What is a Big Bass

[Brian]

I've seen and heard people talk about BIG BASS so what do you class as a big bass.

I class my personal best 55cm overall as a big bass. Is the term big bass referring to fish 50cm and over ??? or are we into that figure of 60cm.


Brian

[Quinny69]

Only time will tell....... I felt like Mr Bass Master of the universe the other day when on my 1st trip to Nrt Pine Dam I got a 48cm and a 51cm. The locals back at the ramp however had eskys full of even Bigger Bass (no lettin them back here) alot over 52cm, . There is a pic on the board of a 58+ fish, Im sure in a coupple of yrs we will be bragging about 65, 68cm ect Bass. I Hope,,,,, MattQ

[Fitzy]

I think the term is relative to the location it comes from. A 45 cm bass from Maroon is a better than average, yet the same fish from Big W is fairly common. A big bass for Big W I recon is a 55+.
While 50s were once the holy grail, I think 60 cm has that title these days & maybe for some big fish locations, 70 cm is possible.
Also think that weight has alot to do with it. A 45 cm bass from Big W, Somerset or Samsonvale can commonly be a hell of alot heavier than a Maroon, Cressbrook or Hinze bass.

I think any bass over 50 is would make anyone happy. Fish this size aren't overly common for most bass anglers.

Cheers,

Fitzy..

[aussiebasser]

G'day Brian,
My dream fish used to be a 50CM Bass, and a Metre Flathead. Thanks to North Pine Dam and Voodoo lures, I've passed my Bass mark a couple of times. 1 cm shorter than your's.
Hopefully that Metre Lizard will come at the Flathead Classic this year, and beat the 90cm fish I got in the Maroochy a few years ago.
It is strange how the metric/imperial measurements make a difference. The holy grail once was,
1000lb Marlin
10lb Trout
5lb Redfin
100lb Yellowfin
Now its in cm, 'cause they only sound half as heavy in Kilo's.

[Brian]

One of the blokes in the club scored a 58 cm bass to the fork and if i am correct this was a somerset fish a rare size in this / most dams i would figure. Overall size i could only guess would be 61 - 62 cm.

You could be correct there fitzy or is that bigger bass just a tad smarter in impoundments like maroon and simply hiding

OH well i will just keep going to get the big bass which for me now will be 56cm

Aussie if you are free interested in a NP trip i'll bring the Voodoos

[Slates]

G'day all.
I can remember when a 'massive bass' (to me anyway) was about 47-48cm (full length).
Dad caught a couple fom Baroon Pocket dam yonks ago and I thought they were true monsters!
A couple of years later it seemed the benchmark was 50cm and there were very few of them being caught compared with other sizes -as you'd expect.

Now I read about these 55cm bass!
They really must go like poop off a shovel!

Anyway, my pb is a miserly 46

Here's an intereseting thought to ponder:
It seems that the bigger fish of a waterway can often all come on the bite at once.
Does anyone else ever have days where no matter where you go, you can't seem to avoid small fish?
And maybe another day it seems everyone is catch 'decent' fish.
Now I'm not talking about a time period spanning a month where the dam is just fishing well eg:summer.
I mean, just one day where every fish seems to be irritable.

I've seen a day at Lake Moddewarre near Geelong where there were heaps of large (4kg+) trout belting baitfish in the shallows.
Fly fishermen who knew how to handle these fish landed a few but most were out-gunned as they didn't have far to go into the weeds.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I've NEVER seen a day like this since!
Just one of those day I guess...


Anyone else report a similar experience?

Cheers, Slates

[Brian]

Well the only time i can remember a time would be about 4 - 5 years ago over new years weekend where we scored 300 + bass no smaller than 40 cm with many in the 45 - 50 bracket with a good share of 50 + and this happened to be when i got my origional personal best of 52 - 53cm over all.

All on lures and what a BLOODY unreal two days, they all hit like trains.

The funny part they only did this in the afternoon about 2 - 3 pm the rest of the day was VERY quite. We could not work out why we just enjoyed it.

The place Someset

Brian

[Old_Fart]

My LONGEST bass was 55cm (fork length) at BP a few years back. It was a good fat fish.
.
Yesterday I caught a 41cm (fork length) at Wivenhoe. It was BIG
Fat as a football.
.
Big depends on the comparison with what is normal at that location.

[Brad_Mcalister]

I agree with Fitz, anytime ya get one 50cm or bigger ya gotta be happy

Brad

[fishy_phil]

g'day
whatever happened to big river wild fish?? ive caught some real horses out of creeks before so i was just wondering has anyone else here caught big wild fish??
cheers
phil
ps 2 over 60 cm, one over 70cm!!!

[bassmansrc]

Hi Phil,
I fish all over Australia,(lucky to travel regularly with work). I have caught some real good wild fish out of a number of rivers. The Nepean River near Penrith NSW, Shoalhaven south coast NSW & Bellingen River -Near Coffs NSW, have all produced some real monster fish. between the 48 to 55cm mark. Never ever seen a 60cm bass though, but I keep dreaming.

Regards
Steve

[Col_Wiley]

I'm with you Steve, never seen a 60cm wild river bass. Since the early 60's have fished from Wingham in the south to the Qld border, do you realise how old a bass would have to be to grow to 60cm in the wild, hell she would have been around in the 60's to. Maybe I let her go one day.

Wild River Bass - 50cm is a big fish, granted Clarence River Gorge, not so unusual.

[fishy_phil]

gday
just want to tell you fellas i now live near grafton and since ive been here i have o nly seen a couple of big fish. ive caught more E. cod over 10lb than ive seen big bass so what happened to the legendary gorge??????
now the two river systems that ive fished for bass are the Nepean-hawkesbury and the clarence and fishing down sydney i caught and saw more big bass than up here, what is the deal with that??? my second ever bass was bigger than any ive seen or heard of up here that were not made up, of which ive heard a few.
just wondering where in the nepean system did you fish???
i fished south, glenbrook, erskines creeks and the nepean hawkesbury colo and warragamba rivers. what were your favoured techniques/ lures/flies???
phil

[bassmansrc]

Phil,
Nepean, I have fished all parts of time and time again. 10 years ago I used to regularly get in to 50 cm Nepean bass & it was not uncommon to catch 10 or 12 in an afternoon. Since then though the river has slowly gone down hill. Last year I scored a few good fish & a few more out of the colo river. A good fish these days is 40cm plus. I don't know what happened since those great days 10 & 12 years back but the size of the fish just is not there anymore. The numbers are still very healthy- just the size is lacking.
Regards
Steve

[fishy_phil]

gday mate
just wanted to say that in the creeks i found that id be gettin the bigger fish. especially in south creek this is were i got my 2 biggest fish. both over 60cm!!!also that id usually get at least 1 50cm fish a trip, fishing for about 2 hours. also were in the colo did u fish. ive only really fished up around bob turners and the lower and upper colo bridges. last september i got really into the fish over 2 days me and a mate got over 40 fish each. fishing only evening and mornings 2-3 hours each. fish upto around 45cm. losing the bigger fish.
back about 20 years my dad used to fish the area from wollemi river to the junction with the hawkesbury. never really getting fish above 50 cm. this was back in the 1970s and 1980s.
cheers mate
phil