As expected, winds were much lighter as we drove through the foothill town of Ione and as we made our way across the dam, the lake was reasonably calm with a slight chop. We checked in at the Tackle Box Cafe and quickly launched the boat trying to get as much out of our day before the rain hit.

Ever the optimist, I was hopeful there might be a reaction bite and decided to start out with a Bill Norman Deep Little N crankbait. We made our way into one of the smaller coves near the launch ramp area and began working a small stretch of bank with several submerged brush piles. Conditions were just right for cranking, heavy cloud cover and enough of a breeze to stir things up, but not enough to push the boat out of position.

It was only my third cast when I felt a sharp snap on the end of my G.Loomis rod, followed by a sudden loss of contact with the bait. A fish had hammered the crankbait and was heading straight at the boat! I quickly cranked down to the fish and set the hook.

The first few seconds were fairly uneventful as the fish pulled hard, but I was able to work it towards the boat. The fish was half way to the boat when it suddenly hung up in one of the many small trees or bushes submerged along the shoreline. I held steady pressure on the line and within a short time, the worked its way out of the bush. That's when things got interesting.

Once the fish cleared the snag, it suddenly broke for deep water towards the middle of the cove and emptied a good 50 feet of line off the spool on my Curado reel. At that moment, I knew this was either a huge bass or a 20 pound catfish. I quickly jumped on the trolling motor and chased the fish out into the open water. Once I was on top of the fish, it headed for deep water, slowly pulling out 2 to 3 feet of line with every surge. After two trips around the boat, dipping the rod under both motors, I had absolutely no idea what kind of fish this was. It wasn't rolling on the line like a big catfish will do, but it was staying much deeper and pulling harder than any bass I had ever fought.

After what seemed like an eternity, the fish finally tired and I began to gain ground, slowly pumping the rod as I brought the fish up from deep water. As Paul kneeled at the side of the boat with a ready net, we really had no idea what was on the end of the line. In an instant, the biggest bass that I have ever seen was laying alongside the boat and Paul was trying to figure out how to fit the monster into the net. Somehow, he forced the fish through the hoop of the net and gently lifted it into the boat.

After a series of hoops and hollers and high fives, it was time to get down to business and figure out how big this thing was. I put the fish on Paul's 15 pound Normark Scale and it immediately jumped from 13 to 14 pounds and then began to blink. It was bottomed out!

I have two scales, a Cul-M-Rite and a Berkley scale that I have calibrated against our postal scale here in the office and both are consistently accurate within one ounce. After weighing the fish several times on both scales, we came up with a reading of 14 pounds, 7 ounces on two measurements and 14 pounds, 8 ounces on all of the other measurements. The fish measured 27-1/2 inches in length with an amazing 23-1/2 inch girth. It's still hard to believe. On a cold December day when I probably should have been hanging Christmas lights or cleaning out the gutters, I end up catching the fish of a lifetime.