21 club

[coldfront]

was doing some thinking this past week while out on the river chasing spots.  friday night I sold a ram mount to a guy who was on a facebook group 'asking/looking'.  since I had one of those machined aluminum 'balzout' mounts just sitting (for past 3 years), I let him know I had one.  He asked 'how much'?  I gave him the link to one for sale new and suggested he start the bidding.
he shot me a low price (25% of new).  I accepted 'cause I hadn't used it in 3 years and know it was just not going to get use going forward.  plus, someone needed it.

met up with him, gave him the mount, he handed over cash.  I just put it in the pocket.  (later turned out he'd paid me MORE than he'd offered:  that's my kind of guy.  fair.  honest.  ethical.)

the question his son asked me while we chatted in the parking lot:  what's the biggest bass you've ever caught?

when I said '8 lbs' he was amazed.  now, let's be honest:  that IS an incredible fish.  but in our world?  if it's not a double digit, it's just 'good but not good enough'.  sure don't go bragging on it.  be a bit like walking into Nashville and tellin' folks you 'play guitar'.  you're gonna look a bit foolish when all the quiet guys in the back of the room open up their cases...

at any rate, the thought this weekend was around different species...  metrics... I got sort of thinking about a '21 club'.

largemouth, Spot, smallmouth:  each representative to be 7 pounds or more. 


Not sure exactly 'where' I am in this as I don't have a weight on the spot and I don't have a weight on the smallmouth.  but figure I'm darn close.  now carry a scale in the boat.  will be working on my own '21 club' in the coming years.  it's a tough assignment as two of those species are world class/state record class fish.

so yeah, I'm gonna toss the guantlet down to all us 'bassmasters'.  what you got?


these are 'mine'.  so far
8.0 on a zoom watermelon/red lizard.  Chickamauga


spotted bass on a 5 inch keitech easy shiner.  no weight.  21 inches and built like a TUNA.  warrior river


smallmouth.  no weight.  23 inches and THICK.  green pumpkin tube.  nickajack



probably gonna make some folks a bit 'grouchy' over this.  after all:  FLORIDA has all the big bass.  'just don't tell TX'...   

[Mike Cork]

Being at sort of a major disadvantage (only largemouth where I live) I can start off with a 12 pound largemouth a couple 10's and 9's so I'd be the guy in the back of a bar in the Deep South....

That said I have fished coast to coast and had my shots at some giants of other species. Spotted bass of Northern California but about 6 pounds being the biggest and the only cameras were Kodak film so we didn't take many photos. Then I spent some time on Dale Hollow for a UB rally and caught many smallmouth over 21 inches so they were pretty decent but I wouldn't say much over 5ish.

I can't wait to see some more entries into this '21 Club' - you have started it off with a great triple threat!

[coldfront]

to be clear:  I'm not there...  yet!

[Dark3]

Whoa a 7lb smallie would be quite a catch


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[Dark3]

Here would be a couple of mine except that smallie definitely isnt 7# haha.

[Eric-Maine]

Caught my first spotted bass last year on the Ouachita. It was about 6lbs short of the 7lb mark. Lol I have surpassed the 8lb mark here in Maine and numerous times in Florida with largemouth. I have caught a number of 6 + smallies but never a 7. Hope to fix that in the next few days. 

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[coldfront]

an 'easier' version of this club would be: 21 inch minimum for each of the three species.