catfish or big bass.

It surfaced 20’ from the boat and I realized it was a big bass. Now I’m thinking 8 lbs or so.

Get it up to the boat and buddy misses it with the net a couple times, think he was more excited than I was, and then we finally get it in the net. At this time I’m still thinking, solid 8 lber.

But as I pulled it from the net for a picture, I noticed the belly and told my buddy I may have just caught my first 10 lber.

10.06 lbs on club scale. Looked like an 8 lb fish that ate 2 lbs crappie or shad that morning. She was 23” long and I measured her girth in the wrong place at 19.5”. I measured while she was in the livewell and put the tape in front of her dorsal fin just behind her pelvic fins. Didn’t realize my mistake until later looking at pictures.

Had to drink a beer and sit down for a few minutes, was shaking for a while after that. 2nd cast after I started fishing again, I caught a 4.5 and weighed in over 17 lbs with my 3 fish.

Been throwing big baits for a long time attempting to catch my first DD, and it came when I least expected it.

Had fished all day on Ray Roberts catching some decent fish but bite was slow. It was getting close to sunset when I pulled up on my last spot of the day. Within minutes I caught two fish over five pounds a 6.5 and a 5.5. looking around I noticed that shad were moving up shallow all around me in huge schools. I'm guessing it was a shad spawn taking place since it was post spawn for bass at the time. Cast my unweighted fluke to a small laydown in about 3 fow and barely felt a thump on the fall. Set the hook and momentarily thought I had set the hook into a stump or immovable object then the realization that it was slowly moving and pulling drag. Seconds later she came up and shook her head. Seeing how big she was I may have peed a little. I regained my composure, (this is a lie, I was freaking out) got the fish to the boat and netted her. Instantly I knew she was my PB due to how much bigger it as from everything I had ever caught. 10lbs.

nice fish everyone. I dont have a story yet but i will one day. My PB is a 2 pounder lol