While competing recently in Major League Fishing’s Heavy Hitters tournament on Orange Lake in north-central Florida, professional bass angler Michael Neal hooks into a massive fish on the edge of a thick weedbed. Neal is pitchin’/flippin’ a Big Bite Baits YoMama soft-plastic creature. As you’ll see in the Facebook video clip below, the battle is short, largely because the bass and line get tangled in heavy hydrilla.
Neal had never caught a double-digit bass — the holy grail for largemouth bass is 10 pounds — and this bass smashes his PB; it weighs exactly 11 pounds on the tournament-official scale.
As you watch the video, pay attention to Neal’s boat official (marshal) who is in the boat to weigh and document each bass caught during the event. During all MLF tournaments, the bass are weighed and then released back into the water. Unlike most bass tournaments where anglers keep their biggest five in a livewell and then transport them to a weigh-in event at the end of each fishing day, MLF prides itself on taking the best care of bass possible, and releasing them back into the water shortly after they are caught gives the bass the best chance for survival.
In addition, MLF has strict rules regarding how bass are handled in the boat. Anglers are penalized fishing time if a bass is dropped onto the boat carpet, etc. So there’s no “boat flipping” of bass onto the floor of the boat like you see in many other bass tournaments. I cringe whenever I watch tournaments put on by other bass fishing organizations because their anglers don’t treat the fish with the proper care.
Watch closely after this 11-pounder is caught and you’ll see the boat marshal swab the inside of the bass’ mouth with a Q-tip (the 1:45 mark of the video). He’s collecting DNA for fisheries biologists to study growth rates of bass in Orange Lake.
Neal won the Heavy Hitters’ daily big bass award — $10,000! — and certainly made a lifetime memory with this amazing bass.
FYI: The reason Neal fills the livewell in his boat is because MLF tournament organizers like to take top-notch photos (by an on-the-water professional photographer) of truly special fish, and this 11-pounder certainly qualifies. Neal holds the bass in the lake until his livewell is full of oxygen-rich water, then the bass is placed in the livewell before a photographer arrives a few minutes later. Treating a bass with this great care allows it to fully recover before being released, ready to be caught again!
PS: Be sure to turn up the volume of the video for best viewing.
