Well.... Lost the biggest Bass I've ever seen this morning. I know we all have lost fish stories, I need to get this one off my chest before my wife kicks me out of the house for constantly telling her how bummed I am. Flipped into a hole in the Lily pads about foot behind the pad line, the wind had just turned in and this was the first bank to get hit by it. Didn't feel the bite at all, was popping the lure off the ground and initially thought I was snagged, gave it a big pop to break it out of a pad stem when it started swimming into open water, leaned back on it and immediately my reel started peeling drag ( I lock my baitcasters down and use my thumb to give drag normally) kept pressure on it watched it jump in front of my kayak, it was the thickest and longest bass I have ever seen! Kept fighting it, it kept swimming and pulling drag, jumped a couple more times (my heart stopped every time it breached the surface.) I tried to stay cool and adjust my rod angle as it was swimming behind me, as I swung my rod from right to left the fish changed direction and the rod went completely straight for less then a second. Unfortunately that was long enough to shake the hook. I just sat there for 15 minutes with my hands on my head. I have caught a few just under 8 pounds and this fish made those look and feel small. On a positive note my knots and held strong, rod and reel were doing their jobs. Complete user error was the cause for losing it.

Thanks for reading, let me know the biggest Bass you guys have seen and lost. Pretty sure this would have been my first ( maybe only) double digit bass.