What is going on here??!!?? Another PB...

[WatterBoy]

I'm obviously living in some sort of fishing fantasyland the last 24 hours. Last night I caught my new PB bass at 6 pounds even (see story here), breaking my old record by 14 ounces.

My dad and I went out again this afternoon, this time to a gravel pit a few miles from town. We've been there several times over the years, and have caught a small bass or two there occasionally, but nothing at all to speak of numbers-wise and certainly not size-wise. Well, today was different.

I tried some dropshot with a 5" wacky-rigged Yamasenko first...nothing. Then I grabbed the Black Widow poppin' frog that I had used last night and started casting in one corner so I could cast parallel to the weed cover along the shoreline where the 20-30mph wind was blowing in. I had a nice blow-up that missed after just a couple of casts. About 3 or 4 casts later I had another huge explosion in the very same spot, and this time the fight was on!

It was a fight like I've never experienced before. I couldn't control the fish at all with my rod and I couldn't seem to hold the rod steady enough to hold the reel handle well enough to reel at all. I somehow managed to get the fish out of the shoreline to my left and into a little bit of open water. At that point it head straight towards me and the shoreline in front of me where there was more heavy cover. I managed to keep it from wrapping up too much in the cover and got it up to the edge of the water, but now the problem was the 3-4 foot hoist from the water up to where I was standing and some thick weeds growing in front of me. I had 30-pound braided line on, so I just started lifting for all I was worth, not even thinking about the strain on the rod. Well, the rod snapped just as I caught my first glimpse of the monster, so I just started horsing it up to safety before it could get away. Luckily, I was successful!

Here are the vitals: 6lb 9oz, 21" length, 16.5" girth

And here are the photos, the first two with me holding it, then my dad.









Here is what I could get for length/girth/weight shots:







Here is my new favorite frog () and what's left of my rod after landing the fish.





Here is the shoreline I was casting down.



And finally, here is a shot showing the distance from the water to where I was standing and the junk in between.