Catching big fish: Luck or Skill?

[txchaser]

Just weighing in on this winter thread with a few observations.

 

1) Yeah there's some luck involved. Can you learn from your luck? And in my case can I learn that day, not on the the drive home wishing I shoulda coulda woulda!

 

2) 100% the bigger fish are more likely to be deeper, or at most a couple of tail swishes from whatever deep water is around there. Not 100%, there's always that shallow monster, but way way more likely to be in 8-12' than in 3-4'. 

 

3) I think there are something like eight different kinds of LMB - based on behavior not genetics. These will be in 'southern lbs' so YMMV. I think onshore=littoral and offshore=pelagic as I'm describing it. 

 

onshore/offshore small 1-3 (kinda the same in terms of what they do. water puppies, chase nearly anything although sometimes get super keyed on a specific presentation)

 

onshore/offshore adult 4-7 (offshore adults still group and wolf pack some. Lazier though, more likely to be under a shad ball or chasing big gizzards)

 

onshore/offshore big 8-12 (example behavior - onshore bigs are mean and don't share cover much, offshore bigs can still pack up some but IMO less likely at the top of the range. In both cases more likely to be isolated)

 

offshore/offshore giant 13+ (IDK, haven't caught enough to really see patterns beyond being near deep water 100% of the time and better bigs and giants with steady retrieves, slower, silent or near silent baits.)

 

What do you have to add or refute to the categories above? 

 

And in texas I notice most of the offshore fish are built different - they are far more likely to have a gut and shoulders eg over 100% relative weight. They live a different life than the shore fish - more food and more activity to get that food too. 

[J Francho]

Water puppies is a new term I'll be using. 

[Swamp Girl]

@txchaser: You've caught a bass over 13 pounds, so I believe everything you asserted. I will only add that the deepest water I fish is 10'. Often, 8' is the deepest. So, I don't think the smaller and bigger bass I catch separate themselves as much by water depth as the smaller and bigger bass you catch, where you range of depths is much more pronounced.

 

Without such stark depth differences, I catch most of my bigger fish in shallow water. I caught the 5.5-pounder and 4-pounder below minutes apart, both up against the shoreline. You can see from the photos that they were hugging the shoreline, each in about a foot of water. They might not be big to you, but they're pretty big bass for mid-Maine.

 

 

One time in the fall of 2024, I did catch a 4-pounder, a 5-pounder, and a 4.5-pounder on three consecutive casts in the middle of a pond where it was deeper, so I have learned that the bigger bass in Maine can relate to deeper water. Just not always.

 

Lacking Forward Facing Sonar, it's a crap shoot finding them anyway, but my Female Finding Sonar aka my hunches works pretty well most days. 

[Pat Brown]

Extra large bass are much easier to catch when conditions make visibility poorer IMHO.

[KSanford33]

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Female Finding Sonar

I need to get one of these! 🤣

[fish'n Jim]

Late to the party as usual, a few words of whizdumb.   Finding them takes being on the water and keeping your eyes open and more likely around the pre-spawn and spawn periods.   Those old gals will show themselves and you have to be there to observe where/when.   I've had many jump/pass next/near to the boat, expose themselves, and then spent time chasing them down.   Some I got, most not.  ie; fish often at high percentage times/areas.   

Equipment management; how many times did I miss one after respooling and not know it by forgetting to tighten the spool tension on hook set?   Yesterday, one ate the front half of the crawbait off, <1/2" short of the hook, no telling if big or small in 12'.   #'s game.   You catch them sitting on the couch.   I shook one off a jerk bait in a tournament because I thought it was a striper in early light, until it jumped.   That's what memory is for - beat you up not to do it again.   Long list of other misses, so keep a razor sharp "saw".   A home owner on Murray told me he missed a 9, and I told him, we all have those stories.   Accidents will still happen.   I lost one when the line wrapped around the hook shank and squeezed through the small space between the eye and shank.  Left with a perfect knot on end of my line.   ODDS?  Those things will happen, don't get excited or tore up.   Cool under fire is necessary in life.   Keep your bait in the water.   It could come back to eat again.

I think of this as what's big for the area, not in absolute PB numbers terms.   Not going to catch a natural 12+ in the north, but a 7, either mouth, is a genuine trophy there.  Caught my first 7 at age 13 in northern OH.

Keep fishing the area where you observed a "giant" and that increases your odds of a hook up.   Add it to your milk run.   The big fish baits catch big fish or they wouldn't call them that!   Tackle up and hook size/strength up.   You can jerk a 3 out of a log pile but a whale won't go through easy.   I fished as a co-angler with a guy, he had an 8+ bite his jig, he slept on the set, fish ran out the tree and the 20# line was wrapped up and snapped like a tooth pick.   He asked me if I had any place I wanted to fish, and I said across over by the other standing tree.   I threw a jerkbait in there, past the tree, and pulled out a 5 in the last minutes, so it ain't over til it's over.   

Don't underestimate the buzz bait or frog for biggies.   Crank it up sometimes.   I used to like the ghost DB3 bagley's in Aug.

You'll have those 1 or 3 magical days when you catch a whole sack of them too, 30-40#s so don't think small.   The 100 lb club exists in the pro ranks.   Some BB specialists claim hundreds over 10, that's often the same pool of fish over an over and FLA strain.   After this long, I'm in it for the big bites or little ones the act big.

[Swamp Girl]

On 2/18/2025 at 11:34 AM, Pat Brown said:

Extra large bass are much easier to catch when conditions make visibility poorer IMHO.

 

I sooo agree, Pat. I love fishing in the foggy dark.

 

Good post, Jim!