Hello. I am new here and just registered. I already know a bunch of you so this place can't be too bad. I am just starting a project to redesign and deck my boat for about the 5th time so I expect to be using the site alot as I move along looking for ideas. I will try to offer help when I can. I am also the lucky guy in the photo above so I thought you all might like to hear the story of how it happened and a video of the fish. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hR5kjFjx-Y The fish was weighed after this video on a digital Berkley scale and settled on 15lbs 14oz after it lost most of its stomach contents.
OK here is the story on how the fish was caught. We were on the fish good. Perfect day to go take a shot at some big fish. No rain but windy and overcast. We go up the right arm of lake Varner and were covering water and catching some good fish feeding on grass walls. We were fishing lipless cranks as well as swimbaits. We had a couple good hybrids and a bunch of three and four pound largemouth. So the guy with me, Ben, keeps tossing the lipless crank and I start with the High Power Herring hoping to find us some fish to upgrade the size with. It was pretty much half and half as we continued to get a fish here and there in that same three and four pound size.
Then we got to more of a big fish spot so Ben ties on his brand new never been cast High Power Shad. First cast Ben gets a seven pounder and yells like Ike. So this far all the fish were up on flats or on small drops on the outside of grass walls so Ben keeps working that on one side while I start looking for open water deeper fish on the other side of the boat. Ben is still getting them and I haven't seen any thing following my bait yet.
Then Ben's bite is slow and mine starts to pick up. I miss a giant twice then we go for a while with no strikes so we move to deep water and we are both getting follows and strikes from suspended fish in open water but they are tough to get a good strike from but the size is looking much better. I finally figure out how to get a big one hooked and it straightens and twists an Owner 2x st41 hook. I saw the fish follow and strike and it looked 10 plus.
So we adjust again and we see bait in open water over channels and I mark some big fish on the depth finder near a good big bass spot. The sun comes out and we have pretty much narrowed down a spot where the fish are coming from. Ben gets a strike from a follower right at the boat and we catch it. I make a cast down the ledge and get a follower. The fish turns off the bait and starts to swim off and I make the bait dart and glide away from the fish and get a reaction from the fish but the fish sucks and spits the bait while slack is in the line. I say something to Ben wanting him to turn and see the fish and at the same time I just kill the bait and deadstick it as the fish swims toward the bottom. I let the bait sit for maybe 10-15 seconds and just give it a twitch. The fish comes from directly below the bait at full speed and clears the water and crashes back down on its side. Since the fish got so high and it happened so fast I am thinking eight pounds at the most so I am calm and the fish is deep so I just crank slowly bringing it in. It comes up under the boat so I never see it. Ben nets the fish right next to the bottom of the boat and I get back on the trolling motor fast excited about the topwater strike we just saw but also worried about getting stuck in the grass we are going toward.
Ben says this fish is bigger than the 14lb fish from Lake Horton that I caught about a year ago so I turn and look and say it's not. I still think I have an eight pounder. :lol: I have a rubber net and Ben has to lean the net down for me to see the fish. Then I get off the motor and let us get stuck in the grass while I look at the fish.
Now we have no livewell or real camera other than our phones so we talk about what to do. I remember the rope at the front of the boat and tie the fish off with it and start calling around to find someone close to bring me a good scale. I find some one who is close and can bring the scale so he meets us with almost his whole family We weigh the fish and get it back swimming in the lake.
Back to top