Monster hunting...

I've been doing some research on catching and locating huge bass recently and the information I've been digging up has been pretty surprising to me. Truly BIG largemouth behave almost entirely different than their smaller counterparts. For example, big bass are extremely territorial and solitary fish. The big ones usually travel alone, pick one spot to live, and never do much moving away from it. They leave during low light to feed and come back. Meanwhile, smaller fish roam around and chase baitfish and otherwise behave differently. I looked up what the biggest bass are usually caught on and the results seemed pretty predictable. According to reports submitted to the Bassmaster lunker club, out of 626 entries of bass all weighing 10+lbs, the top 3 lures were plastic worms, jigs, and spinnerbaits. Shiners and bluegills were the top live baits. So the question is, if you were targeting the very biggest bass you could catch, how would you personally go about doing it? If you were going to try your best shot at catching a trophy 10+lb bass?

What I'd do is find structure with some cover on it with easy access to deep water like a dropoff near a point with some brush or laydowns or something. Any significant combination of cover and structure near deep water really, and I'd only fish 3 baits. A big ribbon tail worm on a Texas rig, a big swimbait, probably a Huddleston 68, and a Colorado bladed spinner bait. To catch a giant on a pressured lake though, I'd try at night with a big and loud black buzz bait.

I agree in most cases structure/cover near deep water. Big plastic worms including the 7" senko, spinner baits and jigs.

My 8lb 14oz PB came on a jig but in a small pond. The jig did the trick for the big ones after catching plenty of smaller ones on spinner baits and swim baits.

My 5-8lb bass have mostly been on 7" senko and spinner baits.

The 5-8 have been spread out. I've also caught big ones on small crank baits, rattle raps and stuff like that. Also pretty spread out. Maybe the ones who stay closer to home as mentioned above are bigger than that.

The most important thing you can do to increase your odds are to fish where big fish are known to live. My personal best came from a private lake that's been around since the 50's. I fished it a few times now and then catching smaller bass before one day seeing a fish going across the top jumping along running from a predator waking behind it. You know how shad run when chased. This thing was well over a pound and over a foot long. I thought to myself "the bass chasing it has to be huge!" From then on I fished it hard and often. That was about 4 years ago and I've caught five between 8 and 15 pounds from their and my son caught a 10 pounder. We've had several other "ones that got away" during that time too. For some reason, all the bass in that lake seem to be more of the solitary type. Only one time have I seen a school of adult bass there.
You aren't likely to catch a giant from a huge reservoir and you aren't likely to from a small 3 acre or less pond. They need room to grow and low pressure to age.

All the ones mentioned above came on Zoom swimmin fluke jrs, spinner baits, and baby torpedos. My son lost one bigger than his 10 on a black buzzbait.

My wife's personal best 8 pounder came from the Oconee River on rubber worm. Huge for a river bass.

What county was the 15 pounder from ? Old chalk ponds seem to always hold big bass not sure why but most of the bigger bass I have caught come from older chalk ponds.

What's a chalk pond?

I agree, very small lakes, large ponds with little pressure.

I just posted a couple of vids of my semi-private small lake. A guy who was probably not supposed to be there told me yesterday about the 9lber he caught.... and then proceeded to show me with his fingers how think the filets were...... I cringed. Low pressure isn't just for not getting sore mouthed.... I personally hate the idea of killing the big ones. Eat all the 1-2lbers you want if you have to eat largemouth.... I love eating crappie and striper, so really, just stick to those. Leave the trophies! And get replicas made for the wall.

Kaolin pits left from mining years ago lot of these in middle Georgia most are very deep and old.

Gotcha

catchdogs said:

What county was the 15 pounder from ? Old chalk ponds seem to always hold big bass not sure why but most of the bigger bass I have caught come from older chalk ponds.

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This one didn't come from a chalk pond. It's a 70+ acre man made lake. I think I hooked her in Baldwin and landed her in Wilkinson. No joke. I have to say I never got a real weight on her, but she was 29.5" long and 20.5" girth. I do have some pictures that are on here already. Scales said she was 8.5 pounds. Not unless she was full of helium! For reference my son's was just over 10 and was 26.5" long and 18" girth.

Wilkinson county produced a 16+ pounder caught off a bed this past spring near McIntyre at Black Creek Plantation - a private trophy lake you can pay to fish at.

I also know of a 14 and a 15 from Laurens County from a few years back. A lot of these big fish never get "officially" reported anywhere.

Shamefully I had mine and my son's mounted. I wish I had known more about replicas at the time. Those big ones need to get released to get bigger and pass on genes.

I brag on my big one every chance I get, but I'll also tell anyone I'm proof that a mediocre fisherman can catch trophies when they are blessed with a good place to fish.

I completely agree - let them pass on those genes as long as possible... but a 10+ has had many years to pass on those genes. Again, by all means, I will let them continue and I hope others do, but they have had a lot of time to pass on their genes.

My lake definitely has trophies. I have heard of some trophies. I'm catching at least one 5-7 per month this year. And it is a supposedly private small lake.

TripleXBullies said:

What's a chalk pond?

I agree, very small lakes, large ponds with little pressure.

I just posted a couple of vids of my semi-private small lake. A guy who was probably not supposed to be there told me yesterday about the 9lber he caught.... and then proceeded to show me with his fingers how think the filets were...... I cringed. Low pressure isn't just for not getting sore mouthed.... I personally hate the idea of killing the big ones. Eat all the 1-2lbers you want if you have to eat largemouth.... I love eating crappie and striper, so really, just stick to those. Leave the trophies! And get replicas made for the wall.

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Exactly. Trophy size bass are extremely valuable during the spawn. They pass on the genes and lay far more eggs than smaller size fish. Harvest a few 1-3lbers now and then to take away some of the competition for food and the big fish only have room to get bigger.

Something I've learned from a lot of looking around is that when it comes to bass, a big fish is a lazy fish. They don't move much, and they eat one big meal instead of a bunch of small ones. Large bass that were tagged were shown to never move far from the area they were caught unless they HAD to because of varying conditions. In addition to that, Most are caught on baits that are big and SLOW. most of the power fishing baits like lipless crankbaits and such did catch some big ones, but big worms and jigs barely crawled across the bottom in the prime areas caught the vast majority of big ones. They'll hit a topwater too. A buzzbait has always been considered a big fish bait. But still when slowly reeled over the surface where it gurgles instead of burned over the top. There's A guy who I think had an article in the GON magazine some years back or something who fishes a black buzz bait almost exclusively at night/early morning and has caught an absolute TON of 10lb+ bass. Dangling live golden shiners under a float catches hundreds of big ones every year in Florida, and plenty are taken on live bream here, but the consistency of these catches proves you're more likely to get a trophy by dangling something in their face or just barely crawling it by. All 3 of my biggest lately were caught barely moving a shaky head and the most recent one was caught on a bluegill while fishing for catfish.

Found it. It is a GON article. I was talking about Pat Cullen. The man has caught over 1,100 trophy size 10+lb bass and counting...

http://www.gon.com/fishing/1113-giant-bass-and-counting

The 16pounder had spawned half her eggs out already and her belly was empty. If full of eggs and belly she may have made top ten in Georgia. Plenty of bass in thst pond thst have tipped the scales 11 or more pounds. I don't doubt your fish was close to 15 with those measurements.

You don't have to go to California or Texas to catch a monster either. Plenty of people have caught 10+ pounders right here at home. You'll always hear about the world record caught here, but check this out:

Georgia's Top 5 recorded largemouth bass catches:

1. 22-lbs., 4-oz. Montgomery Lake, George Perry 6/2/32 (world record)

2. 18-lbs., 1-oz. Marben Farm(Lake Margery), Ron Petzelt, 9/15/87

3. 17-lbs., 14-oz. Chastain’s Lake (Cobb County), Nickie Rich, 4/27/65

4. 17-lbs., 9.6-oz. B.T. Brown Reservoir (Coweta County), Keith Watkins, 3/30/15

5. 17-lbs., 9-oz. Lake Lanier, Emory Dunahoo, 12/19/65

Jeremiahisbrown said:

I've been doing some research on catching and locating huge bass recently and the information I've been digging up has been pretty surprising to me. Truly BIG largemouth behave almost entirely different than their smaller counterparts. For example, big bass are extremely territorial and solitary fish. The big ones usually travel alone, pick one spot to live, and never do much moving away from it. They leave during low light to feed and come back. Meanwhile, smaller fish roam around and chase baitfish and otherwise behave differently. I looked up what the biggest bass are usually caught on and the results seemed pretty predictable. According to reports submitted to the Bassmaster lunker club, out of 626 entries of bass all weighing 10+lbs, the top 3 lures were plastic worms, jigs, and spinnerbaits. Shiners and bluegills were the top live baits. So the question is, if you were targeting the very biggest bass you could catch, how would you personally go about doing it? If you were going to try your best shot at catching a trophy 10+lb bass?

Click to expand...

I read an article in field and stream on how to catch big bass. It said to take a big shiner with a bobber and throw it out. So I gave it a try and caught the biggest bass I've caught to date with this technique. I think this works best on smaller bodies of water such as ponds and small lakes. I have caught my fair share of big bass on plastic worms as well such as a senko. I know a lot of Florida lakes the guides only fish with shiners for bass such as Tohoe and Okachobee which are big bass lakes.

I'm still somewhat surprised someone caught a 17lber out of Lanier. I think there's a possible chance of there being a 20 in there somewhere maybe. Hiding under somebody's dock and they don't even know it.

Pat Cullen story is hard to beat...

I've always wondered how big a hole of water needs to be for a bass to grow well over 10 pounds. I don't know of any caught in a small pond, but have heard of nice ones caught out of ponds around 5 acres and up. My parents live on a 3 acre pond that is adjoined to a 125 acre lake. About 6 years ago someone put a bass in the pond from the lake that I'm told was 10 pounds. I've seen it several times and she is pretty big. That little pond has plenty of bream and small bass under 2 pounds in it. I think if that big girl was left alone she could grow to be a top 50 fish. Even so, unless someone actually lands her it wouldn't matter.

Why doesn't someone with a nice small lake or big pond start stocking it with already big bass? Is it illegal to stock them into a private pond or does that only pertain to moving fish around in public waters? If it were legal and IF I could afford it, I'd put a bounty on bass over 5 pounds alive in good health and stock them. I know that genetics are important as well as not transferring disease, but I'd think any bass able to attain that weight would be a healthy fish.

I have 4 acre pond and we have caught one 10 abd two 8 pounders out of it. Fairly deep pond deepest point is about 17 foot all were released. We have a large amount of crappie so they have plenty to eat. Pond was built in 76 will be neSt to see what we pull out over the years.