Biggest Bass of the year thus far

[kt]

Just curious to see how some of you have done so far this year leading up to the best big bass months of the season. For me this year has definitely been more difficult than last year (not a bad year though). A couple of my top lakes have yet to really get going like they did last year. However, with the bad there is always some good. The tough bite on a couple of my favorite lakes has forced me to expand my horizons and learn some more new water this year. And in doing so I have found two new gems that have sky rocketed up my list of top lakes. I have caught a lot of nice fish this summer but have yet to get any monsters. The biggest 4 fish in my boat this year have weighed 6 lbs 4 oz, 5 lbs 14 oz, and two 5 lbs 12 oz beauties.

The one thing that i really noticed about this year was the lack of a consistent deepweededge bite on a couple of my favorite lakes, which if probably my favorite type of fishing. In fact my four biggest bass came from depths of 3-7 feet. With only the 6'4 coming from the deep weededge (dark water lake). Also, I have yet to get into a really good deep crank bite this year. (I did get into an awesome lipless crank bite 3 weeks ago for a couple days on one particular lake) Almost all of my big fish have come on vertical baits.

Should be interesting to see how others have done this year. Especially around central mn (alex) which is where i fish.

[SledNeck]

Heres mine. I forgot the dimensions

[Nate McVey]

She's a beut Clark!

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Here's a pic of my biggest it was a little shy of 21". I really wish I would have pulled a quick girth measurement 'cause she was thick. I was holding her in the water while my dad grabbed the scale and she took off on me. My PB until this fish was 6.4 and Im thinking this fish was bigger...

[Gilgamesh]

I helped land a 23" bass before the season opened fishing for crappies. Biggest bass I've ever seen.

[french_lake_kid]

23" on a rollr' jig pre-fishing a tourney, not sure the weight but we totally wifted on the tourney and it was my "home lake" 2

[roughfish29]

no idea on the weight but it was 20"

i am yet to get a largemouth over 3 pounds this year

i have caught alot of big smallies this year so thats good

[EBass]

21.25" is the biggest for me this year. (I have a pic on the measuring board, but can't post it since the new web filter went in) I've caught 6 LMB over 20 this year. I haven't fished for smallies since there's not much water in the river. 19" was the biggest. My buddy caught a 21.75" (pic on da board) a couple weeks ago.

[matthothand]

Biggest so far was a 22 1/8" from a few weeks ago.

[Dourque]

For me it was a 21.75" Largemouth weighing in at 6.56lbs, got a replica of that baby coming any day now for the "man cave".

[Juan Grande]

Dang you people, I haven't been able to top the 20" mark ever let alone this year. I guess it would help if I got out fishing more than 6 times per summer.

[Larson15]

Biggest bass of the year and of my life was this summer, July 28th. 22 1/2 inches. Catch and Released

[grab the net]

Was a really good June and early July for me. Have 11 over 5 and two over 6 so far. A 6lb 12 oz and a 6 lb 8 oz. I weigh mine on a digital scale to get a weight on them. The two six's were from the same lake and were both short and had shoulders on them. Best in a tournament was a 5-12 that got me big fish for the two day tournament. Looking forward to a good fall. When the water temp starts to drop I think it will turn on again. Several of my big fish came on a swim jig this year. Others on a senko or a creature bait. All shallow wood or emergent weeds. My goal right now is 20 over 5 for the year and to break the 7 mark. With a little luck I think it can be done.

[kt]

Hey Grab the net,

Are you getting your big fish mostly around the Alex/Fergus Falls region. If so, I bet you are fishing a lot of the same bodies of water as me. We should compare notes sometime.

I'm planning on heading out to one of my big fish lakes tonight if everything goes as planned i'll give a report on how i did. Went out last night to a numbers lake and the fish were really snapping. Was out for only an hour and 15 min and probably caught 40 bass. Mostly on a red eye shad with about 10 or so on a jigworm. Biggest was 3 lbs on the scale. Hooked two at one time for the first time this year, one on each treble on the red eye shad. Hopefully the fall bite is just starting to get going.

[grab the net]

My guess is we share some of the same favorites. Most of my fishing has been done just west of you aways. A friend was out yesterday, a retired school teacher. He caught a ton. Somwhere around 40 fish in about 4.5 hours of fishing. Biggest was just over 5 with 10 over 3. he caught them in bunches, 4-6 in a spot. Get the first one to go and then you could cast right back to the same spot and get the rest. Presentation was important. Make the cast, let it settle and do not move it for about 10 seconds, then a little twitch and they would just about yank the rod out of your hands. Plan on fishing this weekend in the Battle lake area. Good luck tonight. Here is my e-mail [email protected] I think it would be great to compare some notes.

[mainbutter]

I haven't broken the 20'' mark this year yet, but I've come close. However I haven't targeted bass more than 3 or 4 days this year, so that's not bad.

[-JAKE-]

So far the biggest largemouth i have caught this year was a good 21 inches. I was out in dallas, south dakota at the southfork ranch on a father-son pheasant hunt. the pheasants were good but some very young roosters too. but anyways back to the fish. The owner of the place told me that there was a small pond ( maybe 25 yards long and 15 yards long.) that has bass in it. so after the afternoon hunt i drove with my dad and a friend of my dads down to the pond with my baitcaster and a green frog patterned skitterpop . i cought 2 small bass maybe about 7 inches each. so i moved to a new spot and casted a few times and got a few decent fish about 15 inches. and then the big hog grabbed it and took off. it faught for about 10 minutes before coming in to the shoreline (which was full of weeds. so i managed to pull the weeds in and was digging through the weeds. and he was stil there. couldnt get a measuerement but got a few pics that i could post later on if i get them from my dads friend.

[Fever]

Well this year has been a little bit dissapointing in a few ways. I did however catch countless 18's, & 19's and did exceed the 20 inch mark over a dozen times but did not break the 21 inch mark once. I put a lot of time in fishing deep looking for schools of larger fish and simply did not do it. When I did find fish deep they were 17 - 19. I'd say most of my 20's came from water shallower than 5 feet. I am a bit hard on myself and have some lofty goals. My personal best is 22.25 inches and I'm dead set on beating that. Still have plenty of time and it just so happens that those big girls school up and get hungry when the water temp drops close to that 58 degree mark. I hope to improve on my numbers before getting Ice gear out.

[bassfshin24]

Well my year has been kinda disappointing so far for big fish. I think my largest one is a lil over 20 inchs but have had a ton of fish between the 17-19 range. My best weekend of fishing so far this year was actually bass opener on mille lacs. Caught 4 smallies over 4 lbs and one right at 5 and one largemouth prolly between 4.5-5 didnt have a scale. All in all its been a pretty good year for numbers but the big girls just havent been there for me

[jalberg]

It's been a good year so far. Biggest was 21 7/8" and fat, didn't get a weight as my digital scale broke. I've gotten two 21.5" and several others 21" or over. I got 5 bass over 5lb last week, two of them were over 5 and a half. Still looking to break 22" and/or 7lbs.

I bought a camcorder and put it on a tripod in the back of my boat. I got almost all my big fish on video and I'm going to edit it down. I'll post it on here when it's done, but that probably wont be til December.

For the first time, I have been keeping track of the total # of bass I've caught. I'm at 825, hoping to clear 1000 before ice up.

[EBass]

Sweet on the video jalberg, I'd like to see that with back ground Metallica music

[NTW]

I've caught a fair number of 4's and a few 5's this year but nothing to write home about.

My wife "upped" her personal best this season (while 7 month prego). 6lbs 9oz

[TonkaBass]

nice NTW!!!

[french_lake_kid]

Nate why dint you bring her on tonka that one sat????Leave me at home next time wow

[river rat316]

Was the fish prego to? Cripes thats a goodun