Finally A Bass I Feel I Can Be Proud Of 2024
BooyahMan reply :
I finally got a PB worth being proud of. I've written out a fairly lengthy blurb so if you don't want to read it, there's a picture at the bottom I promise!
This is my second year fishing for bass and I think I have finally clued in on what the bigger fish in my local lake will go for. The vast majority of anglers in my neck of the woods are trout or salmon guys and bass are generally frowned upon (blasphemy I know). Because of this, there really isn't anyone to learn bass fishing from. The belief that my local lake only had tiny bass was almost unanimous (to this day there are still people that are surprised to hear that it even has Largemouth), and it was only through word of mouth after getting to know other residents that fished the lake that there was one fish rumoured to have been in the six pound range that was caught the year before. Most people passed it off as just that however; a rumour.
In my first year of bass fishing, I started out with casting small spoons and jigging curly tail grubs under a dock. This brought in a few fish, but the problem was that they were all in the 6-8 inch range. We ended the year with my girlfriend landing a whopping 10 incher, which we figured was a good size.
This year started with more of the same, except I picked up on wacky rigging some small plastic Berkley trout worms. This worked wonders but again, most of the fish were very small with the odd 12 incher thrown in. Whenever I tried larger wacky worms or tossed larger lures like Rapalas, I would always get skunked. We even rented a rowboat to get to some new spots but all we could catch were these tiny bass, and there were lots. I spent an entire summer day chucking a topwater frog to no avail as well, which made me put it away for awhile (more on this later). About halfway through the summer I started making my own spinners, and this became a very cheap alternative to wacky rigging the Berkley worms. I then discovered a little outflow creek that would hold bass, and I eventually landed a 14.5 incher on a spinner there.
Fast forward to early September. I had upped my average by catching a handful of bass between 13 and 14.5 inches, but it was never consistent and more due to dumb luck than anything. Furthermore, they were still not the monster bass that I believed the lake was harboring. One day I commented on how the lily pads in the lake were started to recede a bit, and my girlfriend said, "why don't you try the top water frog again?" I didn't think much of it, but after a few more uneventful trips I finally brought it out. On that trip I started with my home-made spinners while my girlfriend wanted to try the frog. It didn't take long for there to be a SPLASH as a small bass took a swipe at the frog and missed. A little while later, I watched a much bigger one fly out of the water with the frog in its mouth. Unfortunately we were very green at the whole frog technique and my girlfriend ended up setting the hook much too soon. Regardless I was spurred on by this and immediately went back in the days that followed to try the frog. I got a bunch of blowups but for the life of me I either couldn't hook them or I couldn't keep them hooked. That's when you wonderful people of Bass Resource came in.
After consulting the knowledgeable people on this forum, I went back to try again and finally landed a chunky 16 incher, which became my new PB. This was already much bigger than anything my circle of newly recruited bass anglers had caught out of this lake, but I couldn't help but feel there was something more that I had to experience. In the weeks that followed, I consistently caught fish in the 13-16 inch range and had at least a couple of blow ups every trip, with the majority of the action occurring right where the outflow creek meets the lake. I was pretty content with this new change of pace from the 6 inchers but I figured that with this colder weather it would push the bigger bass out to deeper water and I would have to wait until next year to catch my local lake monster. Or so I thought.
ACTUAL REPORT HERE:
The evening started out as any other frog fishing evening. Got to the lake around 3pm for a couple of hours of frogging before it got dark. The first couple of hours went by without a sniff, with the exception of a fish startling me to death when my frog fell at my feet and was suddenly met by a blow up. Alas, I did not see nor hook that one. After moving along the lake, I came back to my old haunt that had been so good to me over the past month. On the first cast upon my return, a big blow up sank my frog about halfway through my retrieve. Turned out to be a good decision to revisit my haunt as this fish ended up shattering my previous 16 inch PB, coming out to 21 inches in length. Did not get a girth measurement but seemed decently chunky, so I would guess a solid 5lb fish? You can judge for yourself:
I was absolutely elated and was shaking so badly while releasing this fish. I was so excited that I forgot to check my braided line and on the very next cast, another one that looked roughly the same size demolished the frog within a few seconds of hitting the water. I went to give it a good hard hook set when SNAP! My line broke. 
Serves me right for using old/used braid. luckily for me, I had a spare setup so I immediately put that one together and proceeded to land another six bass in the span of about 45 minutes. The rest were in the 13-15 inch range so they weren't that big, but it was still crazy fun having so many of them explode on the frog. At one point it was 5 casts and 5 blow ups. Best frog fishing trip of my career so far and a fish that I will remember for a long time.
I grew up with salmon and trout and I normally head out for salmon during the fall months, but I've been enjoying the topwater bite so much that I am opting for a bass trip tomorrow instead. Consider me addicted!
aavery2 reply :
Nice fish, looks like an easy 5+ fish to me.
00 mod reply :
Nice fish. Congrats on the PB. I would say that fish is in the 6 lb range. Nice girth!
Jeff
jbw252 reply :
Great story about a great catch - thanks for sharing. Congrats!
Smokinal reply :
Nice job there EX! And a nice report. I felt your excitement just reading it! I'm wicked happy for you. And that fish is a 5 easily, I would guess 6 myself.
Congrats and welcome to the dark side!
A-Jay reply :
Very Nice Bass ~
She's every bit of 5 1/2 lbs and maybe even more.
Those feelings of excitement, imagination, anticipation, and accomplishment during your "Journey" to this bass, is precisely why I love this sport.
Congratulations
A-Jay
Catch and Grease reply :
She is every bit of 5lbs or more, great bass! Congratulations
Dwight Hottle reply :
Congrats on your new PB.
Bruce424 reply :
Nice man.
everythingthatswims reply :
Looks like a 6 to me, your hand just makes her belly not look as big. Nice fish!
Alonerankin2 reply :
She's a pig for sure, nice LMB! Great work & nice story!
boostr reply :
Wow, nice pig. Surprised they are still hitting the frog up North, I stopped using it cause of the chill.
kickerfish1 reply :
Very nice write up and I am very happy you caught the fish!
lectricbassman reply :
Great story and an even better catch!
riverbasser13 reply :
Way to go man! I love it when a lake "with only little ones in it" yields a hawg like that. Way to put some time in and get results!
desmobob reply :
That is a beautiful fish and great story. :-)
Congratulations on your new PB and best wishes on breaking it soon!
Tight lines,
Bob
atcoha reply :
5# all day long.
good job.
reb67 reply :
Great job on the story and the catch.
It's fish like that makes this sport so additive.
Watch out for that bait monkey it bites newbies like us and season veterans as well.
einscodek reply :
Nice.. anything 20"+ definitely gets the heart pumpin
Doubly nice you let it go!
Frogs this time of the year in Canada?
BooyahMan reply :
Thanks everyone! This is a great community and I can definitely say it's a lot friendlier than some of the local-area forums that I frequent for salmon/trout/steelhead. 
I too am a bit surprised that the frogs are still working but caught a good 3lber tonight along with a couple of smaller fish. I'm wondering if the better fish are still hanging around the shore to feed as we just had a massive amount of rain and the water level is quite high. Once it gets to an hour before sundown the bite switches on.
buzzed bait reply :
looks like it could be a 6'er all day! nice fish.
Bluegiller reply :
Fine looking fish, and definitely avatar-worthy. That has to be more than 5 lbs.
Zach Dunham reply :
Good story man. I saw how long it was and I didn't really feel like reading it, but I did anyways. I'm glad I did! Awesome bass.
roadwarrior reply :
That's a beauty and a great story!
OntarioFishingGuy reply :
Gotta love froggin'! if only it worked on Salmon...
Ratherbfishing reply :
Unless that fish is a southern transplant (which I seriously doubt), it must've been really old and fed well to attain that size! Great job (with that fish and the others)!!!
You might be the sole and founding member of the local chapter of bass addicts anonymous.
Bankbeater reply :
Wow! That is a sweet bass!
WillJ reply :
I don't know how big you are.. I dwarf 6 lbers so pics never do them justice but the girth of that fish looks huge. beautiful coloration, i would of got measurements for replica mount!
kikstand454 reply :
Great story and beautiful fish! I agree with the 5.5-6# guesses.
She's a toad!
Wtg!
bassr95 reply :
Awesome fish! It sounds like you definitely put the time in to learn that lake, and finally got results!
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