Friday, April 30, 2010

Just caught the biggest bass of my life!

Got out of Speech class a little early and it was semi-light out after a quick storm so I decided to head down to a little local pond to try to catch a bass or two in the twenty minutes before it got totally dark.

It's a little walk from the car to the pond so I was kinda spooked a couple times walking through the trees in the mostly-dark.

Finally got down to the water, tossed in the 7" Powerworm that's been rigged up since last Friday.  got a couple knocks on it, missed the hookset, reeled in.  I pulled back to cast and smacked the worm/weight off my line on the dock behind me, scaring up something HUGE about ten yards away along the shore.
 
Swearing, I (very clumsily in the dark) tied on a $1 buzzbait from Walmart and whipped it out along the shoreline.  This was my first time fishing a buzzbait so I retrieved just like I've read to, started reeling right before it hit the water and steadily brought it over the surface.

I couldn't see my bait at this point so my second cast I can hear my bait on the surface, followed by a little splash and silence...  Immediately after I feel a pull on the line so I jerked up and had her.  This is the first time I had a fish really run hard so I let her run a little and reeled in as much as I could.  When I got her up to the shore I couldn't tell how big she was so I swung her up on shore.  She was pretty huge. (by my standards anyway!)  I don't have a measuring tape but she went from the end of my pinky to my elbow and felt like she weighed about 3-3.5lbs.  When I went to get the hook out, I shined my cell phone in her mouth and saw the tip of something's tail sticking out of her throat.  I tried to take a picture but my phone has no flash. :(  I managed to get a blob of my arm and a blob of the fish that I'll put on here.  Not very believable or exciting but at least its evidence... Sort of.


Thats what windows came up with when I hit auto-fix.  you can see my hand at the top holding her by the lip. Like I said, not very exciting but hopefully it lets everyone know I'm not just telling fish stories. :)

I thought about taking her home but it was about 9:20 and I have work in the morning so I didn't wanna stay way up to figure out how to clean her.  (Haven't cleaned a fish in about 10 years.)  I had her out of the water for about a minute at this point and didn't want to run all the way back to the car and streetlamps just to take a picture so I let her go.  I then picked up my rod and realized I didn't have my line run through the end eye on my pole the whole time!  Got pretty lucky I guess.  She messed up the buzzbait, bent it and ripped the skirt down to the bottom of the hook so I took it off, fixed the line, tied on a Rat L Trap lookalike and tossed that a few times with no bites.

I'll probably be going back there again Sunday so hopefully I can get her again and get a decent picture this time,  I'll cross my fingers.  :)

Lessons learned: Buy a cheap digital camera with a flash.  Buy a scale and tape measure so I don't just have a blobby picture as evidence!  Buy more cheap buzzbaits at Walmart!

Tight lines everybody!

8 comments:

Clif said...

Congrats on the fish! That is good news, and I'm especially happy to hear about someone catching fish on topwater. Topwater fishing is the best, but conditions have to be right. Hearing about your fish means the water might be warm enough now.

The big question is: how long is it from the tip of your pinky to your elbow? On my arm it's 17-18" and a fish that long will weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 lb if it's healthy. Maybe more if it was fat or full of eggs.

It's right in that range where a half inch starts to make a big difference in weight. 19" will go closer to 4 lb and 16" is probably 2 lb or so.

And that picture is awful, I think I see your arm, but it looks like you're holding a ball cap. :) If you're going to blog, you need a camera. In the mean time try adjusting the brightness and contrast on the original image.

Click here to see how I always have a ruler handy. It's cheap and easy.

Basspastor said...

Mark

Thanks for stopping by Bass Pundit. It looks like you are off to a good start with your blog. As far as fishing info for you as a beginner, I recommend you spend some time at The Bassholes Internet forums. They have a forum just for beginners and it has some great information.

Look forward to hearing more of your fishing adventures.

Anonymous said...

What a great story...sounds like you had a fun time! I look forward to hearing more about your adventures.

p.s...I'm glad you didn't fillet it up...that's like filleting up my dog! lol

Mark said...

Thanks for checking out my mini-adventure guys.

Clif - thats an awesome idea for a handy ruler. I'm gonna run to Walmart after work and get a tape measure. I'll make sure to measure my forearm too so we can get an idea of the weight. While I'm there I'll look into a cheap digi camera with flash and ascale... This is the first time I went fishing at or around dark but just in case, don't want people to think I'm holding my Cubs hat. :)

BP - Thanks for the info, I'll check out Bassholes this week while I'm at work, maybe pick up a thing or two. Glad you like the blog so far, I was really inspired by your and Bassfishingdem's blogs so you may see that inspiration show up from time to time. Good luck on your next trip to the GOMH!

Tami - Glad you liked the post. The filleting was a big part of why I didn't keep her. I didn't want to keep such a pretty big fish just to get a decent picture and then screw up on filleting her and end up with a couple ragged pieces of meat to show for it. Better for her to live and thrill the living daylights out of somebody again. I'm still hoping against hope that I can get her again when I go down Sunday morning.

Thanks again for checking it out guys. Hopefully this is the first of many "biggest bass of my life" posts. :)

Anonymous said...

Like the others, I just want to congratulate you on a nice bass. What a way to get back into fishing. Hope you have a good bass fishing season and happy hook ups.

Mark said...

Measured the forearm. Just over 17", plus she had just eaten whatever had its tail sticking out of her throat.

I went back to the pond for a couple hours tonight, caught 4 bass under 10", including my first on a dropshot rig! Kinda bummed. Guess they can't all be 17 inches. :( 4 little fish is better than no fish tho.

Think I may have to fish a bigger lake. Banner Marsh here I come!

Thanks for the well wishes Mel. I checked out your blog, I really like it.

Rebecca said...

Congrats on the big one! I actually like the picture, it adds an air of big mystery and good outline to a well told story.
I was just reading your below comment and in my experience, it's all those little fish that fill up the space between the big ones and in that regard, you'll always be having a blast ~
Rebecca

MNAngler said...

Looks like I'm late to the party. Popped in after catching up with Basspastor's posts.

Great catch. Nice posts.

Welcome to the bass bloggers club!