That Big Fish Something

[Susky River Rat]

@gimruis oh yeah I was fishing 40

hours a week for just musky.

 

@ol'crickety I’ve been there with musky that have never seen lures before. They are incredibly stupid. 

[WRB]

Butch Brown is the best big bass angler I know of. Butch is driven by a force few have and catches big fish period. 

When Butch was a young teen he was catching big bass at Lake Sherwood and hung out at the local tackle shops listening and learning from anglers.

Butch became a “long Ranger” big tuna angler were the bar is set at 300 lbs. on a trip a few years ago Butch caught 3 Yellowfin tuna 300+ lbs in 1 day, incredible achievement.

How does a angler become the GOAT of giant bass fishing.....exceptional attention to details and willingness to grind it out day after day. Butch is the 1st on the water and last off focused on every tiny detail every cast.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

11 minutes ago, WRB said:

Butch Brown is the best big bass angler I know of. Butch is driven by a force few have and catches big fish period. 

When Butch was a young teen he was catching big bass at Lake Sherwood and hung out at the local tackle shops listening and learning from anglers.

Butch became a “long Ranger” big tuna angler were the bar is set at 300 lbs. on a trip a few ago Butch caught 3 Yellowfin tuna 300+ lbs in 1 day, incredible achievement.

How does a angler become the GOAT of giant bass fishing.....exceptional attention to details and willingness to grind it out day after day. Butch is the 1st on the water and last off focused on every tiny detail every cast.

Tom

 

I'm amazed that the GOAT fishes from such a small boat and I LOVE his attitude, which is gratitude:

 

 

[Zcoker]

Come to think of it, most of my bigger bass (8lb and up) have been caught at a time that I never would've expected, between 11am and 2pm, when the sun is high in the sky, a bit of puffy cloud cover along with a light wind rippling the water...boom! They seem to come out of nowhere. I've always put my sites on early morning, late evening or at night. Yet the times that I've avoided is when I've gotten my bigger bites. Granted, I've gotten giants around the clock but most of them have come around the high noon hour. Which suggest, maybe, that at least a part of this big fish something may just be simple schedule adjustments. 

[WRB]

Excellent video, thank you for sharing it. The video captures Butch exactly who he is kind and a good friend to everyone, that is Butch the kid I knew grew up to be The Man he is today.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, Zcoker said:

Come to think of it, most of my bigger bass (8lb and up) have been caught at a time that I never would've expected, between 11am and 2pm, when the sun is high in the sky, a bit of puffy cloud cover along with a light wind rippling the water...boom! They seem to come out of nowhere. I've always put my sites on early morning, late evening or at night. Yet the times that I've avoided is when I've gotten my bigger bites. Granted, I've gotten giants around the clock but most of them have come around the high noon hour. Which suggest, maybe, that at least a part of this big fish something may just be simple schedule adjustments. 

 

Fascinating and surprising. How about you other big bass fishers? Have you also landed monsters on sunny days at noonish?

[Team9nine]

Hear, Hear! 

 

Not specifically a big bass fisher, but a large majority of the big bass I’ve caught have come mid day or early afternoon (12-4), often on the sunniest days. I always check out the sky conditions on others’ posted big fish catches.

 

An Indiana 7 lb. fish from last year at 3:20pm

 

[WRB]

Big bass don’t get big and old by making mistakes. These special bass have big eyes to see prey and predators under all types of lighting conditions. Bright sky with the sun over head helps the bass and and angler see better. Poor light the bass have the advantage over their prey and anglers can't see Into water. Under poor light conditions big LMB are more likely to be active hunting and may make a mistake striking lures they avoid during good light conditions.

The exception is bed fish that not feeding but focused on spawning. Over head light gives the angler sight fishing the advantage of seeing beds and big bass around the bed. This is the time big bass are vulnerable and less wary, easier to catch.

Caught lots of DD bass bed fishing in the late 60’s to earlier 70’s and stopped because it wasn’t sporting imo.

To answer the question never caught a giant bass mid day under blue sky conditions. All the bass listed 17+ lbs were caught before 10 AM under poor light conditions.

Active feeding periods tend to be about every 4 hours for individual bass so mid day is a very real possibility but imo poor light conditions plus very low traffic increases your odds. Good weather increases boating traffic where I fish decreasing mid day success.

Tom

 

 

[Hammer 4]

On 9/4/2023 at 2:39 PM, ol'crickety said:

 

I'm amazed that the GOAT fishes from such a small boat and I LOVE his attitude, which is gratitude:

 

 

 

Some years ago, Butch use to fish out of much smaller boat, and he still caught Big bass.

Butch is a great guy, willing to share fishing info.

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

 

Some years ago, Butch use to fish out of much smaller boat, and he still caught Big bass.

Butch is a great guy, willing to share fishing info.

 

Well, then, when anyone ever asks me to describe myself as a fisher, I'll answer, "I'm a lot like Butch Brown. In so many ways."

 

"Wh-wh-what? WOW," they'll reply, imaging me and DDs. 

 

And I'll just smile and nod, keeping quiet that the only three things I have in common with the GOAT are gratitude, a love of bass, and a small boat.

[Zcoker]

I think what a lot of this thread shows is that big bass can be caught in just about any condition, bright sunlight or high noon being one of them. I recall a high noon bluebird sky day right after a major cold front catching 3 fish over 5lb on a large topwater bait. Wasn't supposed to happen that way but it did lol Surprised the heck out of me. Made me realize that ALL times are good times to catch the bigger fish. 

 

 

[einscodek]

I tried his preferred big baits like the 10" Hudd with in-shore rods many years ago when exclusively fishing for big fish and never got bit on the large Hudd in the Northeast.  I know they take big lures here too catching one off a 9" Hammer on the drop.  Maybe I'll try the big Hudds again this fall.

[Catt]

10 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

Some years ago, Butch use to fish out of much smaller boat

 

Fish Chris fishes out of a small boat, as do many others. The boat is a tool to get you to & from the spot.

[WRB]

10 minutes ago, einscodek said:

I tried his preferred big baits like the 10" Hudd with in-shore rods many years ago when exclusively fishing for big fish and never got bit on the large Hudd in the Northeast.  I know they take big lures here too catching one off a 9" Hammer on the drop.  Maybe I'll try the big Hudds again this fall.

Butch is focused on matching the hatch in his area that met the trout in the lake he is fishing. If you watch the video he explains he would make baits almost weekly to match the different sizes and colors the bass preferred....details.

Tom

[Mobasser]

His intense dedication is one part of his success. He admits he goes days, or even weeks before he catches another ten pounder. This separates him from the average angler. He's dedicated to catching big fish, and his record proves it. I enjoyed the video also.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I was thinking about Butch and the S. Cali guys last night.  What if Butch didn't grow up during and besides the "Gold Rush" of big Bass fishing, would he still seek out big Bass if they were only 7-12lb fish?   

 

WRB is one of the only guys who didn't take advantage of the very unique Trout situation in regard to the trophy sized Bass during the heyday.   Something should be said about a guy who doesn't Trout Chunk or toss baits that look exactly like Trouts.  

 

I doubt we'll ever see a situation like the heyday of SCal......small lakes, copious Trout stockings, perfect big fish growing conditions, water levels play nice.  

 

A huge part of that "Big fish something" is living near big fish.    Access to big fish is the great gate keeper in this sport.    

 

 

[flyfisher]

There is nothing special about the person as far as fishing goes.  It is all about having a big fish mindset AND actually going for it in that manner.  Lots of people say they want the biggest fish but are content stumbling into a few while catching average size fish.  

 

There is a reason I make the 4 hour one way drive for day trips to the susquehanna for smallies and that is because I know there are larger fish there and i'll take a single 20+" fish over 20 fish 12-16" assuming time allows for it. 

 

 

[Pat Brown]

The fact that @WRB was in there doing the thing with jigs makes it that much cooler IMO.

 

I'm just happy my name is a combination of the most talked about big bass hunters: Pat (Cullen) (Butch) Brown.

 

I'll take it as a wink and a nudge from the universe to keep hunting the big ones.  ?

[fishingtx]

Firstly, I'm not here to say that I catch toads because I don't. I catch around a 5lb average though. The key factor of being successful in the hunt for big fish is to be on big fish. Some people fish hoping for the one big bite instead of focusing on finding a group of larger than average fish. I don't know about up north, but down here the majority of larger than average fish are always schooled up. Another thing about these big fish is that they are smart. They've all more than likely been caught before. I present them with the most realistic baits possible. Taking this into account, in my personal experience big fish eat only so often and you can't miss this feeding window. Big fish stay in the same general area their whole life. Once you have found the "magical school" fish for them at all different times of the day if you are fishing for a tournament. There is usually an "it" factor  that makes them bite. It could be as  small as a cloud blocking the sun for 5 minutes. Taking everything into account I also throw larger than average baits or not very common techniques. I am able to use this information on a regular basis and catch big fish consistently.

 

Benjamin

[einscodek]

11 hours ago, WRB said:

Butch is focused on matching the hatch in his area that met the trout in the lake he is fishing. If you watch the video he explains he would make baits almost weekly to match the different sizes and colors the bass preferred....details.

Tom

Hi Tom, yes I see him pouring the molds and he is meticulous and logically matching the hatch makes logical sense but then in practice I also use spinnerbaits and I can't for the life of me see what it matches a hatch to doesn't look like anything that lives in the lake like Butch's molds and they still catch big fish.. obviously up here the apex bass not as large as the porkers fed on trout in Casitas with the bulging bellies.

[WRB]

I got to thinking why did was my goal always wanting to catch big fish of all types. Anytime going fishing my mind was set on catching big ones, not just any size fish. 

It may have come from an early age seeing a bass called Moses. It took me 2 years to catch Moses and spent most of my fishing time trying, that May have been the catalyst?

Tom