biggest australian bass

[nuggstar]

any one know what the biggest recorded bass is and is there a chance you know what class line thay got it on (if you know) :-? :-? :)

[budgebass]

good question nuggstar

been many a post about this one.

We caught a 57cm (nose to the tail) bass at Somerset.

It had a tag in, so we phoned in. It was the second biggest bass phoned in, biggest was 58cm.

There was no records for 60 cm + bass despite all the rumours and noises you hear about big bass

cheers
budgebass

PS caught on 6lb braid in about 30 feet down in 70 feet of water
, absolutely hair raisingly great fun

[Sniper]

Great fun catching those big suckers on light gear. My PB is 3.04kg on 4lb line. The sucker only measured 52cm's to the fork. Have had a Bass right up next to the boat which I estimated would have gone close to if not more than the 60cm length, but lost it at the boat. Not happy!!
Billyboy

[hardb8]

Hey Nug,
The biggest I've seen in the flesh were both 55cm to tha fork.One was caught by me,And the other by my m8.Neither fish were weighed,But both were estimated to be over 3kg.

I have seen pics from Mr Dave Seaman,Holding a Bass that was 60cm.He measures his fish to the fork of the tail.There is also footage of a caught 60 in his DVD.I believe both these fish were caught in the wild,Which makes them,That much more special.

I have heard rumours,As have we all,Of MONSTER Bass.The biggest I've heard of was 68cm :o,Dunno if it was a overall or fork lenght.There are supposed to be pics,But I haven't seen em.

I too am intrested to hear more on this subject........Keep it comin guys.

I'll be gunnin for that 60 in about three hours time,As the sun rises over the hills :).Better go ta bed.

[woodchopper]

I've heared rumors of 60cm bass in the upper clarence.

[nuggstar]

thanks guys (i love that destroyer ric) i hope someone post a pic of a big 60cm fish soon so i stop seeing it im my dreams and can get some real sleep. please does any one else know of someone or has cought a 60+fish then. :-? please tell us ausfishers all about it :)

[mark123]

G'day a mate of mine got a 60cm bass at Somerset

[nuggstar]

:o :o :o :o :-? any pics

[whykickacatalong]

62cm fork from memory out of the Hawkbury. I will have to try and find the pic. Very long fish but extremely skinny and I expect it may have been at the end of it's life. The pic was on another website a couple of years back so may take a while to locate it.

[SWANY22]

there used to be a picture of a bass over 60cm at north pine dam. were you used to put your boats in.and from memory that was caught in 2004.have also hered of a bass coming out of north pine that went 68cm but have not yet seen the pictures.

[nuggstar]

wow :o :o :o :o :o thats big

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi guys the biggest one we heard of come from Wuruma Dam so maybe Bundy Fly on here can shed some light on that one as she has the most up to date info out that way.

Fish well in to the 60's+ often talked about - locals out there never took any photos when we were there - most were just interested in a feed which is fair enough.

It will be interesting to see how big they can get to.

Cheers SeekingBarradise

[Sergio_kutz]

I've heard that during one of those electroshock things they do in the dams, one around bundaburg was found at 70cm. Not caught on a line tho but still... pretty freeking big.

[nuggstar]

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :oholeycrap :o :o :o :o :o :o :oany pics

[Bris_Vegas]

This has gone on far to long with no pictures :D
The biggest i have seen in person 53cm. Until some pics get posted that the biggeast that exists hahaha.
Surely with a site this large if there were so many reports of 60cm+ there should be several pics by now! Dont want to be a sceptic.
Please prove me wrong!!!

Angus

[Seamo]

Hi Guys,
I thought I'd satify at least a few and post the pic of a 603mm fork length fish (645mm OA) I hooked one about 5 cm longer a fortnight after this one and played it to within 6 feet before the lure pulled out, so that's my target - a 65cm FL bass....one day. Wild river bass are the best in my books.

The biggest fish that appears on the Wild River Bass DVD is a 55cm fork length I got in the middle of the day. A 60cm on film would have been just bloody magic. We have had some great feedback from people who have seen and bought the DVD which has encourage us to do another bass film, but in wide screen and HiDef. Wild River Bass Too. ;D



Cheers
Seamo

[hardb8]

G'day Seamo,
The man himself....Awsome to have ya on deck.Been reading and enjoying your writings for a while.And ya DVD is awsome.Great top water action.Looking foward to any contributions you make to this great site in the future.

My apoligies to all for my comments that weren't %100 accurate (With regards to Seamos fish) earlier on this thread.

Cheers hardb8 ;)

[nuggstar]

droullll drroulll that fish is awsome,i love it :-*did ya give em a kiss :-* and chuck em back ;D

[roydsy]

Bloody nice fish Seamo, I am dieing to get back into the water and chase some monster bass.

[black_sheep]

Nug,

Caught well over 50 bass at North Pine over the last 15 months that went over the 55cm mark. Mostly between 55 and 58cms. One morning, we scored about 70 bass between 3 of us and tagged about 20 over 55cms. Also lost a few bigger fish but could have been yellas or togas.

I know a guy who caught a 68cm bass. He was by himeself so only got a photo of it lying on the bank and you can't really tell how big it is - funny that!

I have plenty between 55 and 58cm photos.

[wheezer]

hey navi was wondering when you would make an appearance in this thread after the stories you told me.....i reckon they need to splice genes from bass and barra...imagine a metre plus bass or a barra that came on the chew like bass...heaven for some

[Seamo]

Hey Hardb8,
I'll contribute to posts where I can and I'm glad you liked the DVD.

[killitfillit]

meter plus barra do come on the bite like bass

[nuggstar]

i'd like to catch a bassamundi, sounds good to me ;D

[Davcoman]

Mate of mine (ragman) caught this 57cm bass, pitch black around 9.00pm in a creek that flows into the Macleay River, he had no torch, no pliers, and foul hooked the fish & still managed to land her (with my help of course). The fishing Gods were looking out for him that night. Have fished the Macleay river for over 20 years and big fish 75921are landed every season (my best being 54cms) and we are sure that we have dropped bigger fish, but that is what keeps us coming back. Cheers for now75920

[chris69]

The caboolture river before the weir days was a world renownd big bass fishery, i think the biggest was 11lb and a few onces with a lot of 9to10lb bass were the norm but that was a long time ago, ive heard of a 72cm bass but that was in the pine dam,i gotten lots over 50cm with biggest 57cm still looking for my 60cm plus though,there a few good wild rivers over the boarder i like to fish one da

And davcoman that is a lovely bass ,a nice olive gold shine to it the water down there must be realy clear and clean in the Macleay river.

[Gigantor]

Saw a few big dead ones when fishing the upper Pine River in Feb/March last year after the big floods. Most were long and slender and beaten-up, probably from falling over the dam wall. They were all rotten so didn't care to play with them and throw them on the lie-detector. Saw some real big yellas too.

Cheers, Pete

[wayno60]

theres no lengths given just weights..

http://www.aaawa.iinet.net.au/NationalAAAFishingRecords.html

[old trout]

Of course we know that size does matter. But to me my personal bests are about how challenging the capture was. I once caught a 30kg GT! But it did not fight, it must have been sick. At the other end of the scale, when I was young I fished for years without landing a murray cod, when I did it was only 200mm long, but it was a trout cod! I was pretty stoked to catch an endangered species like that at the time. Can't say that catching a 60cm bass would have been a bummer though.

[Mike Delisser]

My best bass that I've photographed on a ruler (so it's fair dinkem), just touches 55cm

[bradley@ippy]

On light line, i managed to land a 51.6cm bass. i had to scale it off my boots as i left the ruler at home, hopefully its not too far off my mark. Shall upload a photo when i can.

[watto1]

Hi Guys. The biggest bass I have personally (and actually) SEEN were caught up the Clarance Gorge by my wife Mo a few years back. Mo got 2 on small soft plastics which went 64cm and 66cm (fork length) respectively. And no, that was not a typing error! Neither fish had tags in them and both were released unharmed. She caught them off the bank from pretty much under the same rock using a "pumkin seed" soft plastic grub. The fish were in reasonable condition albeit a little on the lean side (post spawn). I think Mo was using 6kg braid at the time. I will try to post up a pic of each fish after I find them. Note that Mo is holding them in against her chest so you can get an accurate idea of the size of them (not holding them out towards the camera as seems to the the trend these days). Who knows how big bass get , or how long they live, but it is obvious that where they live is the key to their size. The Clarance is an awsome system and is probably the historical home of big bass before the dams started producing them. Cheers, Watto98387

[Big_Bass_Fisherman]

That's a nice fish watto, but I question your measurements. I used to work at Grafton fisheries, in all the years of sampling the Clarence system the biggest Bass recorded was a 59cm female. It was electrofished upstream from the gorge in 2010.

[Bad_Bazza]

I caught, measured, tagged and had witnessed a 60.5 cm overall length bass on the 14/12/10.
The tag number is U50569 and I am sure that I put photo up on this site. The photo was published in QFM and also is my photo on facebook.
I have been fishing the dams since the early 90's and I can tell you this is the only one I have put in the boat. I can guarantee you that I have had fish as big and bigger on but this is the first one that I have successfully landed in that time.
As you can see they are not an everyday happening!

Bad_Bazza

[Apollo]

I agree with Watto that pockets of systems produce some very big bass which I beleive is a mix of genetics and environmental factors. I know of one spot in the late 80's that produced numerous bass in the mid 60's. We got a 65 and 63 and I later spoke to a fella who got three from the same area in the same size bracket. Would love to go back to that area one day to see if any survived and shut a few of the doubter up by a pic or two against a brag mat.

Either way, they are are a great fish and I still enjoy getting any over 50. Best this year is a 54 out of a river.

Steve

[watto1]

That's a nice fish watto, but I question your measurements. I used to work at Grafton fisheries, in all the years of sampling the Clarence system the biggest Bass recorded was a 59cm female. It was electrofished upstream from the gorge in 2010.

G'day Big Bass Fisherman,
I do understand your skepticism in light of statistical records regarding past tagging programs in the Clarence, but these fish were caught and pretty accurately measured. I have caught some big bass above the falls (below the junction) and as far up as above Buccarumby, but nothing compared to these two.
These fish were caught below the falls in December of 2009. I had to measure both fish by scribing 2 small marks on my rod with a knife as we didn't have a tape with us at the time. Not a recommended proceedure I know (the chaps at GL loomis would be shaking thier heads!). We ran a tape from the butt to the marks when we got home). I mentioned the fish to the fellow who owns the lodge below the Gorge (Winters?) but couldn't show him a pic as we had taken them on Mo's SLR camera (not a digital). He in return showed us several photo's of fish that went over 60cm that had been caught by fisho's up there in the past, I think the biggest at that time was also 64cm (fork length).
The water was very low and the top falls were hardly flowing at all (although there WAS still quite a bit of foam on the water for some reason). The fish were concentrated up the top end on the right hand bank (walking up) and they were bloody hungry. With the exception of one fish, the bigger bass we got that day didn't have tags which I thought was interesting. We only landed one that had a tag in it (which was NSW DPI 019). This fish had a couple of sores and was very very thin (see photo) and so was released immediately with no fuss.
I guess my point is that there are very big bass lurking in various systems and just how big they get is still an unknown factor despite existing data. (Case in point is the size of the barra that were being recorded in Awonga before the floods). Given enough food and an absence of natural attrition (with favourable genetics thrown in) there will always be exceptions to the rules. Stocked bass in the dams seem to be getting bigger (certainly fatter in my opinion) but they have plenty of food and not much to worry about. Clarence bass feed up during the praw season in the lower reaches then they must run the gauntlet of the River, and THEN try to get past the Gorge waterfalls, and THEN all the rapids from there on. Maybe this produces a longer more powerful fish in the 98437long run?. I for one certainly hope so and hope that they continue to beat the odds that seem to be forever stacked against them.

Cheers, Watto 98436

[watto1]

PS> Here are the pics of poor old #19 plus a few of the other (un tagged) fish that the Gorge produced that day. 98438

Watto 98439

[Mike Delisser]

Come on guys, there's got to be some photos of really big bass sitting on mats or rulers out there (all doubt removed then). We've all heard about plenty of 58's and 60's being caught this year.

Surely there's better than my 55 out there.
Cheers
98444

[watto1]

Hi All,
Finally found the photo of Mo's 66cm (fork length) bass caught at the Clarence Gorge in 2009 (see previous post). She had it up on her staffroom wall at school which is why I couldn't find it!.
This is the larger of the two she caught in quick succession from a deep hole under a rock at the top of the Gorge. No tag in it. Was in good nick (post spawn) and released quickly. Very powerful fighter and went like the clappers!.Check out the size of it's tail!

98476

Cheers, Watto

[rayken1938]

watto your attachments do not work for me.
Are the photos on a measurement device?
Cheers
Ray

[watto1]

98483Ray,
Unfortunately no mate. We were walking the bank and if you know the Gorge it is a pretty challenging walk at that!. We went light (essential gear only) and didn't take the brag mat, so we measured both of those particular fish by putting marks on my rod with a pocket knife (very SMALL marks by the way as I do love my GL2!). I know that this negates any photographic "proof" but that's ok as Mo (wife) is happy as Larry as she knows she got one of those bass that are "stuff of ledgend". We will go back again one day and this time we WILL take a bloody tape! (for mine though, it's not about the size at all, it's the "doing" that gets me every time) Watto

[Apollo]

Agree Watto, I don't fish for others - JUST ME!

[ricksta]

Certainly not the biggest but it's my PB and went slightly over 56cm I caught it in the Hinze last year, cheers Rick

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c110/flybro/HinzeMonster.jpg (http://s26.photobucket.com/user/flybro/media/HinzeMonster.jpg.html)

[rayken1938]

Ricksta nice fish on the wand.
There is a photo in the December Bush n Beach of a claimed 61cm. Not the best way to hold a trophy fish swinging it around by the gob.
Cheers
Ray

[wrip109]

I September I caught quite a few bass over 55cms from the Brisbane river. Funny but they seem to have grown each time I tell the story. My biggest now is up to a million miles long and weighing 10 tons...