My Personal Quest For Trophy Bass

During my quest to learn how to catch big bass, and hopefully one  day catching the world record largemouth bass I have read a lot of books and articles. I have also spent countless hours on the water, trying many different lures and techniques as well as studying topographic maps and attempting to locate the “Prime” spots with my depth finders that I found on the maps.

In my opinion one of the best topographical maps are still the ones available from the USGS, United States Geological Service. If you can get your hands on a Edison map, hmm, I guess that might be a California term so for those who don’t know, its a highly detailed topographical map that the power company uses, and trust me, they can be a great find, especially if they were created prior to the lake being created. The available “fishing maps” are good but in my opinion because they are so widely available the prime spots shown on them are usually pretty much public knowledge so chances are they have already been heavily pounded and get allot of fishing pressure so the bass become “conditioned” and either wont bite or they pack up their bags and move.

The old saying that big baits catch big bass is generally true but not written in stone, I’ve caught several 10 pound plus bass on very small finesse baits just by being in the correct spot and presenting the baits in the correct manner. I have also caught 8 inch bass on 15 inch plastic worms so that should tell you something about the aggressive nature of this little green creature we pursue.

Location and Presentation are 2 very important aspect of any type of fishing but are especially important with big, well conditioned bass. You have to figure out where she lives, what her basic forage is and how to trigger her to strike.

One big advantage we as Californians have is the department of game and fish plant keeper size rainbows, 8-15 inches, which are basically candy to the big bass. They eat a couple of these and they are set. They in turn grow big very fast. This is the reason that companies developed the giant swim baits, yes I know that the AC plug was the original and yes I know that it was originally developed for the monster brown trout in the higher elevation lakes but when bass anglers started to observe largemouth bass eating the stocked trout it got them thinking. At first the discovery was kept secret, that people were catching big bass on the giant wooden AC Plugs, and then people started to develop other versions of trout imitating lures. At first anglers were accused of fishing with live trout because from even a short distance these lures did look like the real thing. Word got out and as they say, the rest is swim bait history.

There are times of the year when swim baits really excel. Of course when the stock truck pulls up to the ramp to dump in the trout and also during early spring as well as fall. They can actually be effective at all times of the year especially since they now offer swim baits in floating, diving, slow sinking, fast sinking and even suspending models,

To throw some of these heavy swim baits, 6 up to 12 ounces you need very heavy tackle, salt water type rods and reels and very heavy lines. Yes, attempting to chuck and wind one of these monster baits all day long will take its toll on you as an angler and trust me, it will wear you out but the rewards can be fantastic. Again, you may get only a couple bites a day throwing these but chances are they will be big bites but this is not always the case. I personally have had many times when I would be chucking these big baits and feel a thump, swing to set the hook and nothing, and then continue to wind, thump again, swing and a miss, nothing. Then I would continue to wind even when I feel the thumps all the way back to the boat and look down to see bass in the 1-2 pound range grabbing my swim bait by the tail and shaking it. Like I mentioned, the aggressive nature of bass, “If I can fit at least part of it in my mouth I can eat it”

Swim baits are just one of many weapons to target big bass. Big plastic worms, snakes if you will, big lizards, etc. I’m not talking about the average 8 inch variety plastics; I’m talking about the magnum sized 10-18 inch ones. Big tube baits, more commonly known as Tora Tubes are also a good choice. Then of course there are always the jigs, which do catch big bass. I’ll talk about jigs more in another article.

How do I use these baits? I’m not going to go into too much detail here because there are so many different variables involved in all the different baits I’ve mentioned. Let’s start with the swim baits. Big tackle and heavy line are needed. Long casts across points past the prime structure. Try fast or slow, steady or erratic retrieves until you find the presentation that triggers them into responding to your offering. Don’t hesitate to try dead sticking the lure, if it floats. This method involves throwing your lure out and basically doing nothing with it for awhile so it just sits there. I have had times when I didn’t intentionally dead stick my lure but due to the fact that I had created a bird’s nest in my reel, I spent awhile picking the line out and had bass just blow up on it as it sat there.

Here is the secret. Shhhh… The above mentioned techniques will work for all of the above mentioned lures

Now don’t get me wrong anyone can get lucky and catch a trophy bass and any lure can catch them as well, but to be consistent in finding and catching there superior bass you need to try and understand big bass, become one with them.

I mentioned this before but feel that I can’t stress it enough. If your serious about catching trophy size bass a must read for anyone who is serious about catching big is the book by Bill Murphy titled “In Pursuit Of Giant Bass” This book explains allot about the seasonal movements of the big bass as well as many things that took me years of trial and error to figure out on my own. When I finally found about this book and started to read and study it I had allot of things come into focus for me as to why this or that might have happened. It also gave me allot of information that I didn’t know or even think about. Once again, the information in this book would have saved me allot of trial and error. Another good read is “Big Bass Zone, Catch Monster Bass” by Bill Siemantel and Michael Jones. Both of these books are available through Amazon (Click the logo on the right to go there)

Can I promise that you will catch the bass of a lifetime just by reading these 2 books? I’m sorry to say but the answer is no. I can however promise that if you read these books, go out and practice the tips they talk about you will be ahead of the game and greatly increase your odds of catching that bass of a lifetime.

One of the biggest things to remember when chasing these big bass. You’re going after Quality, not quantity. Chances are you will get just a few bites a day, if that, when you’re in the big bass mindset but the bite will usually be a big one. Unless of course you have that day of a lifetime when everything is just right and a boat load of monster bass. As a general rule, if you’re on a big bass mission this would not be a good trip to take kids along because of the lack of action.

A very wise man, my father, once told me, “You won’t always catch fish but the more you go, and as long as you continue to learn something from each and every trip, the better your odds are.” I have found this to be especially true when it comes to chasing big bass.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!