Suggestions needed on finding the BIG girls

[bassmajor]

Sorry this is so long. There's a lot of details.

Ok-heres the situation: I've been having moderate success over the past year finding 4-6 lb. fish in my home lake. (Don't get me wrong, I am VERY HAPPY with fish this size.) The thing is that a co-worker's husband (whom I haven't met yet) is an experienced and established bass angler that fishes the same lake. It's only about a 75 acre lake and for some reason we haven't crossed paths yet. I talk to her a lot at work about fishing. She jokes around saying that if she told me what baits her husband was using she'd have to kill me No big deal at first (I like the satisfaction of figuring things out mysef) but...the problem I have is that she is consitently telling me that he is catching 7-9 lb fish! It is totally possible that they are in there (there are fish that size in a couple of other area lakes). I've been going there a lot over the past year and still haven't seen this guy in action. This lady is killing me by telling me these things. Every time she does, I put everything off for the next week and spend every free minute out there. Thank goodness I have a sweet wife.

My question is: what are some things I should try to hook up with one of the bigguns?

Here are some more details:

Upper midwest small resevoir, max depth: 25'

Water is clear typically to 2' deep

No vegetation or stump fields

Many manmade offshore brush piles

My big fish have been caught mainly on skirted jigs/craws, some on shakey head worms (blu/blk).

I fish mainly out of a boat but sometimes off shore.

Should I abandon my honey holes and search for new areas holding big fish? Should I keep fishing the proven spots but with different baits?

[senile1]

Four to six pound fish in South Dakota doesn't sound bad. Are you sure this isn't a case of exaggerated weights? There are people who call a six or seven lb fish a ten. I know there are bigger fish up there but I highly doubt he is catching 7 - 9s constantly. The largemouth record for your state is 9 lb 3 oz. An 8 or 9 lb fish in your state would be pretty old so I wouldn't think there would be that many to catch.

[-HAWK-]

This sounds like an "Old wives tale" if you ask me. ;D

This is how I see it. If you are catching 4-6 lb bass and your state record is 9lbs. Then you have already found the BIG girls.

[K_Mac]

It sounds like you understand the lake pretty well. My first reaction reading your post is some fishermen have a tendency to exaggerate the size and numbers of fish. Now I'm not talking about me or you or Senile1, I'm just saying...

The other thing that comes to mind is off-shore structure. Is it possible there are some spots you have not fished. Some time looking around with your electronics might help. If you've already done that, disregard. Just thinking out loud. Good luck.

I've got to learn to type faster. Add hawk to your "trusted" list. :

[bassmajor]

At first I thought the same thing about the reports being exaggerated. But.....this guy has held a record and has been fishing for a LONG time.  That's why I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt and why its been driving me so crazy going after this fish.  Don't get me wrong, I love to fish and I love a challenge.

[-HAWK-]

It sounds like you understand the lake pretty well. My first reaction reading your post is some fishermen have a tendency to exaggerate the size and numbers of fish. Now I'm not talking about me or you or Senile1, I'm just saying...

The other thing that comes to mind is off-shore structure. Is it possible there are some spots you have not fished. Some time looking around with your electronics might help. If you've already done that, disregard. Just thinking out loud. Good luck.

I've got to learn to type faster. Add hawk to your "trusted" list. :

Whats that supposed to mean??

[WRB]

A 75 acre lake is less than a mile long and you say 25' max depth, sparse weed cover, few rock piles and man made brush piles.

What are baitfsih? crappie, bluegill and ???

The local expert sounds like he may be fishing at night with live bait, you don't see him during the day.

Can you PM a lake name? Without knowing the topography of this little lake, trying to give you advice is difficult.

You are currently catching bass in the top 10% of the population and wanting to go to the top 1%. The places you catch your biggest bass will also hold a few larger bass. You need to concentrate your efforts on specific spots that you know hold big bass and use lures or bait that these big bass are targeting.

Matt's lures crappie or bluegill swimbait, jig & pig ( pork rind trailer-Superpork), big plastic worms like Mann's 12" Jelly worm and your current successful lures. Slow down and saturate the specific spots, stay on a spot for a few hours at a time. Fish the pre spawn and spawning periods heavily.

WRB

PS; don't listen to rumors.

[K_Mac]

Hawk your post wasn't up when I started my reply. I didn't want to insult you by not including you with Senile 1 and me.  :-[

[Grey Wolf]

At first I thought the same thing about the reports being exaggerated. But.....this guy has held a record and has been fishing for a LONG time. That's why I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt and why its been driving me so crazy going after this fish. Don't get me wrong, I love to fish and I love a challenge.

Smells a little fishy to me. Could be

I don't believe there would be too many if any 9 lber's in S. Dakota especially in a 75 acre lake.

[shimmy]

Sounds like your friends are suffering from what bothers me the MOST from any fisherman: "poor eyesight, forgetting to take a picture of the fish that was within a pound of the state record, and no scale". I get soooooooooo tired of hearing fisherman round up there numbers by a pound and a half on fish. At first it got me excited but now it just makes me angry because they are pathological liars. Now, it is pardonable to lie about what you used, excusable if you reference a different lake, but when you exaggerate about the size of a fish, come on man, come on. Good fisherman work long strategical hours to pull a bass that officially weighs in over 6 pounds (not the ones held too close to the camera). To throw out a number like 7-9 pounds (especially in SOUTH DAKOTA!!!!), they should have their fishing license revoked.

Your friends did not catch fish that big. They even used plural...they should be slapped. It's an insult to any good fisherman to throw out such high numbers. Shame on them.

[-HAWK-]

Sorry this is so long. There's a lot of details.

Ok-heres the situation: I've been having moderate success over the past year finding 4-6 lb. fish in my home lake. (Don't get me wrong, I am VERY HAPPY with fish this size.) The thing is that a co-worker's husband (whom I haven't met yet) is an experienced and established bass angler that fishes the same lake. It's only about a 75 acre lake and for some reason we haven't crossed paths yet. I talk to her a lot at work about fishing. She jokes around saying that if she told me what baits her husband was using she'd have to kill me No big deal at first (I like the satisfaction of figuring things out mysef) but...the problem I have is that she is consitently telling me that he is catching 7-9 lb fish! It is totally possible that they are in there (there are fish that size in a couple of other area lakes). I've been going there a lot over the past year and still haven't seen this guy in action. This lady is killing me by telling me these things. Every time she does, I put everything off for the next week and spend every free minute out there. Thank goodness I have a sweet wife.

My question is: what are some things I should try to hook up with one of the bigguns?

Here are some more details:

Upper midwest small resevoir, max depth: 25'

Water is clear typically to 2' deep

No vegetation or stump fields

Many manmade offshore brush piles

My big fish have been caught mainly on skirted jigs/craws, some on shakey head worms (blu/blk).

I fish mainly out of a boat but sometimes off shore.

Should I abandon my honey holes and search for new areas holding big fish? Should I keep fishing the proven spots but with different baits?

This is like me telling everyone that Im consistently catching 15-17lb Bass in My home waters in Florida.

[ValkyrieRider]

I run into guys all the time that say they had a day at Lake of the Ozarks and caught "nuthin but 6 lber's" or they caught 30 lbs last weekend... etc...

Most guys are full of it. If they were catchin "nuthin but 6lbers" at LOZ anytime of year they'd be winning big money, big boats etc...

Probably a case of exaggeration if you ask me...  ;D

[bassmajor]

Ok, to answer the forage question: bluegills, crappies, along with frogs and crawfish.

Two things tho:

1. There are 5 lakes within 30 miles of this lake that I know hold 7+ lb-ers. One of which gave up the state record years ago. I have caught skinny 23" fish out of 2 of them that went 6lbs postspawn. There is very little pressure up here in the boonies. So I have moderate confidence there are some bigger ones in this lake.

2. I've been friends with this guy's wife at work before we even started talking about fishing. And she is the one telling me, but only after I ask if "Dave" has been out lately. Do you think he was lying to his wife in hopes that I would mention fishing to her at work?

I know.....this whole things sounds fishy. I don't know what to think, that's why I posted it. Hoping someone could help me solve this mystery or at least give me some pointers on how to catch that monster and close this case. ;D

BTW: thanks for the tips WRB, I'll try them and I PM'd you.

(Insert photo of me pulling my hair out!)

To clear up one more thing: It sounded like he is catching those big fish all the time. my mistake. In reality, thinking back to the last year, she has told me that he has caught around 4-5 7#'s, 3-4 8#'s, and one 9#. Still, I just want a chance to tangle with one that big!!!

[32251]

Try it at night.  Large plastics.  Drift or anchor on a good spot you have caught the 4-6 pounders, be very quiet, fish slow.  Dark colors at night.

[farmpond1]

Here's how you solve this:  Check to see if your coworker's husband's pants are on fire.

I fish a pond which has a large number of 2 lb bass, a few 3 lbers, and the very occassional 4 lb or higher bass.  One day a young man near me pulls out a bass probably no bigger than a lb and a half and announces it's 3 lbs.  Is he lying?  Probably not.  Just not experienced enough to know the difference.  (Ambition and inexperience can add several lbs to a fish).  But an experienced fisherman should know better.  I'm guessing he's perfected the art of stretching the truth.

[WRB]

It's not unusual for state record size bass to be caught from small lakes, the SD record 9.3 came from a small pit lake.

It's not unusual for anglers to exaggerate the size of the bass they catch, it's part of fishing in general. Few bass anglers get the opportunity to catch and handle big bass and most would over estimate a 7 lb bass to be 10 lbs before weighing it.

I don't believe small lakes that freeze over for 3 to 4 months have a good population of big bass, the forage base may not support the growth. There is always a possibility that a few big bass live in any lake,  it's survival of the fittest.

WRB