If you really want to get old school, Bartram caught them on a jigger pole with feathers for bait in the late 1700s. He claimed to have caught them up to 30 lbs on the St. John's River, and had days when he covered the bottom of the boat with big bass. I'm skeptical about some of the weights he claimed.


All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.