Big Burtha
By: Tanner Farnack
It was a cold mid-day on Oct, 12, 2009 the fog is just beginning to drift up. Me (Tanner) and my partner were thinking go fishing or stay inside and stay warm, without conversation we pick fishing. Around were I live there isn’t any lakes for miles, however there is many farm ponds. We fish in about 8 different ones around here but there is one that was the favorite of all, it was my grandfather’s pond and it’s been there for many years. My brother and I fished that pond since we were kids. The main reason why that pond was the most favored was for a largemouth that has the name of Big Bertha; it was named by my brother and me when we were fishing one summer evening during the spawning time. Jacob (brother) estimated it to be a 6lb bass, I was just a kid so I was just astonished at the size. Big B was never caught till the day I’m writing about.
Adam and I hoped on the ATV and headed out when we got there we started fishing ASAP with hopes of catching Big B. Adam (partners name) was throwing a senko and me a crank bait, many bass were caught but none not near the size of Big B. After we were there for around 2 hours we were deciding to go home. Adam said that he was going to head up to the ATV and wait for me because I was getting all my stuff together. As I was putting my stuff away I hear Adam yell at me from the other side of the pond “Tanner get over here!” I dropped my stuff and ran over there just hoping that he has spotted Big B, when I had got there I saw her , Adam had stopped a couple of feet behind were she was so he didn’t spoke her. I then relaxed myself and walk back over to my tackle box and grabbed some stuff to try on her.
When I got back Adam had thrown almost all he had and she wasn’t interested in any of it while I was putting on a Banjo Mini he had put a bass jig on and made a perfect cast in front of her and reel it slowly in and she started to follow and she turned away. I knew that there was only on more bait that might work “live bait” I thought to myself so I turned around and walk to the side of the pond that had many bluegill nests and I put a little jig on and caught one it was perfect size. I tied on a large hook and put it threw the bluegills lip and walked over were Adam was still trying for her. As I fixed my spool I told Adam “she won’t be able to resist this “I casted a couple yards in front of her and reel it in front of her mouth and she took it! I yelled at Adam who was right behind me “I got her” I let her take the bait for about 5 seconds because it wasn’t all in her mouth. SMACK! I set the hook perfect. Adam heard my drag going off and ran up to beside me to watch the fight .As I was letting her fight she was smacking the dirt around every witch way so I couldn’t see what she was doing. I told Adam that I was going to bring her up to the shore and told him to grab her. I fought her for about 5 minutes and finally got the beast on the shore Adam grabbed her and lifted her up and handed her to me. My heart was racing from the excitement. She weighed in at 7lbs and 21inches in length. It wasn’t a monster but for a pond that is a big bass. Adam snapped some pictures and I let her go to fight another day.