OK guys and gals,

Here is a text from Flame with his big fish. I will wait to comment until Flame has added his wisdom. I only hope the pictures come through.

"Caught this yesterday 3.5 pounds at only 16.5 inches. Relative weight came in at 140%. Pure Florida lm pellet trained from Todd Overtons. This fish was only 4inches long only 2 years ago this month!! Me proud paw paw!! Thanks for your help. We wanted them to know this pond is in east Texas. Pat says everything is bigger in Texas!!"

Thank you CMM for helping me with posting the photos. I was hoping I had a 3 pound lmb in my 2 acre pond. I only stocked 50 fish and the largest up till now had only been 2 and 1/2 pound. Boy did I get a surprise!! Caught it on a plum wacky worm and man did it fight!! I was by myself so did the best I could do with taking photos.

The pictures are so good, they make me envious! My best wr is around 120%, and those are few and far between. Kudos on a great fish.

Flame, very nice LMB. She is a fatty.

WELL DONE!!
Can’t wait to see it down the road!

Thanks everyone. I'm still excited. All the hard work is paying off!!

Nice lmb Flame!! I am betting you will continue to get good growth on your lmb. Mr Lusk said after they reach 3 lbs they will rule the pond.

Loving it!! Gives the rest of us something to shoot for. Kind of like a kick in the pants when things get cumbersome. Thanks for sharing!! I bet 4# by end of fall!

Beautiful fish! This is what makes all the worry, sweat, and $ worthwhile. Congratulations!

Congrats!!

Well, it seems Flame's lm is not a one off. He caught a couple others today that mirror the one pictured. Congrats on working the plan and having the plan work out.

I'm happy for that old lmb fisherman I know of his cnbg population and I bet he see's some great lmb growth this next 12 months.

And yet another! Flame is flat out reeling them in. This time the fish was 16" and 3.5 LB, WR of 155%!

Thanks again CMM for posting that picture. This is the first one I caught while my wife was fishing with me so I got her to take the picture. I'm just blown away by the growth and so proud!! Now if I can just get my wife to hang one of them bad boys!! She had one on the other day but it pulled off and she didn't get to see it. Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Man they are like foot balls.

Well done and your so lucky with such a long growing season.

Cheers Don.

Another nice one Flame For me I am not fishing the lmb or hsb this time of year because when fishing a couple of weeks back I lost half of the lmb I had caught. Found them dead and floating a couple of days after the fishing. I am not sure if it's just my pond or if it happens in most every E Texas pond this time of year. I also read a while back when catch and release fishing lmb in Texas lakes during the summer there was a high mortality rate on those fish released. It was because the fish did not float up till a couple or three days after their release, the fisherman did not realize his released fish were dying. Seems like fishing bigger lakes the fish were not seen by the fisherman due to it being a few days after the fish was released. I do know that when the fish are deeper in the summer they have to or need their bladder de-aired by using a syringe or they will die. But I am not talking of deeper fish in my 10 to 12 foot water depths. Is it because my fish are already stressed before they are caught?

Tracy, a couple of them did take quite a few minutes to swim off out of my hand. They were the first 2. I did "fight" those fish longer than needed but really wanted to land them for weights and measures. I was by myself and I know I stressed them more than I should have. This last one I had the wife to help with getting scales and measuring and photos so was able shorten the landing and weighing time a lot. This one swam off as soon as it entered back into the water. But I do agree,those first ones told me it is getting too hot. But on another note, those pure Florida lmb that size fight so hard you gotta wear em down some before landing!! Can't help it ...I'm having FUN!!

Great looking bass Flame!

keep having fun Flame!! just wanted to tell my exp. with loss of lmb after release. I hate losing 4lb lmb out of my pond.