I thought you told me you found a school of 300-400 ten pounders in 30-35' of water and trolled a Buck Perry Spoonplug thru them on 6# test and got skunked

Back in my Navy days I was wade fishing one of the ponds on the Orlando Training Center Navy base at night. Pitched a red shad Culprit worm on the other side of a weed bed and the fight was on. Finally after a strong tussle I got her up on the bank and took arm measurements. Eventually took those measurements to the local tackle shop and they compared with a 10 plus that was up on the wall. I'll never know her actual size because it was more important to get her back in the water but I like to think she was a DD.

That and being eyeball to eyeball with a gator while wading at night were two of fun memories of Navy A school training.

May 1, 2000. My partner and I were prefishing Cooper for a Challenge Bass tournament. We were fishing 4-8 feet and had caught some decent fish when we saw a guy well offshore with his rod doubled over. He and his buddy landed the fish, weighed it, and threw it in the livewell. It was a giant. On his next cast the same thing happened, another giant.

We yelled and asked how much they weighed. He said the first one was 10-4 and the second 10-8. Back to back double digits.

We moved out deeper, about 15 feet, and on my first cast with a watermelon seed Zipper worm to a forked tree I felt a tick on the way down. After a really uneventful fight we got her in the net and on my scale she weighed 10 pounds, 12 ounces. The guys who caught the two 10s (yes, that was three 10 founders in less than 10 minutes) came over, congratulated me on the fish, and took my picture on a disposable camera. They took down my address and in a few days I got the picture in the mail. Whoever the really nice guys who lived in Texarkana were, they sent me evidence of my personal best.

One day, in 2012 or 13 cant remember springtime in whatever month? I was at Fork fishing Scott Dubees' favorite tree line back in Burch. The danged thing took me around three stumps and luckily, my Red Label Seagar line somehow held up, sawing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and she finally came back around the three stumps and jumped out the water showing herself and I about crapped my pants! We got her in the net. Still had that cig hanging off my lip.

I was fishing with a good friend of Scott's, Heard tell that Scott had years before caught a 10 lber on a spook there in a big tournament. My fish was 10.00 even and her replica sits above my fireplace. Since that day I haven't been as mad as the fish as I used to be.

Good Times! btw, she was caught on a drop shot, trick worm color, watermelon orange.

Back in April of 2014 myself and a friend of mine were targeting crappie on the Guadalupe River. I was using a five foot Ugly Stick, with six pound test line and a small size six cricket hook. We were bank fishing. I was fishing a brush pile approx 20 feet away form the bank when I felt a thump. I set the hook and knew right away it was not a crappie. My first thought was a big Channel Cat or Flathead. The fish went towards the center of the river and was pilling drag. I had to make several adjustments on the drag throughout the fight. The first run the fish almost spooled my reel of all it's line. It seemed for every one foot of line I retrieved the fish took five more feet. At one point during the fight I thought the fish had gotten hung up. After about a 12 to 15 minute fight I managed to catch the fish. The fish was huge and I knew It was over 10 pounds. I kept the fish alive on a live stringer and had it weighted on a certified scale. I had a second fight bringing the fish out of the water for weighing. The fish weighed 12.11 pounds and was 26" in length. The fish was released healthy and hopefully not ever to be caught again. The fish is the current Guadalupe River Large Mouth Bass Record and the Guadalupe River Catch and Release Record. The fishing Gods were with me during the whole time. The fish was barley hooked in it's upper mouth by a very small Bluegill hook. Also the six pound test line and the five foot ugly stick got the ultimate test. Oh yea I had no net. Me and my buddy will never forget this fight. Lifetime Memory for sure.

Me and a buddy had a really good spot a few years ago up in the river on Hubbard, it’s was a log jam and a very specific cast that would produce 5+ pound fish every trip sometimes multiple times in the same day, we had caught fish up to 8 pounds several times in the weeks leading up to the day I caught my PB off of it. (The day before my buddy caught a 8) Any way on this day in particular we had a unsuccessful trip to cedar creek to prefish for a tournament and before we went home we decide to visit “the juice”. We run to the river shut the boat down about 50 yards from “the juice” and proceeded to fish up to it, as we approached my friend was in the front on the boat so we agreed that he should make the first cast to the spot. He fired his crankbait and made the perfect cast about 4 cranks in we see the fish roll on the bait and it misses, with out hesitation I fired mine in there and almost instantly hook up. He asked if I wanted the net and I told him no because I thought it was only a 2 to 3 pounder, boy was I wrong. He netted the fish and that was it.



I didn’t get a weight because he didn’t have a scale in the boat and at first we honestly thought it was the same 8 pounder he caught the day before, I didn’t want to handle it very much so we snapped a few pictures and let her swim. After further review of the pictures of our catches we determined they were definitely different fish and it was well over 8 pounds. If I had to guess it was a little more then 10.5 pounds. The second picture in the post is a 10.1 I caught early this year on Hubbard for comparison.

Was practicing the day before the start of the BASS Federation Top Six State Tournament in the mid 90's in Flat Creek on Palestine. Was throwing a Golden Shiner Slugo. Saw a swirl on my bait and my partner saw it also. He said go ahead and hook it and let's see what size fish are in here. I set the hook and the next minute or so was a vicious fight and didn't really know what I had until she started tail walking about 20 feet on top of the water away from me. Finally got her in and when we weighed her she went 12.01 lbs. It was the fish of a lifetime for me and really gave me confidence for the tournament and the bait I would use which I went out and caught just under a 20 lb limit the first day and ended up 13th overall for the tournament. The mouth was so big on this fish I could put both of my fists in it. And being on Palestine those days really would mean pretty much a native fish without any of the Florida genes making it a really special fish. Got the measurements on her and had a fiberglass replica made at that time that I wish I still had but kind of got destroyed in a move.

While it's not my PB, it is the biggest fish I ever caught in a Tourney 8.98 lbs. We were fishing Leon back in April of 2015 and we were struggling, my partner hooked a 5, then missed another, I was watching the electronics and noticed we were dead center on a point, he was throwing up shallow, so I took a Alabama Rig and thru it out the back of the boat into the deep water off of the point, I let it sink for about the count of 10 and started reeling and bam this girl hammered it, I said "Big Fish" you know how Mike Ike hollars, but I knew it was a big fish, in fact I kept saying this can't be a bass, I had hooked the bass in the mouth and the tail and had to drag it back to the boat, I kept saying this has got to be a large catfish, it almost felt like I was pulling a tire thru the water, just about the time we got her close to the boat she came un hooked from the tail and started dancing on the water right into the net and we screamed like a couple of bitches!

September 19, 2016 - Lake Waxahachie

I had been fishing the little puddle hard. 3 to 4 nights a week. I’d head straight to the lake from work. I had been fishing the working man’s Thursday nighters and was tired of coming to weigh in empty-handed, so I was determined to figure something out. After a few hours of dink after dink, I decided I’d better head home before the wife started calling.

Half way through the long, 45 second run from one end of the lake to the other, the lit dock caught my eye. I thought, “She’s gonna kick my arse.” as I pointed the nose of the old Stratos fish & ski towards the light and came off plane too early. Oh well, I don’t have time to fool around. As I trolled toward the end of the dock, I made a long cast toward the slip and landed right in between the walkway and the right pontoon of the boat on the lift. The junebug brush hog didn’t even make it to the bottom. I felt a small thump and the line went sideways. I set the hook like a wimp after ripping into dinks all night. It felt like a wet towel. I didn’t know what I had but I wasn’t too excited. Then she poked her giant head straight out of the water and shook like crazy. The fight was on then! I was running from one end of the boat to the other, playing her out, trying to keep her away from the dock and begging God to not let her come off. Finally she was at the boat and tried another head shake but I reached out and grabbed her mouth before she could. As I lifted her in the boat, the hooked flipped out of that giant mouth and onto the carpet.

In that moment, I swore I had caught the lake record and ran back to the ramp while yelling to my wife on the phone to get to the ramp. Ended up weighing in right at 10 flat on and old digital scale. No record, but man what a memory. Oh, and that next Thursday night, the only thing I head to show at the weigh in were pictures from a few nights before.

Awesome thread. Keep em coming.

46 lbs. in a night derby in California biggest on a frog rest were crank fish

While my personal best is only 6lbs it was by far the most exciting. Lake Comedero this year. Was nearing the end of the day and fishing an area loaded with thick grass. Threw out and reeled in a spinnerbait and just as I was going to pull the bait out of the water this silver flash just annihilates it. I fight it for a minute and the guide grabs the net and on his way to the back of the boat he knocks a rod and reel in the water that belongs to the guy I'm in the boat with. He nets the fish and at that moment the rod and reel pops back up on the other side of the boat. Guide drops the net in the water with my fish. Now I am trying to keep the fish hooked up along with keeping the net on top of the water. Finally just drop my rod and reach down and grab fish and net. Seems like a long drawn out ordeal but all this happened in a blink. In the end got the rod and reel, net and fish in the boat. It was awesome.

I was fishing Toledo Bend in March on a 30mph north wind day. We launched in a protected area that morning and quickly found out they were biting. I was flipping a 3/8oz Talon jig and had already caught a few 5s and 6s. Working down a grass line and there was a large hole in it. Pitched in there and immediately caught a 5 pound male bass. Color on it was real cool so we took a picture and threw it back. I repositioned the boat and threw into the hole again and immediately got bit. First thought was did that same fish bite again? No this one was much larger. We lipped it and got it in the boat. Weighed right at 11 pounds. I ended the day with my best five weighing about 34 pounds. My partner had a mere 25 pound day.

Ray Roberts in the spring time, and hard to believe it's been over 20 years ago. Ray Bob back then had hydrilla covering a bunch of the lake. Fishing by myself and it had been a pretty slow day for bites, but really good for quality fish. If I remember correctly I only had 4 or 5 bites the whole day but all of them were over 3 pounds. Had put in at Jordan and had about an hour of daylight left so I decided to go to Sand Creek for a few. Went right to my fav spot on a dropoff from 5' to about 9' and flipped a big blk/blue Larew Hawg craw onto the ledge. Slowly dragged it off the ledge and it never hit the bottom. No tick. No thump. The line just started slowly moving off. I knew this was gonna be a good fish! Hit her hard and it was ON! Dang that lake used to be sooo much fun!!

Feb 2019 on Twin Buttes. Old fishing partner of mine just moved back to town after being gone for about 10 or so years. Got on the water and as I making my first cast he was giving me a hard time about using braid and a brass sinker. Told me the only way to go was fluro and tungsten. Needless to say right about the time he was done critiquing me I felt a faint thump. Set the hook and it didnt move for a few seconds then the fight was on. Knew it was a good one but didn't realize how good till she came to the surface then it was a mad scramble to try and get the net out of the locker while keeping her from jumping. 12.01# certified by TPWD scale.