Pond Hopping in Florida, My Biggest Bass

[Grudzilla]

Most of the bass fishing I do is of the small pond just for fun variety, throwing 3 inch curly tail grubs on 1/16th ounce jigheads and slaying the little guys on the banks, mainly just to get my rod bent when I'm getting skunked in the salt. To keep it fun, I equip myself with a 5' ultralight spooled up with 6 lb. mono, and I walk the entire bank with just a bag of jigheads and a bag of grubs. Usually I'll end up with 5-20 little guys mixed with the occasional bluegill or stumpknocker depending on the day, and an occasional 2-3 pounder which is rediculous on my ultralight. Kinda always made me wonder how it would feel to get a 5 pounder to hit something on it.... foreshadowing?

I decided to head out last evening around 7:30 to try to get a bend in my rod with some little guys. Headed to my favorite pond (moreso a collection of ponds, 5 or 6 productive ponds in one park area). Halfway there in the car I realize my camera is sitting at home on its charging dock and I thought to myself this will be the day I actually catch a big one . I had my camera phone but it was aleady starting to get dark and a white LED isn't exactly a sufficient flash bulb...

Anyways, I know theres some big fish there from the posted record of a 7.5 pounder and seeing some big mamas on beds with my own eyes . I went to the typical routine of chuck and reel with my grubs, and got 2 bass within the first 5 casts. There was a real nice gentleman fly-fishing on the other side of the pond who caught 5-6 smaller bass on a popper while I was there, he would help me with a picture later . I continued down along the bank and pulled in a few more little guys. I hooked up with about a 2 pounder who threw the hook on a headshake just below the surface, but that got me kind of excited.

I walked over to a little cut in the bank where theres a culvert that feeds the pond with runoff, its got a real nice ledge in the bottom structure plus its surrounded by some good thick weed cover. I've seen some real big bass here on days where the water was pretty clear, and started throwing my grub hoping to get another one of those two pounders for a good time with the ultralight. Something waked around my lure on the first cast, and I could tell it wasn't any little guy. Made another cast and destroyed all hope by getting snagged on a lilly pad, figured that would spook whatever waked on my lure last cast. I got it unsnagged and laid a perfect cast where I had originally intended to get it in the first place. Halfway home on the retrieve my grub gets annihilated.

I set the hook, realizing my drag is extremely low since I was getting kind of bored with the ease of pulling in the little guys . The fish felt it, showed me his face with a headshake on the surface, and immediately made a run for the middle of the pond. My drag was screaming loud enough for the fly-fisherman to hear it at least a hundred feet down the bank, since he hollered "sounds like a nice one to me!" I tightened up the drag and started to put some pressure on the fish, and it turned around and gave the most amazing acrobatic jumping display I've seen in person, exactly like every slow-mo replay out there. It even seemed slow motion watching it live, but that might have just been because my heart stopped expecting to get my dinky little grub spat right back into my face. Luckily, the big guy stayed hooked and my focus level shot up since this was clearly the biggest bass I'd ever hooked up to. He darted towards the weeds, a nasty bed of small lilly pads where he could easily tangle me up and break me off. I moved down the bank a bit to get a better angle, I don't remember making a conscious decision to do so, I just remember ending up there and I'm glad I did. The fish got all tangled up in weeds and at one point my line went completely limp. Luckily it tightened right back up or I would have likely just dropped my rod in anger/dissapointment/awe. I guess the fish decided to give up, because after magically untangling himself from the weeds, he swam right towards me onto a real small patch of shallow water right in front of me. I walked right into the water to land him which is something I never do, but this fish was my personal record and I had to make sure I got him in. I got a thumb in and lipped him, he shook real hard as expected but I had a gorilla grip going on. Got my other hand under him and held him up for the flyfisherman to see. I unhooked him (he was really nicely hooked in the side of the mouth, the 1/16th ounce jig head looked so tiny in his mouth), and ran down the bank with the fish in hand asking if the gentleman could take a picture, which he gladly did. After explaining how to work my cameraphone I got about the best shot I could have out of a cameraphone at 8:30 pm. The bass went just on the bigger side of 20 inches and I'd have to guess he was at least a 5 pounder. My biggest by about 2 inches and a pound in those categories. It sure was a fight I'll never forget. And a big thanks to the gentleman who took the picture if your out there!