Walter

About this time last year, I lost a huge bass at my home lake.  I nicknamed him Walter (probably a her) as a joke in reference to On Golden Pond.  I spent lots of time trying to find him again or another big bass.  It's a short season for bass here.  The lake is shallow and gets hot fast so they don't come up shallow for long.  I even bought a 7 wt after losing a couple big boys on my 4 wt last year.

I've been hitting it hard this spring whenever I get the chance.  Yesterday evening in the missing rain, I went out to throw some articulated streamers in the shallows after dinner.  Caught one tiny bass and had seen some grass carp cruising but not much else.  Then I saw what I thought was a small carp cruising by.  Stripped in across the fish and boom.  It first even took off like a carp, but then he came up and gave a jump and head shake, and it was clear it was a largemouth.  

The adrenaline started to pump and my heart was racing.  It took out a good bit of line and took me several minutes to get it in.  When I got it shallow, I dropped to my knees and grabbed ahold of it for dear life.  Pulled it up and I was in awe.  Heaviest bass I'd held for sure and an absolute beast.  I'd been chasing one for a while here, and I finally got one to hand. 

I didn't have any way to measure or weigh it and didn't want to leave it out too long, so I used the rod as a guide for length and took some pictures and released it.  I would guess it to be between 22-23" from the picture and ruler reference.  Probably weighed in around 6-7 lbs.  My thumb still hurts...