REDEMPTION

My son and I went back to the spot where big bass was lost with a head shake while in his hand. First hooked gill gets attacked but bass missed it. Didn't see it anymore so unhooked gill and tossed it back and bass took it before it hit the water right in front of us. Continued fishing and catching more gills, redear, catfish and small bass but no more appearances. Moved to another spot and first hooked gill brought the attention of several bass that chased gill up to bank. Brought gill in hand and opened bail and soft tossed it out about 15 feet with hook still in and this bass grabbed it right after it hit the water. Let it run awhile to let it swallow it and as it turned out it did. After about five minutes was able to slide it into the net that we brought this time. Caught her on ultralight tackle with 2# line. A few quick pictures and released her a minute later.
Attachment 506221Attachment 506228Attachment 506229Attachment 506230Attachment 506231Attachment 506232

Very nice outing! Thanks for sharing

Boom!!! Glad you got the bass this time. That's awesome! Very impressive with light gear.

That's a big one... heck they all like big ones!
Looks like a good day was had.

Ain’t nothing wrong with a day like that ! A little bit of everything!

Went back out yesterday after the storms went through. No bass at first spot showed interest with the few gills I caught so moved to another spot. First gill hooked was chased to the bank so did a soft underhand toss with the bail open and big bass grabs it as soon as it hit the water. Gave it a minute to swallow and battle was on. Jumped and didn't throw the gill and it was a giant compared to the one I caught Thursday, maybe a 10#er. Took off on a long run and couldn't stop her and she got into some brush and broke off. Starting to rethink using 2# on these big fish. Think I'm going to try 4# on next trip. Soft toss gills the last two trips resulted in six hook ups and one fish. Three got into brush and broke off. Need to do something to increase landing percentage, only landing 1 in 10 but sure fun watching these bass chase the gills.

K A B O O M ! nice bro

Not just gills need to be wary of these bass. Hooked a 10-11" bass yesterday and it jumped a few times attracting big mama who chased it to the bank where it buried itself in the weeds. Hung around for over an hour but wouldn't eat the hooked gills. Could see it cruising back and forth in that area but was spooky, knew I was there. Son got one to eat a gill using a #4 hook but threw it on the jump. Would have easily been his PB Bass. I hooked one later that also through the hook and think it was the same fish he lost earlier. These bass are hungry and want a meal.

I catch silver dollar size bluegill, put a 1/0 circle hook in them and send’em out for swimming lessons. They are bass treats, I have caught some double digit large mouth.
the Colorado river waters here in califorustan on them.
i see guys everywhere using throw nets for bait. Boy I’d love to catch my own bait.
here shiners are over a buck a piece.

WOAH! That was one beautiful bass! For me that would have been a PB!
Bob

Good work Jim! Gotta be on your game when you get a shot at one like that. Had about a three pound smallie get friendly with one of my gills but he wasn’t big enough for the one I had on. Sure gets the heart rate up.

Never caught one grabbing my gills until three years ago and first one was my PB Bass over 10#. Caught 9 in the last few years so not much success landing them with tiny jigs but it's a blast trying to get one to eat a gill while several more are following. They miss the gill more often than catch it because they want to take them head first and the gills know this even when they are tired and will protect it's head. Some bass are waiting for you to release the gill and attack when you toss it back. After seeing that multiple times I started tossing hooked gills back and have been getting a lot more hookups. Seeing a wake following gill in the air and hitting it before it even hits the water sure gets the heart rate up and gets the adrenaline pumping.