Labman, Chick, Bass, 7/20/2011, solo- Evening trip & fish tale

Put in at CFP about 5:00 for another evening outing. First stop the tubers, jet skies and destroyers ran me off with nothing caught. Next stop couldn&#39;t find any concentration of fish. Moved up river and hit a channel edge with adjacent flat about 20&#39; deep. The flat was covered up with bait fish so I knew there had to be some bass there somewhere. At first they were holding on the channel edge but then mostly moved out on the flat. There was even a little top water action, but you had to be quick as they hit and ran.<br /><br />I had caught a couple nice bass on the dropshot when I felt like I was snagged. I was jiggling the bait trying to get it lose when it started to swim off. I finally realized that it was a fish so I gave it a good hookset and it exploded. Took off across the flat just burning the drag. I was hanging on and fumbling around trying to get the trolling motor in gear to follow the fish before it spooled me. With that run I figured it might be a striper as was way too heavy for a bass. I couldn&#39;t slow it down at all. Well all of a sudden it comes up and jumps about 20&#39; from the boat. BIG ASS BASS, easily the largest I have ever seen in the water. My only reference is the 2 11# mounted fish at Soddy Tackle and this fish looked at least that big and maybe larger. I know it happens quickly and they always look bigger. We will never know as she threw the hook on the jump emoBang. That is my fish tale, hated that I couldn&#39;t get it to the boat to weigh and photograph. But it sure got the heart pumping, great fun.<br /><br />Posting a couple of screen shots showing the bass and bait. Action was hot and heavy for about an hour. Headed in about 8:30. That is my story and I am sticking to it. Ended up with 9 keeper LM and 1 dink and 1 monster lost. Mostly gulp minnow on 20&#39; flat and a couple jigging spoon on the edge of the dropoff in about 27&#39;. Seem to be doing better in the evening right now.<br /><br />Time to head for bed as picking up Drumking early tomorrow to see if I remember how to catch some crappie.<br /><br />Regards, Labman