A Bunch Of Big Bass At Lake Varner

[Randall]

Went out fishing with two guys I have known for a while. Phil Williams (aka Fish) fished BASS tournaments back when they first started he has shared a boat with people like Johnny Morris, the guy who invented the Carolina rig, etc. He is a true old school bass fisherman. His buddy Charles has been fishing a long time too and he and Phil have been fishing together for 30-40 years. They are always fun to fish with because they have so many stories to tell from all the years of fishing and are always just out to have fun.

We went out on September 4th and the remains of a tropical storm were passing nearby so most of the day we had clouds and later in the day a good breeze blowing along with it. I told them I was going to start with a swimbait but would change to plastics if the fish didn't want the swimbait. Also told them that no doubt about it we were going to get on some swiumbait fish late in the day when the wind shifted and picked up a little.

Well to make a long story short I got on some swimbait fish fast early and then went to soft plasitcs for two fish and then the swimbait bite was on and never let up. They didn't want a swimbait at first but everytime I would catch another big fish I would just ask them if they wanted a swimbait. Charles gave in first and started catching fish, after fish, after fish while Phil netted fish for Charles. He held out as long as he could but after seeing me catch the bigggst fish of the day at over nine pounds Phil tied one on too. It was one of those things where he couldn't believe the fish wouldn't hit his tried and tested baits since they were hitting that much bigger swimbait every few minutes.

They didn't have a baitcaster so they used spinning rods with braid which made for some good laughs as all the casts didn't land where they should have (some never made it out of the boat LOL). But we made it work and had a great time. At the end of the day we had a bunch of big fish caught of both hybrids and largemouth. We estimated our best five largemouth at around 40lbs for a best five but only weighed two nine pounders. We caught so many three to six pound fish that we lost count of them. All the fish except two on soft plastics were caught on swimbaits. Most of the others including all the bigger ones were caught on High Power Swimbaits just slow rolling them as slow as we could reel them.

Most importantly we had a lot of fun and I got to teach two old dogs some new tricks and show them a new perspective on fishing for big fish they had not seen in years of fishing. I have some more photos of more big fish took on one the cameras Phil and Charles brought but they are bmp files or something like that instead of jpg and I know nothing about how to get those to load on here or if it is even possible.

[J Francho]

A+ Randall. I think I saw video of this, too?

[Randall]

A+ Randall. I think I saw video of this, too?

I didnt post it because some people took it the wrong way before and thought I was wrong in making fun of the guys I was fishing with. I added the bad cast and stuff as a little comedy but the guys have both seen the video and liked it. We are always joking around and poking at each other when we fish. I left the plug out my old boat the last time we fished together and I was the focus of all the jokes since we were taking on water and I couldn't figure out where the water was coming in and we were close to sinking. Theres a couple other jokes thrown around that you have to be in the boat all day and hear out conversations to get. Here is the video and it has some of the other photos I couldn't get to post.

[J Francho]

You should see me and my buds when out haveing fun....crossed lines, lures cut off, back boating, etc. It's all in good fun.