You all make me so jealous...I love bass fishing, but here in Spain the only species we've got is the smallmouth bass, and it grows to a max of about 7 pounds. They're still a thrill to catch! In the summer I love fishing for trout in a lake near my house, and I take some trips to the river Ebro with friends to make the real big catches: siluro (silurus glanis, wels catfish). In Spain, thanks to the water temperatures, warm climate and carp populations they grow faster than anywhere else in the world. It's quite common to catch 70kg+ catfish, the record holder is about 90kg.
My favorite bass lures for the hot summer days are small, realistic crankbaits and soft or hard swimbaits, using quite a stiff rod and 0.24 line, about 10 pounds. For the catfish we use way bigger stuff, but I've still seen some rods flying into the river or snapped after an hour long fight
Now the eye candy
The lake near my house. It's about 4km apart, I usually get there cycling.
One of last summer's nicest catches. Notably smaller than american bass, still a ton of fun! This one fell for a Powerbait finesse shad, about 2''.
The windsurf board I used to get around the lake. It was stolen last summer.