New PB tonight -- by almost a pound!

[WatterBoy]

Just last September I caught my first ever 5 pound bass (5lb 2oz) on a lake in Southern MN. This May I caught another 5 pounder (5lb 1oz), this time on a lake in Central MN. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd ever catch a SIX pounder here in MN/IA, but tonight I did! Here is the (long) story...

After work today I made the two hour drive down to visit my parents in IA. I arrived with about an hour of daylight left, and even though it was raining, my dad and I decided to drive to the small lake 3 miles from town. It was still raining lightly when we got there, so my dad said he would watch from the car if I wanted to make a few casts. I grabbed my rain jacket and rod with the 30-pound braided line and Black Widow poppin' frog already tied on and headed just a few feet away to the boat launch dock. I proceeded to cast multiple times in all directions for about 30 minutes. I tried working slow retrieves with long pauses, quick retrieves with almost no pauses, and every combination of retrieve in between...all with absolutely no sign of any fish. As I sailed the frog out one more time, I thought maybe this should be my last cast here and we should drive around to the other side of the lake to try another favorite spot of ours there. I had no more than had that thought when "WHAM!", the water just blew up completely where my frog had been. I set the hook like there was no tomorrow and started trying to horse the fish out of the slop. No luck. Using the rod or reeling at all made absolutely no progress whatsoever. I was in such thick slop at this point that I had no idea if the fish was still on or not. I finally tightened my drag several clicks (spinning reel, still haven't learned how to use a baitcaster yet) and then was able to horse the slop in a little bit, reel down to it, and repeat the process. I still didn't know if the fish was on until about halfway in when I felt a little kick. Then I knew I was still good. To land it, I had to walk the length of the dock and drag it onto shore because the dock was too high above the water for me to be able to grab it otherwise. Just as I lifted/dragged everything up onto the gravel a foot or two from the water, I noticed the fish was now off my hook and all I had was a big pile of slop. I saw the fish just lying there in 3"-4" of water, terror-stricken that it would just swim away and I'd be left with nothing but a ton of sloppy junk on my line. I threw down my rod and darted the step or two back to the water's edge and even into the water just a little bit. There I used both hands to pin down the stunned, disoriented and tired fish on the boat launch platform in just a few inches of water. Then I lipped it and turned around and hoisted it into the air like I had just won the Bassmaster Classic! By now my dad was out of the car getting the camera, scale and tape. We took a few quick pictures and collected "the numbers", then released the HAWG to be caught another day. It weighed 6.0 even on the scale, was 20.5" in length, and had a whopping 15.0" girth.

I was shaking for a good 30 minutes after that. I fished until well past dark and had several more hits, but none that hooked up. I couldn't have cared less at that point, though, since I had a new PB by 14 ounces! It's over two hours later now, and I *still* can't belive it.

Here are the shots of me and my dad each holding the fish and then one of all the junk that came in with it.