My 2025 Trophy Pond Monster Lunker Bass Hook Up’s and Other Decent Size Ones!…pics

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Well i cant believe it’s been a year since i posted any Bass activity and hook ups. Since this time last year the fishing went totally stale it has been the worst year ever since i have been fishing these ponds for the last 11 yrs. Many outings if getting skunked week after week month after month A real head scratcher. For this whole past year not one lunker Largemouth at all and if i did get a bite they were all under 2 pounds not even worth posting about. usually early March is when the spawning kicks in here in Sw Florida but nothing at all this spring yet until a couple of days ago i went out to hit some ponds and noticed a ton of bait fish cruising the banks. Started casting and the bites were kicking in lost a couple of nice ones trying to set the hooked a couple of small ones then moved on to the next pond. it was loaded with bait fish to and saw a nice school of bass but no lunkers Hooked another small one. Then about 3 ft. To my left i hear a loud bank slapper look in the water and see a nice lunker getting active on the bait fish. I tossed my swim bait out and it came after it sucked it up and bam i set the hook and get it on the bank, finally after a whole year i hooked a nice one. It was only 20 inches and under 4 lbs big head and shoulder but the rest of it was under sized. It wasn't red under the belly so i dont think it was spawned out maybe starting to bulk up for the spawn If thats the case then mire lunkers will be hitting the banks that would be great. Heres some pics and a couple of gator pics, one healthy 8 footer and on 3 footer i took a selfie with, u should never turn your back to a gator but for a photo for u all no problem…lol thnx for following my post and “ Get Out And Hook One Today! “….tra

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Heres a decent one from the other day i hooked on a Swimbait. This year the bass in my ponds have been so finicky no matter what I throw at them, they must b getting tired of artificial baits....lol...tra

 

[P304X4]

Nice looking fish! Congrats!

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Hit up 3 ponds today and in one pond had a 5-6 lb lunker just off the bank in front of me just hanging out and this Largemouth wanted nothing to do with me....lol
I probably spent over 30 minutes throwing an arsenal of baits and it just ignored them. I threw out a frog, Swimbait, lizard, Sticko worm, popper and stick bait and nada! I just realized I forgot about my KVD skirted jig. Have alot of other baits but I gave up.
I know where he will b so I will try again another day, eventually the aggressive feeding and strikes will kick in, alot of bait fish these ponds right now so it must of had a full belly....lol
Next pond I went to got a good strike on my Swimbait and hauled a decent one on the bank so not a total loss for the day. Had a little gator trying to get in on the action too, sorry Charlie!....lol
Heres some pics and as always " Get out And Hook One Today!".... tra

 

[Oldtool]

Looks like a good.time. That’s a cool little pond lizard. He will probably be a 12 footer some day though.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

With about 30 premium ponds here on the property I definitely have plenty of pond lizards of all sizes and Gator mating season is starting to kick in so I really have to pay attention now while fishing these ponds. A few years ago in one of our ponds I was 20 yrds from the largest gator are ever saw in the wild, it was definitely a 12-13 footer the head had to b at least 3 ft long u wouldn't have a chance in a kayak. Gator had to b at least 40 or 50 yrs old.
Anytime I fished that pond my head was on a swivel I would have flashbacks of the movies Lake Placid and Crawl...lol
Heres a pic I snapped of it....tra

 

[Oldtool]

Holy crap. , that’s a monster. Those things are no joke. I agree about not turning your back.

 

[P304X4]

Hit up 3 ponds today and in one pond had a 5-6 lb lunker just off the bank in front of me just hanging out and this Largemouth wanted nothing to do with me....lol
I probably spent over 30 minutes throwing an arsenal of baits and it just ignored them. I threw out a frog, Swimbait, lizard, Sticko worm, popper and stick bait and nada! I just realized I forgot about my KVD skirted jig. Have alot of other baits but I gave up.
I know where he will b so I will try again another day, eventually the aggressive feeding and strikes will kick in, alot of bait fish these ponds right now so it must of had a full belly....lol
Next pond I went to got a good strike on my Swimbait and hauled a decent one on the bank so not a total loss for the day. Had a little gator trying to get in on the action too, sorry Charlie!....lol
Heres some pics and as always " Get out And Hook One Today!".... tra

That gator looks just big enough to be bass bait!

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

The little gators are cool and very spunky...lol
Heres one decent one from Friday morning.
Still trying to hook this one pond Monster for the last 2 weeks and nada! It looks like one real big female with 2 big males by its side cruising close together, I did get a couple of hits but they are only defensive strikes they are not gobbling up my baits now mater what I throw at them. It's ok it is just a matter of time they will get aggressive sooner or later and hit my baits hard.
Hopefully today I can hook a off site pond Monster up north from me when I take my wife for our 2 hr regular Sunday ride. This one pond I hit up last Sunday had some at least 3 or 4 22" big ones in it that are being finicky too, will see....tra

 

[LosPadre]

Beautiful fish!! Thanks for sharing. Not sure I'd suffer those gators tho... I'm afraid they'd have to go (they can kill a child.) Just like all rattle sakes I encounter, they gotta go. And they do.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Its that time of year when The golf course closes for maintenance so I get to hit some premium ponds that haven't been fished for a year.
Theres this 8 acre pond that has a cool wood bridge that crosses it so it gives me a great advantage to see fish from above. The water was saturated with frys then out of no where about 7 huge lunkers averaging 22" were cruising together I have never seen that many lunkers together before. I quickly tossed my Swimbait in front of the pack and bam instant strike! I am reeling hard from above and the rest of the pack is following the hooked one it was crazy and the lunker broke water and shook the hook I was heart broken! Then they left cruising the banks. I did hook some decent ones but no trophy's.
Heres pics too of a gator in snore mode on the bank under a tree and I also saw a healthy 4' Black Racer snake heading to the pond for water it was 104° feel like heat when I was out there that heat did suck the life out of me after 2 hrs of casting even though I had water on me trying to stay hydrated.
Then in my next post I went back to that pond today and hooked some nice ones and one nice lunker I will share pics.....tra





Heres 2 I hooked back to back that were cruising the bank in a pack.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

I wore my lucky Orange shirt yesterday, not ideal for bank fishing it's so bright the fish will see me coming...lol but I have hooked a few trophy lunker pond monsters wearing it. Heres a nice solid 4 lb bank cruiser I hooked yesterday on a missile bait and a couple more decent ones. Still some real big Bucketmouths to hook the bite is getting better each day out. As always "Get Out And Hook One Today!"...tra












Heres a couple more decent ones...

 

[P304X4]

Its that time of year when The golf course closes for maintenance so I get to hit some premium ponds that haven't been fished for a year.
Theres this 8 acre pond that has a cool wood bridge that crosses it so it gives me a great advantage to see fish from above. The water was saturated with frys then out of no where about 7 huge lunkers averaging 22" were cruising together I have never seen that many lunkers together before. I quickly tossed my Swimbait in front of the pack and bam instant strike! I am reeling hard from above and the rest of the pack is following the hooked one it was crazy and the lunker broke water and shook the hook I was heart broken! Then they left cruising the banks. I did hook some decent ones but no trophy's.
Heres pics too of a gator in snore mode on the bank under a tree and I also saw a healthy 4' Black Racer snake heading to the pond for water it was 104° feel like heat when I was out there that heat did suck the life out of me after 2 hrs of casting even though I had water on me trying to stay hydrated.
Then in my next post I went back to that pond today and hooked some nice ones and one nice lunker I will share pics.....tra





Heres 2 I hooked back to back that were cruising the bank in a pack.

Some years back we had a house that back to woods. I'd see a couple of black racers in the yard every once in a while, they were great for rodent control.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

When I first moved here and went into the woods behind me for the first time I ran into a 9'-10' black racer, biggest snake I had ever seen in the wild, I thought it was a Black Mamba till I found out it was a racer..Lol
Yesterday it was my 68th BDay so I wanted to hook a big azz Birthday Bass was the goal.
Well I hooked into a pond Monster Bucketmouth it got airborne right in front of me while reeling it in right at the bank edge and shook my hook and drop back in I was heart broken.
Then a few minutes after that I hit up a pond I havent fished for months it was so non productive I said what the heck I will try a few cast. I seen wake take off from the bank and cast my Swimbait in that area and bam got a good strike pulled up this nice lunker on the bank, not as big as the one I lost but still a very nice one for my bDay wish, enjoy!...tra

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Heres a decent one hooked on the Booyah Popping frog....tra

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Thursday night we had major storm a lot of rain and Friday morning it was overcast with no wind and steady light rain perfect condition for some frog action.
Got dressed up and hit the first pond by 9 am and after my second cast git a blow up on the frog set the hooks and got it up on the bank and in hand. Took some quick pics and released it back in unharmed to fight another day.
Then minutes later hooked a another decent one on the frog too. Altogether I hooked 4 called it a morning heres pics of the best one.....tra

 

[Oldtool]

Very cool. I’ve caught lots of top water fish. Never even tried the frog though. Looks fun !

 

[P304X4]

Keep reeling 'em in!

 

[KonoctisWigwam]

You had me going until I saw one of those gators wearing izod polos with little kids on them...reptiles scare the crap out of me...I guess it's something you get used to...I always think about that death to the Japanese where the crocs were in hibernation, and came to life when 1000+ Japanese troops fled into the water...

EDIT: BTW, Clear Lake has largemouth bass that were transplanted from Florida in the late '60s, but you don't need to contend with any gators...sure, the CDFW f#@%'d up a lot of other stuff, and why we need to never allow them to try and manage wildlife...they're a complete failure...today, while Clear Lake is one of the largemouth bass capitals of the country, it has a lot of other eco problems that were created for such...and the lake is a real mess...

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Oldtool Top water hits are the best, when a aggressive lunker Bass slams the frog its explosive and the fight is on. I am going to bump up my 2 part 2020 Frog Smashing Pond Monster Bucketmouths threads for u to check out all mostly trophy bass and plenty of them strictly on the frog.
KonoctisWigwam lived in Nor-Cal 35 yrs until 2014 when I moved to Florida, have been to Clear Lake.
Our Monster Bass lake ijetes the famous Okeechobee