Quade’s well-received post got me wondering what everyone’s personal best bass is?
My best is an 11-pound, 9-ounce hog that I caught on a topwater plug in 1975. My personal best on fly weighed 6.5 pounds and was caught in The Everglades.
Nothing that big, but last summer, I caught a 6.5 lb, 22" largemouth on a purple X-rap. It was a heck of a fight, and luckily I was in a canoe with my buddy so I got pics and everything. Pulled us halfway across the small river we were fishing!
Biggest ever was a farm pond largemouth that was 5-1/2 to 6 pounds on a Hula Popper. Biggest on a fly rod was a 3 pound or so fish on a beadhead leech.
Caught a 2-1/2 pound fish a couple weeks ago on an all black size 12 FEB hopper. That’s the biggest fish on a small fly for me so far.
6 pound 13 ounce smallmouth on 1/8oz leadhead and watermelon colored 3 inch grub many years ago.
19" smallmouth on a leech pattern with fly rod this year. (weight unknown)
my largest ever was a 11.5 on a hand line with a cricket on a hook. back in my scouting days
11.13 lm, 8.3 sm.
I caught a 25.1 inch very egg laden LM bass on a few years ago on a fly pre spawn. I estmated it at 10 lbs based on averages for our area.
In our area( Central Oklahoma) a Large mouth bass of 20 inches weighs about 5 lbs every inch after that adds on average 1 lb.
It is amazing how close it is when checked against digital scales
I live in the land of giant bass but have yet to score a double digit fish. But then when the big uns are most vulnerable in late winter and early spring I tend to be fishing the salty brine. My best are 8lb on hardware and 6lb on the fly.
As a kid I caught a egg loaded female pre-spawn that was 22" and a hair over 7 lbs on a spinner bait.
Haven’t caught any bass on a fly yet.
Since moving to Wyoming, I caught a nice 17" 3 lb LM earlier this summer.
Paul
My largest was a 4 pound 4 ounce fish caught while baitcasting a blue super lizzy to the weed edge and letting it drop. That was in 1974. My biggest on a fly rod was a small mouth taken in the Spokane River on a red humpy. That was 2 summers ago. It would not have moved the scales as much as 1 ounce. It was less than 2". It’s surprising sometimes how large an offering that bass can get their mouth around.
I caught a 6 pound 13 oz. on a spinner bait back years ago. I caught a bigger one in a farm pond on a 7" bluegill with a flyrod…(The bluegill hit a popper and then the bass took the bluegill headfirst, LOL). With the gill lodged in her mouth, she couldn’t put up too much struggle. Mostly just dead weight. Got the gill out (ate it later) and revived her and off she went. Had two witnesses, too! Good, because that was in the time before cell phone cameras and digitals…
I got myself a 7 lb. lmb on a sneeky pete some years ago. The largest bass I’ve ever seen in person
I really wasn’t even fishing at the time. The bug was just sitting in the water next to the canoe while I was watching some kids fishing on shore.
This fish was sad looking. Her mouth was all tore up and inside there was a rubber worm on a hook that was pinning her throat closed
I have to believe that her latching onto my sneeky pete that morning was just a desperate cry for help
She was returned to the water in much better shape than before she found me.
My largest LM is a 10lb 2oz on an 8 inch long all black minnow imitation streamer. The funny thing is, I hooked and fought this fish and lost it when it jumped. As you can imagine, I was less than pleased and grumbling about how I shouldn’t debarb by bass flies when I hooked and landed either the same fish or it’s clone about six feet away from the first time within 3 three minutes. I guess the fish felt badly for me and let me land her the second time. She went back into the lake and we were both happy.
Jim Smith
Just a hair over 7lbs and on a fly. She was a spawned out female. I’ve always wondered what she’d have weighed if I’d caught her while she was still carrying eggs. The place I caught it isn’t known for numbers or size of bass, so overall I’m glad she was able to lay her eggs before I caught her.
My largest was 8lb 2 oz. Came on a “Gilly” as I was fishing for panfish. Great fun from a small settling pond. Took her across the road and released her in the main lake. Much better chance for her to survive. Too many folks saw me catch her.
Rick
7 lbs 8 oz, 24" LMB on spinning gear.
20" SMB on spinning gear
18" LMB on fly rod.
My personal best on any type of tackle is a 20 in. lmb caught on a fly rod this summer.
My biggest LMB on a fly rod was 21.5 inches as marked on my fly rod. Since it was C&R, the bass was never weighed. My biggest bass on spinning gear was well over ten pounds and it hit a metal spinner bait the size of a Volkswagen fender. The bass pulled the line completely under the boat and actually jumped 25 feet away on the wrong side of the boat. Three bassboats motored up to take a look at my fish but none have a scale to weigh it. The onlookers estimated the weight between 11 and 12 pounds. Anyway it was huge. 8T 
I’ve several over the Ten lb mark but most just barely. The one that was measured on a digital weighed 10 lbs 4 ounces from near Lake George on the St Johns caught on a 9 inch Black Bunny Shaved Tail Snake. Two of the others were on earlier versions of that fly and were caught in the Lake HelenBlazes vicinity. Other than those, over the years a few highlights were a 4.5 lb Smallmouth from Loon Lake, Washington and a 7.5 lb LMouth from an Ohio Farm Pond. The Smallie hit a big Muddler fished fairly deep along cobble bottom adn the L Mouth hit a Black Leech.
Biggest bass for me was a little over 7lbs caught on a safety pin type spinner when I was about 17 years old. Biggest on a fly rod so far was 19". I didn’t weigh it but I’m guessing about 4 - 4.5 pounds. I caught it last fall on a gurgle pop. It was the last warm water fish I caught last year before it got cold.
This year, the biggest bass on a fly rod was a little over 18". Again, I didn’t weigh it but it was fat and healthy and is still swimming around in the lake unless someone else caught it later.
Jeff