A-Jay

Not as much as not having one ~ Nice Boat. A-Jay

OK - So I knew the Quanum reel wouldn't get any love at all - but the 200D is a beast. A-Jay

Something to consider is your tackle. If you have chosen to use a set up that is capable of handling the largest fish you're apt to hook in the body of water you are fishing, you have a better chance of actually landing it. An often over looked portion of your set up beyond just your rod, reel & line, includes the hardware on the lure or bait you're throwing including split rings and hooks. Sometimes anglers fish gear that is matched to the average fish they are routinely catching; not wanting to over power these bass. But when the fish of the year is hooked, the angler may be seriously under gunned and any weak link in the system has a better chance of failing. This is not to say that big fish are not landed on smaller or mid-sized tackle because we all know this is not the case. But it's something to thing about. Do you want to have fun fighting the 2-3lb fish and hope your gear stands up to the big one or do you want to be as ready as you can when that trophy is finally on the line ? I prefer to tell fish stories that include the use of a net, scale and a camera. A-Jay

I've had success with the old ball & chain when trailing a Senko. And for something different, try a Sebile Magic Swimmer Soft Pro on a Carolina rig - nice. A-Jay

First off ~ Welcome to BR ~ ! I Crank with these ~ can't go wrong with either one. A-Jay

Jeff had brought them down on his trip last year and had solid results. A Magnum Fluke as well as the 6 & 7 1/2 inch Slug-go were the trailers of choice. I had not fished this bait before that week. I was initially skeptic as the 3/0 hook seemed a little under sized for the resident fish, but we landed a high percentage of the fish we stuck on the bait; including 2 over 9lbs. After some repeated unhooking the bait needed to be retired or the fish would do it for you. A-Jay

OK - what were you travel arrangements to and from the Lake ? Did you fly in or was there over ground travel involved ? A-Jay

LOL ~ ! Might want to ease up on the Old Dude remarks Jeff, Because one of them is the Official Key Master to the Trophy Smallie Kingdom . . . . and it sure ain't me. A-Jay

Don't know where you were fishing but there is none of that at this lodge. Being Far from the border and surrounded by a massive mountain range, Lake Baccarac enjoys the security that isolation provides. A-Jay

Unfortunately the road trip is at the same time as the Pre-spawn Smallies get going on Lake Erie - So I'll be trading in my Scrounga for a Jerkbait . . . although both produced down south. A-Jay

Hang in there Boats ~ Keep your eye on the horizon, plot your course to recovery and stay positive. Both the BM's here are pulling for you. A-Jay

~ TACKLE USED ~ As this was my first trip, I brought several set ups. Turned out I didn't really need more than 2 or 3. You could fish quite comfortably with crank bait set up, A med-Hvy 7 ft fast action stick and a swimbait set up ( but that could be optional). The trees there are LINE EATERs ! If a decent fish gets you in the wood, anything less than 20 lb mono or flouro will snap instantly. The Guides all use 17 - 20 mono. I was cranking with a Lamiglas SR705R 7' Glass rod and a Calcutta 200D with 40lb 832 braid and a 20lb mono leader of either Big Game or Maxima. There was no crankbait bite to speak of so that set up didn't get much use. I threw swimbaits (Hudd 68's, 6 inch Bull Shad and Big Wild Eye swim shads) on an Okhuma Hvy swimbait rod and a Callcutta 300D loaded with 25lb big game mono. The set ups I used almost exclusively were a 7' Quantum med-hvy Tour Edition rod with a KVD Tour edition reel (6.6:1) and 20lb Maxima line - I threw a 1/2 ounce scrounger, a 1 ounce spinnerbait and a big weightless fluke with this set up. My PB came on this set up on the spinnerbait fished deep. And ~ A 6' 10" Quantum med-hvy Tour Edition rod with the KVD Tour Edition Burner reel (7.3:1) loaded with 20lb Big Game mono. I threw a LC 128 Jerkbait on this. The slightly shorter rod helped work the bait effectively. I landed a 9 1/4 on this set up with the jerkbait the last afternoon. A-Jay

Man Dwight - your 3 biggest Smallies were bigger than my 3 biggest largemouth - Until last week that is . . . . . . . A-Jay

I am a Zona fan. Mark should come with us on our next trip to Lake Baccarac. His head might actually explode . . . . A-Jay

She spent quite a bit of time in the live well after the initial capture to give her time to recover. Doesn't always work but it did this time. Plus I think she way really mad . . . . . . . . A-Jay

The quote below from my inital post was my attempt to convey that this was not the case. "Although there were several amazing catches made, this was not a week of suicidal bass fishing were everything and anything produced fish. Each morning and afternoon’s fishing demanded the best efforts of both our guides and us." A-Jay

The predominant structure is rock and the only cover is wood. There are no weeds of any kind. Fish came from several areas that included both steep and more gradually sloping banks, especially early in the trip. As the week progressed, it seems like the shallow fish turned on. Mid way and into the back of coves were producing, especially late in the day. That's where Jeff and Dwight hammered several big fish with top water. I missed out on that one as I was still looking for another Grande out on the deeper drops. A-Jay

This is a decent 3 fish bag ~ A-Jay

Here's a couple of brief video's of the new PB - Keep in mind - I'm no Glenn. . . . . A-Jay

00 mod (Jeff), Dwight Hottle and I just returned from Mexico and a week of bass fishing that will be very hard to forget. With the Lake Baccarac Lodge as our hosts, we were treated to some great food, comfy accommodations, breath taking scenery and of course unmatched Big Bass fishing. After reviewing previous Lake Baccarac fishing reports and seeing the many photos of truly trophy bass, I was hoping for a trip that included memories and catches of a life time. My personal expectations for the trip could best be described as sky high and wildly optimistic. I’m happy to report that this placed delivered. The travel to this first class lodge is an adventure in itself. Surrounded by picturesque and majestic mountains we were provided with and had as our fishing back drop, post card type views that just added even more to the experience. To call Lake Baccarac a world class fishery might be an understatement. The geographic local, lake management and minimal fishing pressure combine for a bass fishing experience that’s hard to duplicate. But bass are bass regardless of their size or numbers and during our week of fishing we found that the bass were in a transitional stage. With some fish holding deep and some fish moving shallow, we were challenged to establish any one pattern that would hold for more than a day or two. We took bass on top water, jerk baits, plastics and spinner baits to name a few and in every level of the water column. One bait that I had not fished before this week but proved to be very effective, especially on big fish, was The Scrounger. 3/8, ½ and ¾ ounce size with a mag fluke or 7 inch sluggo trailer caught most of our bass between 5 – 9 lbs and is very versatile. I’d encourage you to give it a try in your home waters. Although there were several amazing catches made, this was not a week of suicidal bass fishing were everything and anything produced fish. Each morning and afternoon’s fishing demanded the best efforts of both our guides and us. And speaking of guides, the two we had were the best and we were lucky to have them. Lake Baccarac is a vast fishery, and in an age where gps and high tech navigational/positioning is all the rage to assist the angler in the quest to locate bass, you will find none of that here. Using just the simplest of sonars and their intimate knowledge and experience of the lake, Manuel and “Geno” took us to spot after big bass spot. It was impressive to say the least. And so what did we catch? Well, there were no 100 or 200 fish days. In fact, I don’t think we even had a 100 fish day between the three of us. Like I mentioned the fishing was a bit off. But we did have several of the big bites and bags that this body of water is so famous for. Additionally, it doesn’t take long to get a very tainted view of what a “picture” fish is. Here, a 5 & 6 pound bass although nice in quite common place, this size fish gets a quick eyeball and is then released rather unceremoniously; 7’s & 8’s get honorable mention, a photo and usually get weighted; 8’s & 9’s are said to be the best fighters and you won’t get any argument for us. 10’s and higher are called “Grande” by the guides and are what everyone is looking for. We saw 3 this trip and 1 came from 18 inches of water right on the bank. This makes you really focus and hope you stick every single fish that hits as any single cast – could be the one. So you can see how an angler can quickly adopt a very tainted and distorted view of what an “average” bass is. I may never be the same. So here are the numbers: Best five fish bags, Jeff ~ 42 lbs 7 ounces Dwight ~ 45 lbs 2 ounces A-Jay ~ 45 lbs 10 ounces Best single day 5 fish bag of the trip: Dwight got on a deep bite - 43 lbs This incredible bag included three fish over 9 lbs , one over 8lb and a 7 lb “dink” As for PB’s- as this was Jeff’s second trip to the Lake, his PB was already a lofty 10 lbs and 14 ounces. His best fish this trip came in at 10 lbs 4 ounces, certainly nothing to sneeze at and a real trophy. This is the first time I’ve fished with Jeff; The man is a good stick and I fully expect him to shatter that mark on our very next trip. Dwight’s previous PB was a 9 lb 2 once Florida Trophy. “Mr Smallie” fished long and hard this week and during that awesome day in which Dwight weighed a 43 lb bag – he did thumb his new PB at 9 lbs 8 ounces – and that Hawg Tech handle was tested. My previous PB was a Michigan Bass that went 7lbs 1 ounce. Well that didn’t last long on this particular trip. The very first morning I bested that twice with 7 lb 4 ounce and 7 lb 6 once bass.(My guides were not impressed though I was rather excited) I surpassed it again the next afternoon with a 9 lb 8 ounce Beast that was the single hardest fighting bass I could have ever imagined – just unreal. Now I was a very happy man at this point, but Lake Baccarac’s bounty blessed me one final time with a 10 lb 11 once Bug-eyed Monster that absolutely crushed a 1 ounce spinner bait in 22 feet of water. I’m still smiling over that bass and it might be a while before it subsides. As you can imagine, Dwight and I weren’t at the lodge long before we started talking about and making plans to return to Lake Baccarac and can you blame us? Accordingly, Jeff did give us the “I told you look” and plans to be right there as well. As I have mentioned, the fishing was a little off. After talking to the lodge owner Terry Holland and the guides, and as hard as it might be to comprehend, Lake Baccarac has more to offer. I’d really like to be there for that ! Below is the link to the galley where you’ll find some of our catches. I'm editing the video now and will post it up once it's ready. A-Jay http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/gallery/album/682-lake-baccarac-march-2013/

Keep an eye on the fishing reports forum - it'll all be up in the next day or two. A-Jay

Yup - you should know - you took that shot. btw - you're new avatar isn't too shabby either - A-Jay

We're back ~ Lake Baccarac is The Real Deal. Going through the pics now. Full report to follow in the Fishing Reports forum. A-Jay

First Off - Welcome to BR ~ ! I use American Fishing wire Surflon Micro Supreme - It's knot-able, thin and bass will still eat your bait. Tons of pike here - and if I fish a frog without it - it's bye-bye kermit. A-Jay http://www.afwhiseas.com/Surflon-Micro-Nylon-Coated-7-x-7-Stainless-Leader-Wire-s/1993.htm

I grew up fishing in New England. You have described what I was faced with several seasons in a row. I started going very Early season at night - often times the air temps were below freezing but the water remained open. Clearly not a time when Anyone else is on the water. Several conventional methods proved completely unsuccessful. Desperate to get bit, I started fishing topwater very shallow in front of any inlet, small creek or run off I could find. That was it. I could not believe just how shallow the fish were at night and this early in the season. I'm talking March here. I didn't have a thermometer back then so I can't tell you what the water temps were. A wake bait crawled very slowly right along the surface was the best producer. Stop and go was not as good. A Mann's 1 minus was the top producer - color didn't seem to matter; just get it shallow, make long casts and hang on. I chose to share this with one close fishing buddy only who had turned me on to a few "secrets", but I've never posted this up before and you Never ever hear about early season topwater at night - sounds crazy - but if the season opened early enough here in MI, I would definitely be out there. Good Luck A-Jay