20130911-PERSONAL BEST ROCK BASS

Old photos recalling my personal best 11.2" Rock Bass
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20130911--AMAZING FISH STORY!!!
I decided today to target Rock Bass for a Master Angler Patch this would require a length of 11" . Earlier this morning i released a rock bass of just over 9" with a bobber and worm. I came back home and looked at the DNR Master Angler database and saw that Wixom Lake was one of the top producers of trophy sized rock bass. Now I caught one earlier this year that measured approx 11.5" but did not have a scale with me and i thought at the time the master angler minimum was 12". I measured that fish up against my fishing rod with a picture and scaled it at between 11" and 12" approx. This fished was released immediately and i missed out on that Master Angler opportunity. I caught this fish on a 5" green pumpkin/red flake jacks worm and have caught a lot of jumbo rock bass on this while smallmouth bass fishing.

Now today i decided to continue that effort where i caught the previous rock bass. Mind you that i am now targeting these fish for a trophy and not accidentally catching these while fishing for another species. WHAM!!! First cast under the bridge a 11" er. Had a nice scale handy for the picture and measured just a notch over! What are the odds!!

The sad thing was even though the fish was over 11” I had documentation that showed Master Angler is 11” or over … the DNR changed mid year to 11.5” so I ended up .3” short