Starting My Quest For A Big Bass!

[gulfcaptain]

Some larger older unhealthy skinny fish should be removed.  Healthy fish not so much.  But like it's stated above that's a whole different discussion as well as ones own personal preferences.

[Sam]

Please keep a log so you can write about your quest hunting the monster bass.

Go to college; earn a degree; start your career; save your money; don't get married; and head to Texas and Florida for that big bass unless you know of one in a private pond.

There is a private fishing and hunting camp I believe in North Carolina that has a pond of female largemouth bass, only. Anyone out there remember the name of the place? Those females are extremely big.

If you are a member of B.A.S.S. And receive Bassmasters Magazine you can check out the states where guys and and gals have caught lunkers and see their photos.

Your quest for the Holy Grail of bass fishing will take time and money. Just remember, once you walk down that aisle your quest will be put on hold for about 30 years.

Good luck and go out now and try for that big one but have some fun catching smaller ones, too.

[Sam]

You also ask where the big ones are. Probably all over the place.

The big ones have their special place in the lake or pond. She will venture out in the early AM and late PM.

She has seen many baits and is very selective on what she eats.

She is coy. She is stealth. She demonstrates patience. If she is the biggest one in her area she takes her time to swim, eat and rest. She has her daily "milk run" and takes her time visiting her favorite places. She stays deep or away from the shore line in a bush or in a fallen tree or against some rocks. She visits the bank for a nice breakfast or dinner. She usually skips lunch and snacks.

You may have to aggravate her to hit your bait. 10 to 20 casts with one bait from each angle you can throw. You will need to get out I. The middle of the pond or lake. You will need electronics to find her hidden home. And you have to have patience. Lots of patience.

Read. Watch DVDs. Check out Bass Times. Speak with old timers who have fished your lake or pond. Plan your attack carefully. Match the hatch. I caught a five pounder at my feet in a pond when she hit my one-inch grub. Scared me to death! Seems she was feeding on small minnows that morning.

Keep that log. Refer to it every day.

When all else fails, see my previous post.

Good luck.

[quanjig]

Can you describe the lake you fish and the areas you fish the most?? Personally I would look for main lake points or deeper areas in close proximity to shallow flats and fish those areas where they intersect. Those most likely will be areas that your bigger fish use to get from the shallow feeding areas to deeper resting areas.

[Catch and Grease]

The lake I fish is banks lake national wildlife refuge in lakeland Georiga, it is a natural lake that is 4,096 acres and 1000 of that is open water, 900 acres of marsh, 1644 acres of Cyprus swamp and 15 acres of uplands.

Its a shallow lake averaging 6-8 FOW and doesn't have deep spots, the deepest place I've found is 12ft and is right by the boat ramp. Its extremely grassy, mostly all of the lake has some sort of grass, it has tons of matted grass and Lilly pads in areas, in the Cyprus Forrest on the lake it isn't quite as grassy and is more open.

It is stained with 2-3 feet visibility.

It has bass, pickerel, gar, bowfin, bream, crappie, warmouth, and catfish.

The one thing I do not know is what kind of baitfish Is there, they school up around the grass this time of year and jump out of the water if your boat gets close, threadfin shad maybe???

[Catch and Grease]

Most people talk deep off shore fishing this time of year but since banks lake is all shallow I stick to fishing visible cover mostly, I have almost no luck fishing out in the open water.

I really wanna know what kind of bait fish are there but I haven't had any luck catching any and the refuge never answer my calls/emails.

All I know is the baits fish are around 2-6 inches long mostly and school up around the grass during this time of year, and if you run your boat through the schools they jump and make weird noises... Any idea what it might be?

[quanjig]

I would try to find some isolated cover. Running down a bank, look for lone stick ups, logs, stumps. Make some longer casts, with as little splash as possible. Beaver style baits, senko, fluke matching your baitfish.

What is your usual approach to the lake? What features of the lake have been the most successful??

[frogflogger]

Water like you described - frog - frog - frog - if it's windy throw a furbit - keep throwing - you'll catch that pb sooner than you think. Did I mention throw a frog?

[gulfcaptain]

I would suggest getting a heavy flipping stick, hit up Siebert Jigs and get yourself some 3/4, 1, and 1 /12oz tungsten punch jigs, some DB Craws, bobber stoppers, and start punching. Depth breaks, where 2 types of cover meet, etc what I said earlier.  Go punching into the thick stuff with some 50lb or 65lb braid.  Forget the worms, compact flipping baits.  Go in and get them.  Only need two rods right now, the frog rod and the punch rod.  if you miss one on the frog follow it up with the jig.

[Catch and Grease]

Definitely my most successful features are fishing the matted grass, whether it be in the grass or the edge of the grass, pads are good too but I do better in the grass.

I throw frogs on my lake a lot and have caught tons of bass on them but no 5lbers yet!

I don't own a heavy power rod, the closest to a broom stick I have is a medium heavy/ fast action, so when I'm punching grass I lose a lot of fish, sadly I don't have funds to buy tons of rods right now.

[greyleg33]

Time on he water is no small part. The law of averages says that sooner or later you will connect.

[einscodek]

Dunno about Georgia but 6lb+ fish up north here are essentially trophies and behave alil differently running north of 22"

These guys have it spot on.. location, time, and slow presentation

And lure size is and isnt important..  I caught my 5's and 6's on above-average size lures not the supersized ones they sell us from California

 

I'm really about length than weight.. but if yer after a fat fish then beef-up time in late fall and early spring are when yer more likely to catch yer fat fish from a weight scale POV

[gulfcaptain]

I don't own a heavy power rod, the closest to a broom stick I have is a medium heavy/ fast action, so when I'm punching grass I lose a lot of fish, sadly I don't have funds to buy tons of rods right now.

Budget Rod....if you have an Acadamy close by, the H20 Heavy rods will work 7' and over. Or BPS Graphite IM6 under 40 for a 7'6"..  Check Wally World out and if you can find one of the Bucco 6'10Hvy's that would work as well.  Mine, I went to a 7'11" Quatum Tour Tactical Hack Attack Moderate Action rod. Spent a bit more money but well worth the investement.  Those big fish you yearn for you're gonna have to go in and get them.  You can go bear hunting with a 22 mag, but I think I would prefer a 30/06.  Same thing when you're fishing the cover you're talking about. You don't need a $200+ flipping stick or punch rod to get the job done....may be lighter and a tad more sensitive but fishing heavy jigs and straight braid you can get away with a lot less and be extremely successful.

[Catch and Grease]

Yeah I was looking at the H2O rods the other day, I'll probably pick up 2 heavy ones to fish my frogs, punch grass, and fish jigs....

[missouribigbass]

If you're targeting big bass and following schools of shad.........Why aren't you fishing a something like a storm wild eye shad below the school? Run it slow and Chang your retrieve sporadically to mimic an injured bait fish. Honestly sometimes the answer is right in front of you. My home lakes primary food source is shad. I've fished for years and never got into swimbaits. Finally decided this year to try it and dang wouldn't you know it I've had more successono my home lake this year than I've ever had. And why wouldn't I? I'm fishing with their primary food source. Just something to think about.

[Catch and Grease]

Because I'm just not a big swimbait guy, I like shallow cranks and lipless much more...

I'm not always following schooling baitfish but when that's what the bass are after I usually pull out the things like crankbaits, flukes, lipless cranks, etc...

[missouribigbass]

Have you tried a storm wild eye shad? They're cheap come in packs of 3 and will produce fish. Btw I wasn't a swim bait guy either but the results are there and its probably my favorite lure now

[Catch and Grease]

I haven't tried that specific lure but many like it, you see the problem is that most of my fishing is done over a grassy bottom, so when I use baits that sink and I kill them they sink inside the grass, so things like these open hook swimbaits don't work well. But say a weedless fluke will sink into grass and come right back out

That's another problem I find myself running into with things like jigs, with jigs/worms sometimes you need it to sit still. But if your fishing say a 1/4oz or 1/2oz jig over a grassy bottom it sinks down into the grass and the bass never even see it.

Texas Rigs are a little better because your weight will sink into the grass but the worm will stay above the grass but that's not always the case...

I need to fish the split shot/mojo rig more because it helps with this problem, your weight will sink but your bait will stay above the grass....

[gulfcaptain]

If you get through the grass, a lot of times it's open below. You would think that it being up in the grass would work better and the thought of it hitting the bottom and disappearing into that mat would lesson your chances.  The heavier the weight, the less it will hang up. Lighter weights get caught in the grass.You can work a bait easier on a 3/4oz weight thru grass then with a 1/4.  The fish you are after look for the clear pockets that are open below the grass, That is where you want your bait, not in the canopy above. You peg your sinker/jig so your sinker doesn't end up at the bottom while your bait is stuck up in the weeds out of the strike zone.  You want it to be pulled down to them. And be careful with the 7'6" XH H20, I have broke 2 of them.  One was trying to flip a fish and grass up out of the water and the other I think was damaged during shipping. Broke right off the bat. Good rod, just be careful.

[Catch and Grease]

You miss understood what I was saying.

Okay with matted grass out of the picture, think about sub surface grass. A heavy jig will sink into it and the bass will never see it... Re-read my post and see if it clicks...

Like on a hard bottom your worm happily dances as you hop it back to the boat, but on a grassy bottom it just sinks into the grass, pops back out, then sinks back in the grass, same with jigs.

[gulfcaptain]

You would think so, but they look for the crayfish and other bits of goodness down in that stuff.  Normally when you drop it in there they pick it up right away.  Don't worry, they will find it. I don't have matted beds I fish, just grass beds and they tend to find the jigs just fine.

[tomustang]

Thanks guys!

So if y'all were targeting bigger bass y'all would throw the same things you would for any other size?

Basically I'm asking why I shouldn't throw a big worm...

I've always been under the impression that bigger worms catch bigger bass.

I've got lots of 2-4lb bass on 12 inch worms so idk...

 

Doesn't really matter, big fish hit small lures just like small fish hit big lures.

 

Finding where/when the big girls hang out is the key, once you know where that is you can throw anything at them. Half of my bigger catches came from 3" soft plastics or a plain 5" senko

[tatertester]

Try what I call a" horizontal drop shot"......Rig a heavy duty drop shot , cast it out , work it along. Your lure will be as far off the bottom as you rig it. Consider that your lure will be off the bottom , but, not too much, as the angle of your line determines that......2 feet length of drop line can keep the lure only 8 or 10 inches off the bottom, but, keeps it clear of all yuk and most weeds, while still taunting the bass....Works great in many weedy bottom situations. 

[WRB]

I was going to suggest you read "In Pursuit of Giant Bass" by Bill Murphy, however Banks lake appears to be a natural shallow lake about 4,000 acres. Bill's experience is a lot like mine, deep rocky structure lakes, not much help fishing a swamp. The book is a great resource regarding adult size bass behavior, so in that regards you should read it.

My suggestion for lures would be a wake bait, a swim bait, jig and pig and a big soft plastic worms and fish at night or low light periods.

Tom

[Bluebasser86]

You miss understood what I was saying.

Okay with matted grass out of the picture, think about sub surface grass. A heavy jig will sink into it and the bass will never see it... Re-read my post and see if it clicks...

Like on a hard bottom your worm happily dances as you hop it back to the boat, but on a grassy bottom it just sinks into the grass, pops back out, then sinks back in the grass, same with jigs.

In a situation like that is when you should go with a lightweight jig with a bulked up skirt. The extra skirt acts as a parachute of sorts and keeps the bait from disappearing into the bottom vegetation. Of course if you're trying to punch vegetation first that's not going to work though.

 

As much as I hate to say it, if you're just trying to catch a 5+, it's pretty hard to beat a 5-7 inch stickworm. They can be extremely boring to fish but they catch all sizes of bass, including more than their share of quality fish like you're looking for. They also slide easily through heavy vegetation and offer a profile that fish under mats don't see often. One of the first tournaments I ever won was flipping a Senko through holes in matted weeds. 

 

If you're needing a heavier rod and have an Academy close by you might want to check it out. I picked up a 7' 6" H/F Ethos for $40 not long ago. They still had a few of the same rods for the same price a couple days ago too. Our local DSGs has Veritas rods for $50 right now also, which would be another good option at a very affordable price.