Ok Eight Thumbs, since you asked, and we likly have time before the ice thaws, I'll tell you my ultimate fish story.

As was common in the early 2000 time frame, I had stopped by my in-laws house ((which is on the shoreline of a local RI reservoir.) to cast to bluegills for 20 min before supper one still summer evening. As usual, all I brought was a film canister with a couple of flies and a 2 wt rod. ( One of the joys about gill fishing to me is the shear simplicity of it.) As was also usual, the fish were cooperating well as I cast to them off the 20x50? finger of land that sticks out into the shallow , rocky cove.. However, on about the 3rd small Gill, things got interesting. While I dallied with a mid sized gill tugging on my leader some 30' out, a HUGE boil encircled the fish. Instantly, the little gill flew out of the water and almost beached itself at my feet in it's panicked attempt not to be eaten by what was obviously a BIG fish. In an equal panic, I quickly unhooked the gill an cast the little yellow foam Indestructible Bug back but could not get any reaction from the decent sized bass I knew was still there. Remembering that a missed bass will often take a quickly cast/ slowly offered subsurface pattern, I opened the canister and selected my one ragged #10 Black Wooly Bugger. I quickly tied it onto the wind knotted 3# leader (cursing myself the whole time for letting it get so bad and how much time I was wasting getting back to that fish.) I finally took a cast (from my knees) and let it sink in the 3' of water before starting a SLOW 2-3 crawl of the WB back. Just as I was convinced the fish was long gone, I lifted the rod to make a back cast and found HEAVY weight on the end. I actually thought it was bottom but gingerly set the hook anyway. ( and waited for that fragile leader to pop.) It didn?t, and as if in slow motion, the ( Sage RPL 7'9" )rod doubled as "the bottom" turned towards the mouth of the little cove and submarined for open water. It wasn?t what you?d call a fast run, but it was long and steady enough to test my tackle and nerves. As I followed the fish up the finger of land , I watched that willowy rod bend to the corks and that little graphite ( Berkley 554) reel whine line a blender full of clam shells. Amazingly, everything held and the fish finally stopped about 10? or so into my backing and began a slow RH turn parallel to my position at the end of the point. I held the rod high to clear a rock pile and began a slow pumping motion to try to turn the fish my way. (After the first run, I was thinking it could be a big cat fish.. I had never had a bass show me my backing before, although I had never hooked anything bigger than 2# on a 2 wt either. At this point I started praying that I?d just get a look at the fish before it broke off.) Anyway, I did manage , after a few more short runs/spurts of the drag, to get the fish to quit fighting and come right to me. The combination of the constant pressure from that little 2 wt and the warm water temps had it beat!
As she came into view at my feet, I was floored. This was easily the biggest LM bass I?d ever seen, never mind caught in my 30+ years of serious bass fishing in the NE. I reached down and gripped her lip not with one hand but with two! As I hauled her out, I marveled at not just the shear size of the fish but her overall appearance.. She had very pronounced colors and features as well as one long branch shaped scar her upper lip down the back of her head. As I held her up, a neighbor came running out and after some excited gibberish, asked if I was going to ?keep it.? Elation turned to woe as I realized that I had to decide right NOW. I had been so concentrated on landing this lifetime fish that I had not given any thought as to what to do with it. On the one hand , this was THE fish of a lifetime on any tackle for me. The fact that it came on a 2 wt was even more the reason to have it mounted. On the other, It was just too magnificent to kill just for bragging rights. I just couldn?t do it. It was such a great fish that I just felt like dung at the thought of killing it. So I sent the neighbor to find a camera, while I waded In ( fully clothed, to revive the fish.) He returned with his daughters Pink Barbie 110 that had two shots left on the roll and took the pics. I then quickly measured her length with a dollar bill ( it?s all I had.) and waded back in and worked water through her gills until she seemed strong and then opened my hands. To be honest , I still had mixed emotions watching her fin away. Part of me still wanted it on the wall! In the end, the fish measured 4 bills (24?) and about 2-2 ?? to spare. That?s 26+? of largemouth. I estimated at the time that it was well over 8 ? # and maybe over 9#. Latter comparison of her length to online weight estimators, puts her near 10. In any case, I guess I?ll never know. Maybe it?s even better that way. As for the pics, I PLEADED with him to let me take the film for developing but he insisted he do it as there may be some ?embarrassing pictures? on the same roll. We?ll as luck would have it, his wife caught him in an affair 2 days latter and despite multiple promises from both of them to get me the pictures, it was low on their list of priorities . Bottom Line is that I never got a one , ( They?ve since divorced and moved away.) To this day, I?m Ok with releasing the fish but bummed over not having a single lousy picture to retire with the WB to my wall. ( And some proof that all this actually happened.)

In any case, this I a good example that big bass can be caught on light fly tackle IF the fish has plenty of room to run and you don?t try to land the fish with too much speed or force. In this case, I believe it was the willowyness (is this a word?) of the rod that protected that fragile tippet. However, given a choice, the right way to play a fish like this is to use a rod stout enough to avoid over playing it.

Hope you enjoyed the recap.
Dave