Huntsville State Park - Lake Raven

[betursweetbass]

BTL and I have been pretty busy lately with some home improvement projects and other hobbies, but we took advantage of the good weather here on Sunday and went to Lake Raven. It was a very nice day out there, Sunny and light winds, even still at times. The water temp was in the upper sixties for the most part but the fish where slow to hit anything. We fished for about two hours without anything but a couple bites to get excited about. I finally snagged one nice bass lurking in some lillypads using a Lake Fork Crawdad rigged Texas style. We moved to another area of the lake where we knew there where alot of lilly pads and I proceded to haul five more nice keepers into the boat. By this time, BTL was a bit frustrated and was feeling like a TV news camera woman.

Finally BTL caught herself a nice one, a very nice one. I would estimate her length at about 26 or 27 inches and her girth at around 15 to 16 inches. I would also estimate her weight at about 9 to 10 pounds. BTL caught her with a 4 inch watermelon tiki stick on her finesse rod (Shimano Crucial w/ Shimano MG Chronarch) This had to be exciting, due to the fact that BTL uses only 10 pound test on this very light weight setup. She, BTL, pulled that big toad through several lilly pads and fought her for about 4 minutes until I was able to haul her in with both hands. A few people in the boats nearby where also quite shocked by the size of this nice female, they all let out shouts of excitement and congradulations.

I unfortunately sent the wrong file to this computer this morning and cannot post the pics at this time. Look for the pictures by this time tomorrow. We caught a total of 12 bass. All bass where caught on soft plastics, the tiki stick, Lake Fork Crawdad, and the Zoom Bush Hog. We did get about another dozen serious strikes, but lost these fish in the lilly pads, no surprise since we where using light lines and finesse fishing. Overall it was a great day, we got out of the house, and spent the day on the water, doing what we both love to do.
Here's to hopin you all have the same luck on your next trip.

BET

[JB]

WTG! basstexlady!! that had to be a thrill of a lifetime. You'll always remember the entire day, the weather, how the bass fought, landing it...hope to see more pics of you catching bigun in the near future!

[bassintxlady]

thanks jb.....thought no one would ever notice....hehehehe......the pics are on the other thread that bet posted....my heart was pounding to be sure.....it's the biggest i've caught so far.....i'll never forget it.....that's for certain.....

[betursweetbass]

JB, the best part of having BTL out there with me is to see the excitement on her face when she hooks up.....but in this case, it was more like sheer panic.....

[JB]

i bet so! thats what the girls in college used to tell me after our first date rofl

[bassintxlady]

oh poosha.....i bet that's not true jb.....and i can vouch for what bet said too....i was paniking bigggggg time....i thank him for lippin that big thing in the boat for me that's for sure....

[JB]

A good way to overcome the panicky feeling on a big fish is to get lots of practice with nice size 4-5 lb bass and "play them out" till they eventually come up on their side and slide into your hand or net. After a few of them the really big ones won't freak you out as much, you learn the characteristics of how fish run, dive and play till they run outa steam.

[betursweetbass]

Actually she did quite well with this guy, I'm amazed at how she navigated this fish thru the lilly pads and back towards the boat. It was like watching Mike I on TV (without all the screaming, thank god)....