July 9th fishing. Unusual occurance...I caught a good one!

[skunked]

I caught my new personal best tuc today. It weighed 6 1/2 pounds on my $2 scale. It measured 22 and 5/8ths inches long. According to Tucmaster, that length would put it at around 7 1/2 lbs, so I don't really know the true weight.
I'd like to say that I caught it on one of my fancy schmantzy baitcasting combos but I didn't. I caught it on a live minnow, 6.5 ft med light power Shimano Crucial rod, and Shimano Stradic 1000FI spinning reel spooled with 10 lb. SpiderWire Ultracast braid. I was alone, so I had a heck of a hard time trying to control the fish while getting my camera set up with my free hand. I wish I could've got a better picture, but no one else was in the area to help with the pics. He was released without harm. I hope to catch him again when he is even bigger!
I also met a cool guy by the name of Dan as I was leaving and he was just arriving. I was oohing and ahhing over his Shimano Stella and GLoomis GLX combos. Awesome! Makes me want to invest in some good spinning gear now. Hope you caught some good ones too Dan!


This is an older photo before the braid.

[Stan Wright]

Congratulations..... nice picture. Nice fish.

Well, I guess you'll just have to change your name now that you finally caught a fish

[roadwarriorsvt]

Congratulations on the sweet fish! I'll bet he was fun to get in! Yea, I can tell that photo of the reel was an old one. The lake actually had water in it!!

[Boatless]

congrats dude! Thats a huge fish, I've never got any over 4lbs. nice coloration. Is that an aftermarket handle or just the knob grip? Does it help any?

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

Hey Skunked, congrates on the new personal best. 6.5 or 7.5, that is a nice fish. Hard to top that!

[Ken]

Nice fish Landed!

[skunked]

congrats dude! Thats a huge fish, I've never got any over 4lbs. nice coloration. Is that an aftermarket handle or just the knob grip? Does it help any?

Those are called Reel Grips and I have them on almost all my reels. For me, they help me to maintain my grip without having to hold tightly.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I guess every dog (or skunk) has his day! I'm betting things go back to normal for me next time I go out
To Darren, the current Stradic like I have has a great drag. Couldn't have landed this fish without it. Very smooth.

[tucmaster]

Awwright Skunked!!! That's a big hump head! Congrats! And hey, there's absolutely no shame in being a live-baiter - right, Saltydog?

Your scale is probably accurate. Remember, the figures in my length/weight table are just estimates - my 22-inch, 7 pounder was a bit stockier (deeper body). Your fish is perfectly proportioned.

Now that you've surpassed 6 lbs., you can raise the bar!

Good Luck (as if you need it!) and Good Fishing.

Tucmaster out!

[skunked]

Back to reality for me. Went out to Haleiwa for a few hours yesterday and...Zero, Nada, Zilch....SKUNKED!! That's what keeps me going back though, just the chance that on the next cast I could hook another nice one!
On top of catching nothing, I had to pick up a $13 shrimp plate for my wife. Every time I go to Haleiwa, I have to do this. I don't eat any shrimp that's not fried, so I settled for a $1 spam musubi. Life is not fair.
I also lost my favorite topwater lure when the line wrapped around the tip of my rod while casting and my lure went flying off into the distance. At least my rod didn't snap.

[Stan Wright]

Skunked, if you didn't have bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all....