Welcome to WaLakes. That's a biggie fur sur. Congrats.

Be sure to read the Bass Fishing Forum, as much as you can, even go back 10 years OvO [shocked look] if you can. lol

That is one fine smallmouth. Great job on letting it go! Keeping the gene pool going:)

Thanks! I loved catching him. At first, it was REALLY hard not to want to eat him but when I saw him go back to his nest it made me feel better. That's where he belonged. I've looked back a couple months of posts for small mouth in particular & didn't see any others as big as this one. Perhaps beginners luck. Made me a happy girl for SURE! I want more...

I'm guessing that smallies' weight closer to 5 than 4. That is a pig!

Quite the monster! Thanks for letting him swim back home.

Awesome!! What a cool story you will remember and re-tell for many years to come! Stevens is a Great Lake for Smallies, and I think I saw you fishing off the dock awhile ago

Thanks all! I wish i'd had a scale. After seeing all the posts in the trophy bass topic, I'm thinking he's right along the guidelines but I can't verify his weight for sure. Most certainly a piggy! Honestly, for a week & a half, this bass was on my mind morning and night. A couple weeks ago, he'd stolen a lure from my daughter when she tried to catch him with a really small trout pole. He snapped the line emediately & almost broke the pole. When I upgraded the pole (bigger stronger) he had it bent (like it was a skinny branch) pretty much the whole fight. We lost that first lure. The second one he wore for a couple of days. One of my favorite things was getting my lure back. I learned a lot from my boyfriend when he came with me for the final C&R. That big fish teased him too. He showed me how to beach him. That's what had to happen because trying to lift himm out of the water just broke the line from his weight even though the line was 8 pound. Yes, I've fished off that dock & I'll do it again. Usually Tuesday evenings.

Oh... & the first real fight I had with him, there was a lady snapping pictures left & right (which I was totally unaware of because I had to pay attention to the bass). I had thought i'd had a bucket in the car & she ran to go get it for me when I had him tuckered out... but I had forgotten it. She was so excited about watching me catch him & saw the let down as he got away once again. She was nice enough to send pictures of the fight to my cell phone. I'm learning what gear I need to have at all times. My car is becoming a traveling fishing gear receptacle. This pleases me.