I wont say where, so don't ask. I didn't have a scale or camera but the length was 24.5" and the girth was 19". What's the formula for weight? She looked like she had swallowed a small football.
When I got to the lake after work last night the sun was behind the hills but still was giving plenty of light. I put on the Monster sized lure I just finished making over the weekend and on the 1st cast WHAM!.... I slammed it into the mud and broke off the bill. x( That kind of bummed me out. Well, after that I decided to put on my other monster bait. On my first cast with it I had a huge follower come all the way to the bluff bank, then just fade out. I decided I'd let her sit for a while and try for her with another lure. I moved about 100 yards and threw the monster bait again. It was followed in by another large fish which was joined by 3 smaller but still respectable fish as I twitched the lure in an effort to get them to hit it at the bank. They were mildly interested and would come closer while I was twitching it but wouldn't hit it. I tried a few more casts with it and got progressively less interest. Next I tried throwing a Castaic Swimbait in Golden Shiner. This got more interest, but still didn't get hit and was out of the strike zone way too fast. I finally decided I needed something different than what I had so I went back to my car in search of my Lucky Craft Pointer SP. I couldn't find it because it was in my fanny pack that I left at Joey's house after our last Sturgeon/Striper trip. I looked at the rest of the stuff I had and was almost despondent as I grabbed a few lures I had little confidence in.
Then I something happened that just seemed right. It was a jig that I've never caught fish on before that fell out of the box and landed on a pack of Powerbait brush hogs in the same pumpkinseed color. Next to them was some Powerbait jelly in the orange color. BINGO! I rigged it up, smeared some jelly on the underside of the jig which made it look like an orange bellied green craw and went back to the last spot.
On my first cast I hopped and twitched it along the bottom and up the side of the bank until it was resting on a spot about a foot down from the lip. I could see just the backs and tails of 3 Bass in the 4-6# range looking at the bait from about 18" from where I thought the jig was. All of a sudden they just decided to leave in a little bit of a hurry and I thought they got spooked.
Well they got spooked alright, but not by me! I gave the jig just the tiniest twitch to try to get them to come back and as they sped away I felt a sharp but light THUNK! HUH? What? I realized what happened as I automatically set the hook as hard as I could and all that happened was I burried the line a good 5" into the mud without moving the rod tip more than a few inches. Then the fish took off carving a chunk of mud off the bank that was bigger than a regulation football. Thank God I was using fresh 30#. The fish made an immediate open mouth jump and I pulled her onto the mud while she was still in the air. The fight was over before it ever began. I was still on my knees and had to get up to go get her and unhook her. She flopped around once before I grabbed her. I measured her length and girth and gently slipped her back into the water without getting to close to the edge. I went to the area where I saw the 1st fish and fished for about an hour and it was getting too dark to function so I called it quits.

Tight lines,
Wade

That's cool...great story too, way to change it up and get followers to bite.I don't know the formula for weight but sounds big.

I mean no offense by this but who goes fishing now a days, especially for big fish, without a scale? I would be kickin' myself in the Aye if I caught a teener and did'nt have a scale or camera! I know everyone forgets things as they go out fishing, I've even completely forgot my reels one time, DOH!



Trev-

Formulas don't work for LMB. If they did, A 15 that I caught taped out at over 18 pounds. I caught an 11 last month that was 25 inches in length and a guess at the girth would be about 20 - 21. Your fish is in the ten pound class i would guess.

So where did you catch it:P

SWMB8R

If you use the LxGxG/914 your fish is just under 10. Great story!

SWMB8TR that same formula for your 11 comes out to 10.94 if you use the 20" girth.

Wade, Here are some numbers for you using 3 different formulas.
looks to be just shy of 10 based on this.
Mitch



Length in inches 24.50
Girth in inches 19.00

Formulas, -Weight in Pounds
(LxGxG)/914, -9.68- IGFA Bass Formula
* SEE BELOW,-9.80- Florida State Biologist Bass Formula
(LxLxG)/1200, -9.50- General Bass Formula

*
log(weight, in grams) = -4.83 + 1.923 x log(total length, in mm) + 1.157 x log(girth, in mm)
Reference: http://myfwc.com/fishing/fishes/bass.html

Thanks guys! I knew it was bigger than my 8.25 and considerably smaller than my 11.9. As for not having a scale, my old one got rusty and is useless. I haven't had the $ to buy a new one because I've been spending what little I can on other things like the rod I was using, hardware for new plugs, the Charlie SR I lost last week, etc. Damn this is an expensive obsession. (Notice I didn't call it a hobby, because you don't reschedule dinner time, lose sleep, or eat cheaper for a hobby.)
Tight lines,
Wade
PS I just keep telling myself "I'm not addicted. I'm not addicted! I'm not addicted!! I'm not addicted!!!). :+