Biggest Bass I've caught in the pond yet!

[kellenw]

24 inches. 6.5-7 pounds I'm guessing. Caught on a 4 inch yellow texas rigged swimbait. Not the best picture as I was in a hurry to get her back in the water, and for the life of me I couldn't get the fish to fit in the frame.

Went out to fish for a few minutes after work. Still in the work clothes. Glad I went. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Sorry if you're getting tired of my fish pictures. This one was just too good not to post. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[JazzDad]

"Still in the work clothes."
The sign of a true addict, indeed. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Good looking fish. Not to worry. If someone doesn't like your fish pix they don't have to look at them!

I have a large fish in one of my smaller ponds (I have 12) but I don't know what it is. I was watching one day when a duck (about 3/4 the size of a grown mallard) dove down for some pond grass and a large dark shape gave pursuit. The duck did not surface and there were no feathers floating to the top which suggests the fish swallowed it whole with no struggle.

My guess is that it is a big catfish or a whopper large mouth bass.

The largest bass I have ever seen come out of any of my ponds is about the size of the beauty you are holding in the picture.

If I keep feeding the channel cats in the catfish pond I built I suspect they will get HUGE.

Keep the pix coming!

Pat

[kellenw]

Pat - Largemouth Bass regularly eat other fish up to a third of their size, so it's definately possible. I've even seen two dead bass on the shore before that were about 16 inches each.... one had its head stuck in the mouth of the other. Clearly bit off more than he could chew. hehe

I've also seen bass take down small ducklings, large snakes swimming on the surface and even young muskrats. They'll try to eat just about anything that moves.

[egon]

You should import some Jackfish to give the Bass a little competition! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Bird]

While fishing on Lake Whitney many years ago, we found a largemouth bass swimming very slowly along on the surface of the water. We were really sure of what we were seeing at first, but I eased the boat alongside and my brother dipped it up in the dip met. It was about a 2 pound bass that had a pretty large sunfish or perch stuck in its mouth. I've no doubt they both would have died if we hadn't come along when we did. But we separated them, put both in a live well for awhile to see if they would recover, and they did, so we released them.

[Pat]

Life feeds on life.

I used to have a top water lure that was a rubber mouse with a treble hook sticking out its backside. Mice do swim across water and make a bass target. I saw a bass go vertical out of the water and take a sparrow off a branch a couple feet above.

One particular mess of bull frogs I brought in to my mom and aunt to clean all had really full guts so they opened them up to see what they were eating so much of and it was little snakes about a foot long. They were all stuffed on snakes.

Frogs make pretty good bass bait. I suppose ducklings would too but I am too tenderhearted.

Pat

[Bird]

Pat, part of Lake Whitney has some pretty high white cliffs and the swallows build mud nests on those cliffs. Right under the cliffs is deep water (the Brazos River channel) and I've read that baby birds frequently fall in the water and are eaten by the big catfish in that area. I read one article that said those baby birds would be the best catfish bait, but like you, I'm a bit too softhearted to try that.