Huuuuuge Bass

[Rushy]

Caught in freshwater up river in Italy and weighed 24lb 11oz

Original Blog here http://www.bassandpiketackle.com/blog/2 ... qua-dolce/ (it's in Italian!)

Roughly translated...

After years of research in the more usual spots for bass such as cliffs, storm beaches and estuarys, I got the urge to try to capture some big bass in fresh water, which push up a few miles upstream of fast flowing large rivers . Large freshwater rivers are like restaurants for these true open water predators, they provide succulent morsels of prey species of such as crayfish, eels, mullet, small minnows and even frogs and mice.
This abundance of food means that the growth of bass in these environments is much greater than the sea, but also the competition for food is much lower in the river as competition with fish as a greenhouse, barracuda, Lecce and others normally found in the sea are absent, at most a few black bass are normally its only competitor.

After many hours of testing and observation, I managed to understand the behavior and routes of the patrolling bass and only after some thought, where to fish and what baits to use. The results have started to come with catches of average weight about five pounds, demonstrating how these areas are populated with specimen bass, unlike the sea.
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The approach to this water is very different from the sea, there are lots of deep underwater obstacles, making the fishing very complicated. Sensitivity, attentiveness and knowledge of the site is a must if you hope to hook a big bass.
The equipment to be used on these occasions is more powerful than that usually used for spinning, rods capable of casting an ounce, both long casting and spinning are necessary to launch the heavy lures. It is also necessary to fish your lures very deep, with depths that go beyond 8m.

It is important not to choose too fast action rods, a good fast medium, such as the new Co Matrix 2.0 is a good choice, because they retain a good tip action when we have to manoeuvre an ounce jig in deepwater. But if you are fighting a good fish progression is also important in the central part of the rod. When we are dealing with fish of considerable size, remember that the power of the river can double the fighting power of a good fish, so it is very important especially in the final stages of the fight when the fish is thrashing on the surface that you have a moderate degree of cushion in your rod action which you don't get in a fast action rod.

The great "mothers" tend to move in the lower layers of water in close contact with the bottom, even the most deep diving plug will struggle to reach them, this is where the soft rubbers or shads come into their own.
Artificials such as a jig trailer or very soft shad swimbait or better yet empty inside (Jackall bros ammonite shad, Castaic j jerky swim, Reaction Strike Fathead Jr.) heads mounted on both leaded and weighing between half ' oz are perfect for bouncing along the bottom, small clouds of mud that they form prove a big attraction for the bass.

The colours that I recommend to fish in freshwater, which is almost always coloured water are: white, fluorescent and stunning black and purple can make a difference in situations of big currents .Carichiamo reels Castaic with Warrior Path Braid or Power pro around fifteen pounds and don't forget to attach a good length of fluorocarbon as a rubbing leader, the bottom of some rivers is composed of very sharp rocks and rubbish such as shopping carts or scooters, structures that can undermine even the best braids.
After a time at sea or when sea conditions improve, the big bass head back and descend the river, using it as if it were a highway, making their journeys during the evening. These rivers are fishable venues almost all year round and throughout the day, whether we are in the presence of clear sky or under a heavy rain or in the heart of darkest night.

[TerryG]

Now that is a thing of beauty, Thats a good read, Going to try to fish the soft plastics tight to the sand this year

[Paul]

Foookin hell, thats enormous!!! Actually looks a lot bigger than 25lb



My uncle lives in Italy...when we going

[smokin]

Now that is a thing of beauty, Thats a good read, Going to try to fish the soft plastics tight to the sand this year

fooks sake 24lb and he still Nige'd it!!

awesome pic that - thanks for that Rushy - where'd you steal it from - never knew you did fluent italian too.

[Padsta Tel]

Cracking fish but i think the British bass record is around this size or might be slightly heaver caught in the west country.

[Padsta Tel]

Sorry guys just googled it British record i 19lb 12onc caught on the Isle of White but not far off.

[john pie]

I thought my 12lb'er was fantastic but thats just put it into perspective took me 20 minutes to land mine ,must have been one hell of a battle for that one .YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY . Top report.

[Brez]

http://www.anglersmail.co.uk/news/brill ... le-piking/

...an ENGLISH freshwater bass 12lber caught on half a herring while pike fishing, 3 miles from the sea. I believe they've been caught as far up the Lune as Snatchem's this year...

[Brez]

Eddy's 11lb 14oz sea bass was a bit of a shock
River pike angler lands massive surprise - a near 12lb sea bass!


A perch, possibly. A chub, maybe. A zander, if they’re there. One of the last fish a pike angler expects to take his bait though is a specimen sea bass weighing nearly 12lb!

But for big fish angler Eddy Widdup that’s exactly what happened, when his float-fished herring deadbait was swallowed by this stunning freshwater interloper, weighing 11lb 14oz


Targeting the Hampshire Avon’s pike on the famous Royalty Fishery, the 34-year-old was trying his luck in a slack out of the main flow when his float moved off.

Hitting into the unseen fish ‘all hell broke loose’, as the bass stripped 60yards of line from Eddy’s reel on its first of five runs.


“I knew it wasn’t a pike but didn’t really know what it was. I thought I might have foul-hooked a salmon,” said Eddy. “I nearly fell over when it came to the net and I saw it was a sea bass!”

Even using a 2.75test curve rod combined with 15lb line it took Eddy a quarter of an hour to subdue the fish – which was hooked over a mile away from the sea!



Bass are caught along the Royalty every year, however Eddy’s fish is believed to be the first double-figure specimen to have been landed that far up the river since the 1970.

...thats how to hold a bass as well, not dangling from a boga or with its bottom lip pulled down at right angles

[thegentlegiant]

wow, that is a seriously big Bass, maybe my species hunt is not optimistic enough I wanted a 8lb + bass next year maybe 20+ would be better haha!