Double Largemouth On Sunday

Norman Freebeck of Florence, Ala., considers the bone-colored Bomber Long A his secret weapon when fishing near the (undisclosed) dam along the Tennessee River, and the lure outperformed his expectations on Sunday, July 18, when a single cast netted not one but two chunky largemouth bass. Doubles (two fish on a single lure) aren’t completely unheard-of, but Norm’s double weighed almost 10 pounds.

“I was fishing with my 6-year-old daughter, Holland, when I got the hit near the dam,” Freebeck said. “Up there, the Long A will catch all kinds of fish including largemouth, smallmouth, drum, stripers and even gar.”

He said when the fish struck he knew he had something substantial but wasn’t fighting like any fish he’d caught before on this particular waterway, which he requested remain undisclosed.

“Finally the fish came to the surface about 20 feet from the boat and I couldn’t believe when I saw two fish on the lure,” Freebeck said. “I told Holland to look fast because I didn’t think I’d be able to get both of them to the boat without one getting off.”

He did get the pair of largemouth in the boat, however, and snapped a few photos with his phone camera. One fish was on the front treble hook and the other was on the rear hook. One weighed 4.2-pounds and the other was 4.7-pounds! He caught several more 3-pound-plus bass on the lure that afternoon.

“My daughter wanted to catch some fish so I cast the Long A out there and she first pulled in a 2.5-pound largemouth,” he said. “Two casts later, she had another big fish and ended up landing the 3.5-pound largemouth. I wanted to take another picture but it was too heavy for her to hold up, so I used the strap on the boat seat to hold the scale and had her sit next to it. The scale in the picture reads less than 3 pounds, but that’s because the fish is partially resting on the boat.”