22 Inch 6Lb Sow!

[Stoneroller]

got bored, decided i'd give lake 'X' a shot, it's near my 'secret' lake and i figured, if idnr shocks bass at over 120/hr, it's worth a shot. (20lb blue catfish from this lake is nothing to get worked up about either...)

anyway, so I drag all my stuff out, don't you love when you bring 8 rods and only end up using 1? =) anyway, I saw shad jumping all over the place, and figured I'd throw the good ole white spinnerbait again. I caught a 10 incher within my first dozen casts. I figured that wasn't too bad, but 18 inches is the limit on this lake and you can only keep 1 at that size or larger. only 2 other boats on the lake and they were both fishing for crappie, which are numerous but not trophy size in this puddle. I did notice tons of caddis flies all over the laydowns in the water, the crappie were jumping out of the water when the caddis flies would land on the water's surface. probably should have noted that as i only got nibbles on a white crappie jig.

so i'm beating the crap out of the water, the shoreline, the trees, bushes, rocks, docks, etc with this spinnerbait. about an hour into my drift, i feel what i can only describe as a mack truck on meth, slam my lure. instinctively i jerked back. my rod doubled over about the same time my jaw hit the deck of my kayak. as soon as i felt the line go tight, i knew it was decent fish, but wasn't exactly sure till i got a flash of color shortly after hooking it. i though, well that's bigger than 18 inches, now where's the net??? D'oh, in the back of my car.... that's when I'm thinking... this pig better be hooked well...

I reached for it a couple of times to "lip" it with my thumb in it's mouth. yeah, it wasn't having any of that nonsense and ripped away from my hand a couple of times. luckily it was well hooked and it's cavernous maw was big enough to get my entire hand into. secured, the smiles began...

this fish is a personal, verfied best for me. I've caught a fish around this size but it was neither measured, nor weighed, althtough I do have a picture of it. This fish went 22 inches and an even 6 lbs. (that's a certified scale) I ended up boating another 6 or 7 fish, but as soon as the water started to cool off, the fish shut off.

All the fish I caught were on a white spinnerbait. water temp was 68. this fish had obviously been working on a spawning bed, but had not spawned out yet. the fish i caught were 'shallow' but had access to deeper water, they weren't up on the shallow flats yet. i didn't even get a bite there. lake 'X' rules supreme.

[eric1978]

What a beast! Great fish.

[Flysmallie]

Decent!!!

And look at that bloody tail.

[Smalliebigs]

She was on some eggs...nice bass, it looks your work is paying off.you like that cracker spinnerbait

[flytyer57]

All I can say is; NICE.

[Gavin]

Thats a great river greenie. Congrats!

[Stoneroller]

here is the video of that fish...

[fishinSWMO]

Nice largemouth!

[Buzz]

That's a pig for sure.

[eric1978]

I dunno how you guys can stand throwin' a spinnerbait with a spinning reel...it's like using one of those old-timey coffee grinders.