Monster NY Bass

[heavuser]

Y'all ready for this? 

 

About 7 years ago I landed this hog, weighed in at 9lbs. Caught it on a 8" Huddleston Swim Bait, everyone who saw me fishing with it thought I was crazy. As much as it pained me, this was Catch and Release. 

I present to you, my PB.

Edited December 6, 2021 by heavuser

[The_Real_TCIII]

Where was that caught again? I forget


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[heavuser]

21 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Where was that caught again? I forget


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Can't forget what you don't know! 

Edit: Took a minute for me to catch on

Putnam County, old private Boy Scout camp property.

Edited December 6, 2021 by heavuser

[Robhuntandfish]

Damn ! Somebody put a PA girth chart on that SOB!  Looks like he swallowed a mallard.  

Nice bass.  My PB is 6lb 2 oz for large mouth and 5lb 15 oz for smallie.  

[heavuser]

9 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

Damn ! Somebody put a PA girth chart on that SOB!  Looks like he swallowed a mallard.  

Nice bass.  My PB is 6lb 2 oz for large mouth and 5lb 15 oz for smallie.  

I bet that smally fought like bloody hell!

Below is my PB smally, no idea on the weight, maybe 3ishlbs? Caught in him a relatively small creek.

 

[Robhuntandfish]

Used to Bass fish a ton. Nowadays mostly walleye.  

[wolc123]

I caught one close to that size ,thru the ice on a tip up on Brantingham lake, about 20 years ago.  It came up like an old boot.  The hardest part was squeezing it thru the ice hole, and back down for the release.  Warm water species ain’t much fun thru the ice.  No pics and the only witness was a little girl out there skating.

largemouth bass are my favorite fish to eat and second favorite fish overall.  Smallmouth bass hold the top spot for me, because they taste almost as good, but fight twice as hard, pound for pound.  They are also tougher and live longer in a live well, with diminishing oxygen and warming water.  I find largemouth a little faster to fillet, which is another contributing factor for them being my favorite to eat.

I am in the minority, who prefers bass over perch and walleye, on the table.  Those are too dry for my preferred cooking methods of baking, broiling, or grilling.  Bass has just the perfect amount of oil in it, to remain moist thru those healthier cooking methods.   I will admit that perch and walleye are better fried.

This was my last open water fish of the year, caught and released on my last Adirondack  outing of early NZ ML week.  I was going to try again last weekend, when I was up grouse and bear hunting, but the lake froze over.

 

 

[heavuser]

19 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I caught one close to that size ,thru the ice on a tip up on Brantingham lake, about 20 years ago.  It came up like an old boot.  The hardest part was squeezing it thru the ice hole, and back down for the release.  Warm water species ain’t much fun thru the ice.  No pics and the only witness was a little girl out there skating.

largemouth bass are my favorite fish to eat and second favorite fish overall.  Smallmouth bass hold the top spot for me, because they taste almost as good, but fight twice as hard, pound for pound.  They are also tougher and live longer in a live well, with diminishing oxygen and warming water.  I find largemouth a little faster to fillet, which is another contributing factor for them being my favorite to eat.

I am in the minority, who prefers bass over perch and walleye, on the table.  Those are too dry for my preferred cooking methods of baking, broiling, or grilling.  Bass has just the perfect amount of oil in it, to remain moist thru those healthier cooking methods.   I will admit that perch and walleye are better fried.

This was my last open water fish of the year, caught and released on my last Adirondack  outing of early NZ ML week.  I was going to try again last weekend, when I was up grouse and bear hunting, but the lake froze over.

I think I'm doing something wrong with my bass. Every time I have tried to cook largemouth it tastes like old lake water :/

[wolc123]

5 hours ago, heavuser said:

I think I'm doing something wrong with my bass. Every time I have tried to cook largemouth it tastes like old lake water :/

What most folks mess up with bass, is they toss them in a cooler with ice  and let them die with the guts still in them.  They taste the best when you keep them alive and as healthy as possible, until you are ready to fillet them.   
 

Wack them over the head, to knock them senseless, and get the fillets off fast.   If the meat is still twitching, when you take it off, it will taste very good when cooked.  
 

You don’t have to eat them right away.  You can dry the fillets with paper towels and vacuum seal. They will taste like fresh-caught, up to a year later, when frozen.  

Edited December 7, 2021 by wolc123

[518BowSlayer]

What most folks mess up with bass, is they toss them in a cooler with ice  and let them die with the guts still in them.  They taste the best when you keep them alive and as healthy as possible, until you are ready to fillet them.   
 
Wack them over the head, to knock them senseless, and get the fillets off fast.   If the meat is still twitching, when you take it off, it will taste very good when cooked.  
 
You don’t have to eat them right away.  You can dry the fillets with paper towels and vacuum seal. They will taste like fresh-caught, up to a year later, when frozen.  

I'm with you. Bass are really underrated as far as table fare. I find that bleeding them makes a huge difference, I bleed all fish that I eat. I use a knife with a gut hook and just cut the gills while they're still alive. Makes the filets pure white. I usually fry bass but grilled is good too. Brown trout was always my favorite to fish for as a kid but now salmon and steelhead have taken over. Never caught a walleye in my life, might need to change that this year!

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[518BowSlayer]

Y'all ready for this? 
 
About 7 years ago I landed this hog, weighed in at 9lbs. Caught it on a 8" Huddleston Swim Bait, everyone who saw me fishing with it thought I was crazy. As much as it pained me, this was Catch and Release. 
I present to you, my PB.

Absolute pig! That's almost double my pb

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[wolc123]

4 minutes ago, 518BowSlayer said:

I'm with you. Bass are really underrated as far as table fare. I find that bleeding them makes a huge difference, I bleed all fish that I eat. I use a knife with a gut hook and just cut the gills while they're still alive. Makes the filets pure white. I usually fry bass but grilled is good too. Brown trout was always my favorite to fish for as a kid but now salmon and steelhead have taken over. Never caught a walleye in my life, might need to change that this year!

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The only walleyes I have easy accesss to are mostly the big slobs out in Lake Erie and the st Lawrence River.   They taste ok if you eat them fresh but really suck after any time in the freezer even if the fillets are vacuum sealed and handled like I described for the bass above.  I suppose they would be ok, if you don’t mind white flakey meat that tastes like algae.

They are also very fragile in a live well, so usually go in a cooker with ice.  I will have to try the “filleting” while twitching” trick on one some time, if I can keep it alive, and see if that makes a difference.

Edited December 8, 2021 by wolc123

[WNYBuckHunter]

On 12/6/2021 at 5:36 PM, wolc123 said:

 

largemouth bass are my favorite fish to eat and second favorite fish overall.  Smallmouth bass hold the top spot for me, because they taste almost as good, but fight twice as hard, pound for pound.  They are also tougher and live longer in a live well, with diminishing oxygen and warming water.

 

I dont Know what is going on with your live well, but smallmouth die much easier in a live well than largemouth. Out of all of our tournaments, I have only seen 1 largemouth come back to weigh in and not make it. Smallies on the other hand, it’s not uncommon for them to come in dead or die before release. It’s been better since most of the guys started learning how to fizz them, but they still die at a much higher rate. This isn’t something unique to our club either, it’s the same thing I hear from most clubs/tournaments. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

On 12/6/2021 at 2:18 PM, heavuser said:

Y'all ready for this? 

 

About 7 years ago I landed this hog, weighed in at 9lbs. Caught it on a 8" Huddleston Swim Bait, everyone who saw me fishing with it thought I was crazy. As much as it pained me, this was Catch and Release. 

I present to you, my PB.

That’s a pig. Great catch! 

[wolc123]

11 hours ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

I dont Know what is going on with your live well, but smallmouth die much easier in a live well than largemouth. Out of all of our tournaments, I have only seen 1 largemouth come back to weigh in and not make it. Smallies on the other hand, it’s not uncommon for them to come in dead or die before release. It’s been better since most of the guys started learning how to fizz them, but they still die at a much higher rate. This isn’t something unique to our club either, it’s the same thing I hear from most clubs/tournaments. 

My observations are based on what I have seen a few times when fishing a shallow lake (Findley in the SW corner of NY near Erie PA) where I have got mixed bag limits.   
 

If you are loosing smallmouth from deep water, it is probably the thermal shock that is doing them in.  
 

A boat draws warmer water from the surface for flushing the live well, so if you are catching smallmouth deep and largemouth shallow, it makes sense for the smallmouth to die first.  
 

When I have caught both species shallow, on the same day, the smallmouth have consistently been the last to belly up in the livewell.