Thanks
@Jig Man It was a blast catching it for sure. Quite a tussle to land it!
Best part was that my wife watched the whole thing too. She told me later that she saw where the cast landed and saw the fish hit, but she also noticed that I waited a split second to set the hook. She was wondering why I didn't react right away when the fish blew up on the buzzbait, so I explained about waiting to set the hook on topwater bites. Once I explained it, she got it
And then she said "that's probably why I've been missing some of the fish I have missed... setting the hook to soon".
Uh huh!
Oh, and I also had an audience on the shore. We were fishing in front of a house where people were gathering for a Memorial Day Picnic. There were probably at least a half dozen people who saw me fight the fish and then hoist it aboard. They all clapped and cheered. LOL