Fish of a lifetime

by Adam Weesner
(Sugar Land, TX)

It happened about two years ago back in 2008 on Father's Day. So that would put it at June 15 on a Sunday. My Dad and I were fishing in our little pond prowler over at my grandparent's house(his parents). We went over there to spend time with family and decided to stay later to fish the evening bite. My grandparents live on a 44 acre lake in "Old Sugarland", Texas right near the Imperial Sugar Factory. The lake has always produced quality bass around 3-5lbs. with the occasional report of some 7s and 9s. The lake is fairly shallow with a maximum depth of about 6 ft., a fun swimming lake by the way. It has boat docks, piers, some grass, and great tree structure with willows and Cypresses. A couple are in the lake, and the others sit right on the bank, providing structure with their roots. So anyways, we are fishing at around 7 o'clock and we are having some small strikes but we haven't caught anything. We are far from the house at the beginning of the canal. We pull up to a pier that has round posts that are really thick. Right next to the pier is a Cypress tree about 5 feet from the bank. I'm throwing a 6-7in red and black lizard while in the back of my mind getting ready to switch to a topwater. I cast towards the corner of the dock, which puts my lizard between two posts surrounded by tree roots. I happened to have a little loop in my line, so I pulled it out and began retrieving my lizard. I jigged it a couple of times and then felt like I was hung up. Well, when I began to reel in I felt movement. Years of bass fishing told me to reer back and set the hook, even though I was in doubt. I kid you not, right when I drove that hook through, I just started reeling in slack line. I was perplexed. Then, I realized that this was a fish and it was running right at the boat. I reeled in the slack because I knew I needed to keep pressure on the line. Then she made a beeline towards open water to the left of the boat, and my drag started going crazy. My adrenaline was going by this time. 10 seconds later she went airborne, which was the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life. I saw the fish’s gill plate and the size of its head and was flabbergasted. My dad exclaimed, "Oh my God!" I eventually got her to the boat side, but we faced a huge dilemma. We had no net. My Dad was brave and stuck both his hands into the jaw of the fish and pulled her into the boat. It took all his strength to life this fish into the boat. The fish had loosened the hook so well that all we did was barely pulled and it was out. God surely blessed me, and I was able to play the fish just right. I kept my hands in the fish’s mouth to keep her still. We borrowed a cooler from some neighbors and took the fish to my granpa who didn’t believe we had caught the monster when I called him from my cell phone. We took pics, and a lady from the Board of the Lake and Neighborhood Commission took pictures, later posting the story on the Community website. That day was unbelievable. A fish that big is sought after for years and sometimes never caught. She weighed even at 12 pounds and was 25.25in long. She was long and thick, which made her just a monster of a bass.