Big bass on the line?

[soflabasser]

5 hours ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

River Bass fight harder than lake Bass

How's the river bass fishing been for you lately in Georgia, any shoal bass or redeye bass? 

7 hours ago, Catt said:

Love it when I set hook & they set hook back

That is when you know you have a good one, although sometimes the big bass do not fight much during the summer.

3 hours ago, RHuff said:

 

 

 Every big bass I’ve hooked, say 4lbs+ (Big for WV) wants to go straight to the bottom 

I have caught several 8 pound or better bass that leaped completely out of the water and others that stay down and just make strong runs. Seems like big bass do whatever they want and they are not 100% predictable in the way they fight.

[NittyGrittyBoy]

2 hours ago, soflabasser said:

How's the river bass fishing been for you lately in Georgia, any shoal bass or redeye bass? 

Lately only Largemouth and spots. Only seen a handful of red-eyes come out of the Altamaha! 

 

The Suwanee river is about 50mins to 1hr south of me, just hard to justify going when the Altamaha is right! 

[N Florida Mike]

They pull harder ! Most of the big bass I've caught will also immediately try to jump, and will make a run coming up to get out of the water. If they are too big and can't jump they still try and at least get a good head shake or two in.

I believe a fish that has just gorged itself won't fight as hard. I caught an 8.1 last year that I thought was a 4 pounder . It was a wimpy fight for a fish that big.

[OCdockskipper]

On 4/30/2019 at 5:43 PM, BigAngus752 said:

...I felt a fish suck it in and then I got two massive headshakes and my M/H rod bent almost in half.  I had a Mike Iaconelli moment and I actually yelled "It's huge!!!!"...

I've learned to say out loud 'Beabass, beabass, beabass" about 30 times, followed by a "d**n" when Mr. Whiskers starts rolling over & over...

[soflabasser]

18 hours ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

Lately only Largemouth and spots. Only seen a handful of red-eyes come out of the Altamaha! 

 

The Suwanee river is about 50mins to 1hr south of me, just hard to justify going when the Altamaha is right! 

I would be fishing for redeye bass and shoal bass more than largemouth bass if I lived in Georgia. Have caught Altamaha redeye bass in Georgia along with other species of bass. The Suwannee river is a great place to fish and it has Suwannee bass which is one of the rarest species of black bass. 

18 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

I caught an 8.1 last year that I thought was a 4 pounder . It was a wimpy fight for a fish that big.

Did you catch this 8 pounder during the summer or very warm weather? Have noticed that big bass fight harder during the winter and less when the water is over 80 degrees.

[928JLH]

21 hours ago, soflabasser said:

How's the river bass fishing been for you lately in Georgia, any shoal bass or redeye bass? 

That is when you know you have a good one, although sometimes the big bass do not fight much during the summer.

I have caught several 8 pound or better bass that leaped completely out of the water and others that stay down and just make strong runs. Seems like big bass do whatever they want and they are not 100% predictable in the way they fight.

Couldn't agree more. Some just dig with massive head shakes. Other straight up and out of the water. Guess it's the girls personality.

[N Florida Mike]

2 hours ago, soflabasser said:

I would be fishing for redeye bass and shoal bass more than largemouth bass if I lived in Georgia. Have caught Altamaha redeye bass in Georgia along with other species of bass. The Suwannee river is a great place to fish and it has Suwannee bass which is one of the rarest species of black bass. 

Did you catch this 8 pounder during the summer or very warm weather? Have noticed that big bass fight harder during the winter and less when the water is over 80 degrees.

Caught it in July. Could be the heat but

I once caught another one about the same size that I noticed while bank fishing. Every few minutes she would swoop through and nab another bream or shiner. When I hooked her it was like reeling in a partially deflated wet basketball. Little fight and dead weight.

[Paul Roberts]

On 4/30/2019 at 7:36 PM, WRB said:

What happens after the set isn't predictable, every fish acts differently.

I don't have really BIG fish where I've lived. 7lbs tops it for me, most "big" bass are 5 or under. Regardless, I've always found it amusing that, even with some decades of catching bass behind me, the most I can say is, it's still all too easy to be fooled. I've joked that my fish are always biggest when: I first set the hook, and when I first pop them out of the water! :)) It's after a few moments, after I've somehow collected myself, that I'm able to give a fair assessment.

 

How a fish is hooked matters a lot. I recently caught a 4.5, that, before I saw it, made me get serious about during the fight. Tail hook of the long jerkbait was in the corner of the mouth, but the front hook was lodged behind the gill plate. That gave her a lot of leverage, like trying to reel in an animated planer board. I was actually a bit let down when I saw her. And, here, a 4.5 is a big (not BIG) bass.

 

That said, all things being equal, BIG bass simply stay in the water longer than smaller ones. Really big ones are able to stay down using their sides to stalemate, rolling up big table-top sized boils. Seeing those always gets my heart going. 

 

Oh, and another thing, while fighting a fish, if you watch your rod tip, it can actually measure the length of the fish! When a fish writhes, turns to change direction, or wriggles in an acceleration or high speed bolt, the oscillation(s) will show in rod tip travel. I caught onto this with steelhead, which are more apt to writhe than bass. But if the rod tip oscillates quickly on a run, the fish's body is apt to be short. When a fish writhes, or turns fully, a deep dip in the rod tip can betray its length.

[Fishingintheweeds]

Pretty interesting. I never thought about it until the day I made the post. I had a big one on that ended up conning off but it stood out to me as very similar to a very nice fish I caught a few weeks earlier. Maybe they were close enough together but also similar to each other and different from the majority of the 2's and 3's that I get but they stood out to me. They both hit hard, definitely tried to run deep almost immediately and were very fast. Both jumped about the same and it worked out well for one of them.  

 

Other bigger fish that I've caught haven't been bunched very closely together so I've never paid this kind of attention. They've also not had deeper areas close to run to. 

 

And all that said, these last two have been a good bit bigger than my previous bigger fish. 

[wcjohnson]

On 5/1/2019 at 9:29 PM, OCdockskipper said:

I've learned to say out loud 'Beabass, beabass, beabass" about 30 times, followed by a "d**n" when Mr. Whiskers starts rolling over & over...

I had a massive blowup and subsequent thrashing on a suicide duck and thought I was about to catch my PB on a gag gift yellow duck - nope, ole' mr whiskers! I was still pumped since it was my PB catfish on topwater ?

[Fishingintheweeds]

Saw it again...hard runs, jumps and boils. The little ones just don't do that. Ha, I may just start only fishing in the spring and fall...and skip the summer altogether...all those hard to catch, skinny fish. Nah...who am I kidding? 

[Koz]

I bank fish and for me that usually means using moving baits so I can cover a lot of water. My PB is just under 7 pounds and I've caught a good amount of 6 pounders and lost a few that probably would have been a new PB.

 

What I have noticed is that when a bass over 6 hits a moving bait the bait usually just stops. There's no head shake or running off until I set the hook. If it's a good hookset the fish will shake and break. If it's a weak hookset the fish invariably breaches the surfaces, spits out the bait and mocks me as I'm left cursing about what could have been.

[Boomstick]

The largest bass I landed was on a spinnerbait in fairly shallow water, swam about halfway to the boat before putting up a fight and eventually swam downwards, which was when I realized it wasn't the same dink I caught the prior day in the same spot.

The largest fish I ever hooked towed a 14' rowboat with 3 people in it around like nothing and finally swam itself underneath the boat and set itself free because I didn't get a very good hookset. It looked like it may have been a much larger bass from what I could see but could have been a pike too.

[dodgeguy]

Probably a carp  towing the boat.

[WRB]

One my 17.4lb bass acted more like a stripe bass running after it was hooked in about 20' of water from a point along a steep wall to another point about 100 yards. If the bass found a tree it would got away and if I wasn't in my boat it would have got away. This bass also run under the boat twice jumping on the opposite side. Some of these big bass are tough strong fish do whatever they want and you better try to keep them in front of you.

Tom

[soflabasser]

On 5/13/2019 at 10:41 AM, Koz said:

What I have noticed is that when a bass over 6 hits a moving bait the bait usually just stops. There's no head shake or running off until I set the hook. If it's a good hookset the fish will shake and break. If it's a weak hookset the fish invariably breaches the surfaces, spits out the bait and mocks me as I'm left cursing about what could have been.

I have caught +8 pounders that hit hard and immediately pulled drag. Given strong hooksets and had big bass jump like a wannabe tarpon, other times the bass don't jump until the end. Big bass do whatever they want and a good bass fisherman understands that and instead focuses on how to catch the next big bass and not worry about what does not matter.

[hawgenvy]

It's amazing how subtle the bite from a big bass can be. If I'm thinking my bait's got stopped by some vegetation but I'm not really sure it's not a fish, I'll ever so gently apply a bit of pressure and study the rod tip closely for a couple of seconds. Even a big old lazy she-bass will impart some little movement to the rod tip. If it moves, I know for sure I'm dealing with a live animal and I'll drop the rod, reel the slack and set the mother -- and then I know if I've got a big kahuna on the line cause all hell brakes loose. In my experience, that gentle exploratory pressure does not cause the bass to spit out the bait; rather I think it makes her hold on tighter because she thinks she's got a delectable feisty critter in her bony jaws.

 

Sometimes a big bass will slam a bait like a freight train and nearly jerk the rod outta your hands. Especially, it seems, when you're using a jig. I believe that happens when there are other bass around. She'll go zooming off to keep her food to herself.  Guess the last laugh's on her when her friends realize what a stupid thing she ate!

[Jleebesaw]

On 5/1/2019 at 3:27 PM, Scott F said:

The big brown bass I hook into most often are in shallow rivers. They often have no place to go but up.

They tend to go up when caught in 30ft of water too.

[Gorris317]

When I caught my PB, I actually thought it was a snag. Like it legit felt like a tree log or something and my line didn't move for a good 30 seconds. Then when it finally did I knew it was the biggest fish I had ever hooked up with. If I remember correctly it went straight into cover.