The Biiiiiiiggg One That Got Away

[Dan052]

So I was fishing pomme de terre last spring. It was late spring, just as the bass had began to start staging in deeper water, right at the end of the spawning period. I set out early that morning from Springfield, just after a nice thunderstorm had rolled through. The pavement at the boat ramp was still wet and slippery, and as I was preparing my boat for launch you could still hear the distant rolls of thunder from the storm. The weather forecast for that day was; Spotty thunderstorms with a stiff 20mph wind out of the south.

To any experienced fisherman lacking a tournament caliber bass boat, you know how frustrating a gusty day on the lake can be. You miss out on good casts because you drift right passed them while working your lure back to the boat. Especially during the spring time where it is crucial to hit every submersed bush, stump, or boulder.

To my surprise, our fishing was nothing short of pathetic that morning. Considering that late spawn is considered one of the best times of year to be fishing, we had set our standards to at least a few keepers each. But on this particular day, we had maybe 5 bass landed by noon, only one of which might have been a table rock keeper. I had been throwing a spinner bait in the shallows and the backs of the coves for the majority of the day thus far, which only produced a couple of measly bass, not even worth mentioning.

Right around 2pm, we pulled up the trolling motor and cruised on over to the a marina, and had a quick bite to eat. During lunch we were discussing if we wanted to stick it out for another few hours and see if we couldn't figure the bass out, or just pack up and leave. After coming so close to just calling it a day, we hopped back in the boat and took off in the direction of one of our favorite spots on pomme de terre. Twin coves....which is RIGHT across the lake from the marina.

We started on the wind blown bank, and started working our way back in to the cove. Within about 5 casts, I had a nice 16 inch largemouth on. Finally!!! A decent bass. Before catching it, i had switched over to a pumpkin seed colored texas rigged lizard. A couple casts later, my dad landed a nice 15 incher on a shallow diving crank bait. We hadn't been away from the marina for more than 10 minutes and we had already landed 2 decent keepers. It was almost as if someone had flipped on the switch. The bass all of a sudden wanted to start feeding, right in the middle of the day. Which is very odd considering earlier that morning, when the sun hadn't even come up yet, the bite was as poor as I had ever seen for a spring day of fishing.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, we must have landed 20-30 bass.....half of which were 15 inches plus!!! Our horrible day of fishing had taken a complete 180 and turned into a great day of fishing. Tallying up a total of 15-20 keepers, a couple being in the 3-4 pound range!!!

As the evening set in, as hard as it was to call it a day, we eventually had to. The sun had dropped down over the trees, and you could barely see the detail of the shoreline. We started up the boat and cruised back down towards the boat ramp. After making it all the way to the launch point, there was one more spot we wanted to hit, just across the cove from the boat ramp. About an hour earlier, I tied on a bass colored, shallow diving crank bait. Hadn't caught but one small bass on it. But I figured that since it was so late and we maybe only had another 20-30 casts in us before dark, i might as well use it instead of wasting time and tie on another lure.

Right as soon as we dropped the trolling motor in the water, BAM, a quick 14-15 inch bass landed by me on the crank bait....threw her back, casted again......nothing. We trolled on down the shoreline about another 100 yards. There was a NICE looking fallen down tree in the water, that I knew just had to hold a bass.

So I made a next to perfect cast, right up at the base of the tree. withing a foot of the shoreline....let the crankbait sit for about 10 seconds, then started reeling at a vigorous pace. The boat was drifting on passed the laydown so i didn't want to get my crank caught in the side of it. Just as soon as I had made it around the front of the laydown, within 30 feet of the boat...........BAAAAAAAMMMMM! HUGE HIT!!!!

I violently set the hook and started reeling, only i wasn't able to pull the fish towards me with this hook set. Instead, my line raced off to the left, and towards deeper water! It was at this point in time that I knew I had a lunker on the end of my line. I had to loosen the drag right off the bat, because I knew my 8 pound test might not survive whatever it was on the end of my line. The way that it fought, I was almost certain that I had hooked into a decent sized catfish. It never once expressed any interest in surfacing for the typical bass jump.

After fighting this mystery fish for almost 5 minutes, i noticed that it was starting to tire out. It was no longer diving down and pulling my rod tip into the water. So i tightened the drag up a little bit and started reeling in. At this point, it was almost so dark, that I couldn't even see below the surface of the water. I didn't know what I had until it came up out of the water. Just as I got it within 5 feet of the boat, the beast showed itself!

It was by far the biggest largemouth I had EVER seen in person!!! Easily a good 10 pounds.....and that is being conservative! I have reeled in many 5 pound bass, and I can tell you right now, this bass was far bigger in size than any of those bass I had ever caught in the past. My heart jumped into my throat whenever I first saw the fish (still does, everytime I tell the story).

So as soon as I pulled her towards the boat..and layed down on the back of the boat to lean over and lip her, she made one last flop and spit my crank out, shooting it straight into the air....I almost cried! I was 2 feet away from landing the biggest bass of my life, and possibly the pomme de terre largemouth record! It was sickening!

The sad thing is, for the rest of my life, I may never get the chance to land a bass that size in that lake....and truly is my story of the big one that got away!

[Buzz]

Great story. I think we all know your pain. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

Buzz

[FishinCricket]

That was a fantastic story! Very descriptive, not to mention sad as heck! But you'll always have the memory anyways..

[ozarkgunner]

That was a fantastic story! Very descriptive, not to mention sad as heck! But you'll always have the memory anyways..

I hate the crankbait "flip off"! I feel your pain. Some guys run single hooks on their baits for this exact reason. I still use trebles, but I am much easier on the fish (compared to fishing a soft plastic worm) when they get close to the boat. Sorry to hear you lost him, but as with life.... you will learn from the experience. I hope the next one you land is 12 lbs.!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tight Lines!

[tippett7]

Great story. You will probably remember that story more than if you had landed the fish.

[Dan052]

Thanks for the feedback guys! and thank you for the welcome! I have always been looking for a good bass fishing forum, and I think i've found it!

But yeah, it definitely is a story to tell. One that I want to forget about, but I know I never will. haha!

[Guest csfishinfool]

So I was fishing pomme de terre last spring. It was late spring, just as the bass had began to start staging in deeper water, right at the end of the spawning period. I set out early that morning from Springfield, just after a nice thunderstorm had rolled through. The pavement at the boat ramp was still wet and slippery, and as I was preparing my boat for launch you could still hear the distant rolls of thunder from the storm. The weather forecast for that day was; Spotty thunderstorms with a stiff 20mph wind out of the south.

To any experienced fisherman lacking a tournament caliber bass boat, you know how frustrating a gusty day on the lake can be. You miss out on good casts because you drift right passed them while working your lure back to the boat. Especially during the spring time where it is crucial to hit every submersed bush, stump, or boulder.

To my surprise, our fishing was nothing short of pathetic that morning. Considering that late spawn is considered one of the best times of year to be fishing, we had set our standards to at least a few keepers each. But on this particular day, we had maybe 5 bass landed by noon, only one of which might have been a table rock keeper. I had been throwing a spinner bait in the shallows and the backs of the coves for the majority of the day thus far, which only produced a couple of measly bass, not even worth mentioning.

Right around 2pm, we pulled up the trolling motor and cruised on over to the a marina, and had a quick bite to eat. During lunch we were discussing if we wanted to stick it out for another few hours and see if we couldn't figure the bass out, or just pack up and leave. After coming so close to just calling it a day, we hopped back in the boat and took off in the direction of one of our favorite spots on pomme de terre. Twin coves....which is RIGHT across the lake from the marina.

We started on the wind blown bank, and started working our way back in to the cove. Within about 5 casts, I had a nice 16 inch largemouth on. Finally!!! A decent bass. Before catching it, i had switched over to a pumpkin seed colored texas rigged lizard. A couple casts later, my dad landed a nice 15 incher on a shallow diving crank bait. We hadn't been away from the marina for more than 10 minutes and we had already landed 2 decent keepers. It was almost as if someone had flipped on the switch. The bass all of a sudden wanted to start feeding, right in the middle of the day. Which is very odd considering earlier that morning, when the sun hadn't even come up yet, the bite was as poor as I had ever seen for a spring day of fishing.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, we must have landed 20-30 bass.....half of which were 15 inches plus!!! Our horrible day of fishing had taken a complete 180 and turned into a great day of fishing. Tallying up a total of 15-20 keepers, a couple being in the 3-4 pound range!!!

As the evening set in, as hard as it was to call it a day, we eventually had to. The sun had dropped down over the trees, and you could barely see the detail of the shoreline. We started up the boat and cruised back down towards the boat ramp. After making it all the way to the launch point, there was one more spot we wanted to hit, just across the cove from the boat ramp. About an hour earlier, I tied on a bass colored, shallow diving crank bait. Hadn't caught but one small bass on it. But I figured that since it was so late and we maybe only had another 20-30 casts in us before dark, i might as well use it instead of wasting time and tie on another lure.

Right as soon as we dropped the trolling motor in the water, BAM, a quick 14-15 inch bass landed by me on the crank bait....threw her back, casted again......nothing. We trolled on down the shoreline about another 100 yards. There was a NICE looking fallen down tree in the water, that I knew just had to hold a bass.

So I made a next to perfect cast, right up at the base of the tree. withing a foot of the shoreline....let the crankbait sit for about 10 seconds, then started reeling at a vigorous pace. The boat was drifting on passed the laydown so i didn't want to get my crank caught in the side of it. Just as soon as I had made it around the front of the laydown, within 30 feet of the boat...........BAAAAAAAMMMMM! HUGE HIT!!!!

I violently set the hook and started reeling, only i wasn't able to pull the fish towards me with this hook set. Instead, my line raced off to the left, and towards deeper water! It was at this point in time that I knew I had a lunker on the end of my line. I had to loosen the drag right off the bat, because I knew my 8 pound test might not survive whatever it was on the end of my line. The way that it fought, I was almost certain that I had hooked into a decent sized catfish. It never once expressed any interest in surfacing for the typical bass jump.

After fighting this mystery fish for almost 5 minutes, i noticed that it was starting to tire out. It was no longer diving down and pulling my rod tip into the water. So i tightened the drag up a little bit and started reeling in. At this point, it was almost so dark, that I couldn't even see below the surface of the water. I didn't know what I had until it came up out of the water. Just as I got it within 5 feet of the boat, the beast showed itself!

It was by far the biggest largemouth I had EVER seen in person!!! Easily a good 10 pounds.....and that is being conservative! I have reeled in many 5 pound bass, and I can tell you right now, this bass was far bigger in size than any of those bass I had ever caught in the past. My heart jumped into my throat whenever I first saw the fish (still does, everytime I tell the story).

So as soon as I pulled her towards the boat..and layed down on the back of the boat to lean over and lip her, she made one last flop and spit my crank out, shooting it straight into the air....I almost cried! I was 2 feet away from landing the biggest bass of my life, and possibly the pomme de terre largemouth record! It was sickening!

The sad thing is, for the rest of my life, I may never get the chance to land a bass that size in that lake....and truly is my story of the big one that got away!

my biggest bass of my life also came from pomme up the river a ways though. its my profile pic on here and i would say it was nine to ten pounds but i hard to say when they get that big. I released the fish right after it was caught and took this one picture. Might have been the same fish. its weird that pomme has an abundance of 13 inchers but there are some real hawg in there too.

[Dan052]

my biggest bass of my life also came from pomme up the river a ways though. its my profile pic on here and i would say it was nine to ten pounds but i hard to say when they get that big. I released the fish right after it was caught and took this one picture. Might have been the same fish. its weird that pomme has an abundance of 13 inchers but there are some real hawg in there too.

I agree...I have caught around ten 5+ pounders on Pomme, which in any Missouri lake, a 5 pounder is considered a good bass!

but most trips to Pomme just end in a day where we catch 20-40 small bass. (which is still fun, btw)