In Pursuit Of Giant Bass ~ One Man's Journey

[Dwight Hottle]

I heard shimmy's pb was caught on livebait.

[pbrussell]

Ajay, you've mentioned stitching a live crawdad. I believe artificial baits have come quite the long way from the time Murphy fished em. Especially creature style baits for that matter. Do you think stitching a rage lobster, or perhaps even something like a river2sea crawler would be advantageous? (tackle warehouse even suggest fishing crawler behind a split shot). 

 

And though we are getting outside of the realm with stitching here (which by the way, murphy did not always do as you have mentioned), what about slow dragging a craw bait on a standup head in these areas?

 

It would seem, as it has been duly noted, that murphy was about Catching these fish. The destination wasn't the methods. The destination was catching big bass which he commonly found on specific structures.

[A-Jay]

That's something to think about.  And there's really only one way to find out. 

Fish the two baits and see what happens.

Of course, the Rage tail baits are so convenient since they come with their own live well and all . . . . .

 

A-Jay

[shimmy]

I heard shimmy's pb was caught on livebait.

don't hate. You're just jealous because i know what smaller fish look like

[pbrussell]

Hey a-jay!

Catch any giant bass lately?

[A-Jay]

I'm setting up the deal to keep and eventually use crawfish. 

Fabricating the aerated holding pen and then need to either catch or purchase a supply of bugs . . .

 

More to follow.

 

A-Jay

[K_Mac]

A-Jay the good thing about going through the trouble to raise mudbugs is you can always boil up a mess if the big girls won't eat them. I do like some crawfish boil...

[pbrussell]

I've tried the crawfish boil thing, and they tasted like well... Mud bugs. Maybe I did something wrong in prepping them

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Heading out today with the big stuff.

 

Watched Big Bait Posse this morning and read through this thread again for inspiration.

 

I predict jambalaya. LOL, aim low!! 

[A-Jay]

 I didn’t know what path this pursuit would take and that’s what intrigued me about it; besides hoping to catch a few bigger bass of course.  Recently I’ve been checking into catching and keeping crayfish as live bait.  I don’t do much live bait fishing but did review the rules first off.  The regulations here require that live crayfish can only be fished where they are caught or captured.   So purchasing a supply from out of state is out.  I believe that the waters I’m concentrating my efforts on have a decent population because the bass are routinely coughing them up boat side.  So my next challenge revolved around finding a decent accessible habitat where I could catch them.  I’m disappointed to say that I don’t really have it and there goes the plan.  I still could set out a trap or two overnight and fish what I catch and I may still do that, but this method will have to supplement in nature and not something I could depend on.  

 

  A-Jay

[A-Jay]

**** Trip Log ****

 Friday 24-25 June  an All Nighter ~

Fished 11pm – 10am  / Air temp mid 60’s / Water Temp 73 / Winds calm  /  Sky, Overcast which obscured a big Fat mostly Full Moon / Barometer 1013 & falling slowing.

 

This was my first night trip of the season and do quite a bit of it each summer right into early fall.  I really enjoy it and am quite comfortable tooling around in the black air.  This particular evening I spent quite a bit of time throwing a wake bait and a black spinner bait.  Also, I fished quite a bit shallower that I’ve been on most every day trip – 15 ft or less all night.   The bass were very cooperative and both baits took turns getting eaten by 1-3 pound bass.  The best spots included wood on or near a drop off; some docks and a few weed lines produced  And although most of the moonlight was obscured, when a shadow line fell onto or close to the cover, that was a good thing.  While fishing, I didn’t really feel like I was giving myself the very best chance to get a bigger bite, but it was quite pleasant having the fairly consistent action.

  As daylight approached I relocated and went to a swimbait.  The local trout population had started to come alive and they were dimpling the water everywhere.  I got bumped a few times while running higher in the water column which is encouraging, but still no hook ups.  After switching to fish a deeper running bait (and starting to nod off a bit here and there) a very spirited 4lber swallowed up the Hudd.  The feeling of that solid hook set made my morning.  A quick picture and then back to the depths.

 As the sun came up and the visibility in the water improved, I found that I was getting a lot of follows on the swimbait;  a couple of times it was schools of bass.   Only one bass came into view that I’d call “ a good one”.  So I dropped a way-point and that’s where I’ll start next time.

 

A-Jay

 

[00 mod]

Hudd strikes again....Keep at it my friend!

Jeff

[Siebert Outdoors]

Nice fish AJay!

[J Francho]

68's don't work. 

[pbrussell]

Looks like the hudd, is not a dud 

(see what I did there?)

[Dwight Hottle]

That's a truism.

[AK-Jax86]

That's a nice looking 4lber

[GoneFishi'n]

Awesome Huddleston fish! I hope I can get one that big on my Huddleston(soon to be huddlestons). Love this thread man.

[J Francho]

There's always a bit of truthiness to my posts.

[senile1]

. . . . and the quest continues.  That's a chunky 4 lb'er A-Jay!  What's the next step?  Stitchin' a Huddleston?  Drop shotting a spinnerbait?  Lay it on us, future Zen master. 

[A-Jay]

Rest assured, Zen Master, I am Not.

 

According to the author - right about now I should be looking for a deep High Speed Crank bait bite to come into play. 

 

It is also my contention, that If Mr. Murphy had been fishing large swimbaits in his day, there would be an entire chapter devoted to them in this book.

 

So stitching a Hudd - might not be all that far fetched of an idea.

 

A-Jay

[Dwight Hottle]

Slow, sloooow & slooooooow.

[GoneFishi'n]

That picture sure does make it look bigger then a 4lb. Ajay have you ever caught a Huddleston bass speed cranking? I've 1 and had a big one come off that way but I was burning it over weeds. As in speed cranking I mean reeling pretty fast, that's speed cranking a hudd for me.

[A-Jay]

I have not.  I fish swimbaits quite slowly.  This post from WRB in another thread is something I subscribe to whole-heartedly.

 

A-Jay

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/120768-huddleston-baits/?p=1321399

[GoneFishi'n]

I saw that when he posted it. I also fish it very slowly. I love feeling that that tail thump!