MORE LMB

[Tom Gibbons 0]

what urged me to bring up lmb is simply nostalgia. I mean a 50# lmb? Firstly, what I know about lmb is I never caught one in a mountain stream. Very near to a brook I have fished for 30 yrs. is a large pond and in that pond my son and I saw 2 bass that we regarded as just under 30" and the big one at 36". I more than likely would never fish the ponds but for my son who always was a bass fisherman. So that is how at least for a month or so we spent time together and how I was privileged to see such a fish. The brook is the water source for the pond and neither the brook or pond has been stocked since 60'. I wonder if anyone else has seen these fish. They certainly have not caught them. I checked out NJ records and the current lmb is a little over 10#. The idea comes to mind that there are record fish out there that are not getting caught. So when you experience that mighty breakoff and after the shock wears off, ["wears off"??] the question has to come to mind,who is really hooked here? We went back there many times, casting rods, spinning rods, fly rods, rubber everything,plastic,feathers furs, floating, sinking,rattles and all sorts of hopeless tactics. But never meat baits, nor scents. Never saw thum again. In fact Our fish catch rate went down in that pond, its like they knew what we were up to. Oh yah,,,the estimated size of the big one; based on a carp we caught one night on the Delaware which was 38# and right about 36".....

[tidewaterfly 0]

Tom, are you positive what you saw were LMB? I don't doubt you saw some big fish. However, being in NJ, & the seasons being what they are, for a bass to grow that large & live long enough to grow that large, IMO is doubtful.

 

The bass in California that are growing to such large sizes are FL strain bass, and the climate allows for year round growth. Comparing that to NJ, which is likely very similar to what we have here in MD, it would be an extraordinary situation if a LMB grew to those sizes!

 

Big LMB don't have that kind of length, but will have huge girth. 30-36" sounds more like Striped Bass or Hybrid sizes.

 

I hope you catch one & find out what they are!

[Tom Gibbons 0]

we actually did see this fish.

[mikechell 0]

Very near to a brook I have fished for 30 yrs. is a large pond and in that pond my son and I saw 2 bass that we regarded as just under 30" and the big one at 36".

The largest bass on record, George Perry's 22.4 pounder ... was a little over 28 inches long.

The 25 pound bass, "Dolly", caught a couple of years ago in California was just under 30 inches.

 

Sorry, Tom ... but you did NOT see a 36 inch long Large Mouth Bass in N.J. Tidewaterfly is correct. You saw a bass, and it might have been 36" long, but if it was that long, it wasn't a Large Mouth.

[JSzymczyk 0]

In the end, there is nobody who can definitively say there is NOT a 36 inch LMB in New Jersey. Probably not as likely as you getting hit in the head with a meteorite while you are trying to fish for it, but not IMPOSSIBLE. After all, this is the kind of stuff which keeps us going out the door, isn't it?

 

We all KNOW there is always a CHANCE that something absolutely unexpected and terrific might happen!

 

If it was me, I'd fish the high-likelihood times around the full and new moons, and I'd fish that pond only at night and into the very early daylight, with some very heavy tackle and very large lures or foot-long shiners. You're talking about world-record proportions, and with LMB that's millions of dollars in endorsements if you catch it.

 

Two years ago I was talking to a kid I ran into on a local trout stream. We talked about bass, and he told me he caught a 26" Smallmouth in a creek which goes into the Susquehanna a couple miles away. Yeah right. Then he showed me two pictures of him with a 26" Smallmouth on a measuring tape in the grass at the park where he said he caught it. He released it, according to the law.

 

Just like there are the occasional 8 foot tall humans, there are a few freakishly large fish out there.

[Tom Gibbons 0]

coming off with a story like this ya gotta take the consequences.... as for fishing for this creature, JSzymczyk these tactics you describe were things we considered. Problem was and maybe still is you must leave park at sundown. As for the millions of $$$, I had never even thought about that. Anyway the fish is most likely dead by now.

[coinman66 0]

A 26" Smallmouth! Man i wanna see that pic! That would be awesome!

[JSzymczyk 0]

I gave the kid my e-mail and asked if he could send me the two pics. He never did. I know this sounds like a "FISH STORY".... he knew it was a big bass but didn't know it was a ridiculously big bass. The regs for the Susquehanna and the bottom of all tributaries state catch and immediate release only, so that's what he did- technically by taking it out of the water and laying it on the grass he was violating the regulation.