Very nice fish! What was her weight?

Man that’s awesome! This is the best post in the bass section in several months? Congrats!

Let’s hear some specifics - bait, lake, how she hit it, fight? I want it all! Let’s hear the story.

8" worm of unknown brand - it is like a light blue/gray color with a ribbon tail, Texas rigged on a 2/0 offset straight shank hook.

So I saw a fish on a bed, it was about 11:30 and I had to hurry up and leave because of a 1:00 conference call. But I decided to cast to this little 1.5-2 lbs bass a few times. He wasn't interested, and was really busy defending his spot from all the spawning carp. I decided it was my last cast, and put it in there. He looked at it, but didn't take it. I slowly pulled it out of the bed and over the adjacent grass. As soon as it came over the edge, I let it fall down into a little hole that was there. As it fell, I saw a flash of another bass, and I thought it was pretty big, but wasn't sure. I had slack line, so did not feel a bite. I reeled up slowly and felt that something was there so I set the hook. She bolted out of their like a rocket! I knew I had a good fish, but I did not know how good. She pulled some drag on my Lew's baitcaster which was spooled with 20lbs braid and a 10 lbs. flouro leader. I am now thinking that I had a really nice fish.

She comes up to the surface and emerges herself, shaking her head, and I see a huge splash and a huge mouth. At this point she is about 20 feet away from me. I now know I have a REALLY nice fish. She runs back towards me, then does a u-turn. Peels a little more drag, and starts coming to the surface. I am starting to panic because that often ends badly. She gives another show, then comes down and starts coming to the boat. She gets just out of view, then turns and runs away from the boat. Then she turns towards the back of the boat. Pulls a little more drag, then runs back towards the surface. I shove my rod tip down hoping she doesn't come out of the water, and fortunately she doesn't. Then she starts coming in with the reel, she is starting to tire. She sees me and turns and runs again, this time pulling a little more drag, but the angle is wrong for me to try to turn her, so I let her work her way around the motor t the other side of the boat, which thankfully is where I store my net. I work her around, and finally in, and after a few more attempts by her to get away, I finally net her. I pull her out of the water and now realize I have my personal best Bass! I did not realize yet she was 10, but I already told the story about when I put her on the scale. What a wild ride!

My new buddy Dave was 100 yards away on his boat, we had not met before this, and I hold up the fish and let out a scream! He asks if I want him to come take a picture of me with her and I said HECK YEAH! As he was trolling up to me I weighed her. I did not remember to take scales for DNA sampling by TPWD and wish I had. I barely remembered to get her length before letting her back in the water. Unfortunately she had the hook real deep, so even though I don't necessarily believe what they say about just cutting the line, I knew she was dead if I pulled the hook. I tried the tricks I know of without causing more damage, but it wasn't coming out, so I clipped the line at the hook and put her back in. After a couple of swishes to help her realize she was back in water she finally swam away slowly and like she had been there a 100 times before. We can only hope she is still out there to finish spawning and grow up to be caught again.

I appreciate all the kind congrats messages and well wishes guys. It was the fish of my lifetime, and I can die happy now. I will get a replica mount of her when I can save up the $600 necessary. Seems like a lot of dang money for a replica!!! Any suggestions for where to get that done are appreciated. I have seen some really bad work and am scared to drop $600 for a piece of [censored] paint job.