Randall

For those of you who havent seen the post yet my fishing buddy and tournament partner Doghouse caught a huge sack of fish yesterday that weighed 41lbs. Two tens, a couple eights and some more big ones. He called me and let me know he caught the three biggest right after he caught them. I asked where and he told me and it came as no surprise to me where since it was a big bass spot I first showed him around a year ago when I first met him as a client of my guide service. We soon became friends after that day and have been fishing together and sharing info on Varner for about a year now. The thing is he never would have had to tell me where he caught his biggest bass because I know that bass and can identify it by its markings. That bass has been caught by my friends, my clients, and myself multiple times and always in exactly the same place at the same time of year when its caught. Its also always been caught on the same bait. Even though its a huge fish over ten pounds its always been released to provide the thrill of catching it for the next person. Its been part of a twenty-eight pound sack, two thirty five pound sacks, a thirty eight pound sack, and now a forty one pound sack. It lives on one of the best spots in the lake. It has been taken two miles away and has found its way back home to a small PVC fish attractor sitting on the bottom. It lives with other big fish in the same spot. Up until now I never had two photos of the fish to match up to show others that catch and release of big fish works, and how big fish are predictable in where they live and what they do. The first photo is two of my friends with her the last time I saw her. They won a tournament with her last Feburary and released her two miles away from her home after the weigh in. I hadn't seen her again until yesterday when Doghouse posted the other photo. I thought I recognized the fish and got the photo out to compare. No doubt its the same fish. Just compare the lateral line markings.

Buzzbaitfool12 that fish will be back on the same spot and has already been caught a number of times by my friends and myself. Doghouse, I have identified your big fish as my pet fish that has made for a lot of good days for me and others in the past. I even have a photo that helps me identify her when I catch her. I am going to post two photos of her in a seperate post under General Bass Fishing. Thanks for turning her lose to catch another day.

Here's our buddys Dave and Chris last winter with your (My pet) fish. If you look real close at the lateral line markings etc. you can see its the same fish. I saw them catch it on exactly the same spot I took the photo at the ramp and it came back to the spot two miles away for you to catch it.

Here is your 10lb fish from yesterday.

Not only that but I have caught the same bass (your biggest one) multiple times on that spot. That same bass was caught and released last winter by two buddies after I had caught it multiple times and swam back across the lake around two miles to its home. I believe your other big fish has been caught by my clients and myself three other times but was hard to tell from my photos but I am 99% sure its the same fish. One other time I have caught both fish at the same time on that spot. I will post photos in another post proving this. You can tell by the markings and the fact that I know exactly where you caught it that its the same fish. Big bass are predictable!

You both now what you can do!!!! Great fish Adam. Just trying to keep you motavated.

Man I can't believe you went out to Varner in that cold just to catch a couple 10s for Fluke like that. ;DThat's what I call a good friend.

IMHO the Cavitron is the best buzzbait that can be bought off the shelf in a store. It has a lot of nice modifications already built in and is the only buzzbait I fish straight out of the pack. There is one buzzbait that is better though but not available at this time to the general public. ;D

I would personally call it aggression if the ten pounder were to start after the little fish forcing it from the area not the little fish trying to push the ten pounder off the spot. But if thats what you call it fine with me. As to what a big fish needs to sustain growth it would probably surprise you to know that out of one meal on average 15% goes to movement of the fish, 14% goes to digestion, 20% goes to waste, and 7% goes to metabolic process and the rest goes to growth. I got this info from a Ralph Manns article somewhere. More of a meal goes to growth than anything else. So all a fish has to do is eat to grow. Also, a big portion of fish have empty stomachs. Fish just don't have to eat as often or as much as most people think to grow. It can take as long as one week for a fish in 50 degree water to digest one meal. In fifty degree water they can eat one time and not eat for a week.

Doesn't sound contradictory to me. Think about how many times smaller bass were caught during this same time frame and how many were taken out of the lake while this one stayed living right off the end of a dock for years. Where it was tells me alot about that fish.

Its real hard for a 12 inch bass to push a 10 lb bass off any spot the 10lber decides it wants. ;DThe 10lber can eat the 12 incher so I am sure it isn't going to get much competition. But I catch 10 pounders and barely keepers off the same spots so they use the same spots and areas. Just because a 10lber is there don't mean all the other fish have to leave the area but it might be smart for them to if they will fit in the mouth of a big fish. Big bass get big by eating smart. They don't expend the energy a smaller less experienced bass does to get the same amount of food. I am not saying that all big bass take in less food than a smaller bass. But they don't try to eat everything that comes by either.

Big bass are not the most aggressive or the ones who eat the most. They are the most efficient. As they become older they become even more efficient at what they do. This is how they reach trophy size. They feed under optimum conditions and don't waste energy chasing around bait or swimming long distances to find or catch food. They develop a home range that fills all their needs and live in it without waste of energy. They live on the best structure in the area and the best areas that fill all of their needs. To me this is the same as Doug's "smart territories". Once I read this in Doug's answer above I realized that he just didn't claim to be a big bass expert but knew what he was talking about. They even move around in a predictable manner taking the best routes from place to place. They even feed on the type of forage that gives them the biggest meal for the least amount of effort. Most of these rules have applied to almost every fish over eight pounds I have ever caught and I have caught hundreds of fish over eight pounds. They apply to every fish over ten I have caught. All these things do not apply to every one pounder or even six pounder I have caught. This is why big bass are more predictable.

Clear skirt with silver or gold glitter or flake.

And the list is not much better than the one we are discussing. It only shows a very small fraction of what has really been caught. The only guy I know of or have heard of that has actually tried to certify a bunch of fish is Sam Taylor and look at how many Sam has on that list. Theres a bunch more guys out there just looking for big fish who have caught multiple fish in the fifteen to sixteen pound range and I know of one who has one sixteen and a eighteen and bunches over fifteen. You just aren't going to hear about them unless they break the record. With so many lakes in GA destroyed by spots and hybrids as far as trophy potential they arent going to tell everyone about the few lakes that still have trophy potential so more people show up.

Keep in mind that the Briggs outboard is no longer being made. If you find one in the future you may have a hard time finding parts or getting it repaired. I would get a Ray Electric if I was going to buy one.

1991 Dodge Colt Vista (4cyl automatic) pulling a 16ft Basstracker with four to six group 29 batteries. Boat, trailer and batteries weigh around 1400 pounds. Pull it from one side of Atlanta to the other (Douglasville to Covington) almost daily down I-20 which is pretty flat for the most part. Most people are surprised at my choice of tow vehicles and how well it tows the boat. I do have to be real careful and not follow anyone closely in Atlanta traffic.

Heres one that I know of that didn't make the list and I am 99% sure it was weighed on certified scales way back in the seventies or early eighties. Alatoona lake record here in GA caught by Greg Rhymer.

Not to discount the fact that California is still going to be the State that has the most bass in this size range but there have been some caught in GA eighteen and under that I know of would have made the list but were not certified since the people didn't really care about making the list. I know there are probably some in Texas, Florida, Mexico etc. caught that aren't on the list as well. Now if someone in GA catches the new WR I am sure the person catching it will want to have it certified as such. My point is that just more people in California are certifing the bass after it is caught while people in other states are not going to unless it is a record.

Since I know more about LM bass than SM or spots I can give you a few things that might help you with the LM bass. First LM bass don't move shallow to deep as much as most people think they do. They have a hard time changing depths of more than a few feet since they have to adjust their swim bladder to make bigger moves vertically in the water and this takes time. In other words a fish near the bottom in 20 feet of water can't run up and feed on bluegill in a foot of water or even ten feet of water and then go back to the bottom in 20 feet of water. So the bass aren't moving up from much deeper water to feed in shallower water so you can eliminate that. They will hold just off the deep edge of a point or over or on a breakline sometimes so keep fishing near the same depth you are catching them at early but move out to the breakline where the shallow part of the point falls off into deeper water on the deep side. If you pay attention to the depth you are catching the fish at early then you know the fish have to stay at or near that depth. With these fish being better quality fish they most likely have a home range and have predictable paths near that same depth they use to move around and feed and a place they like to hold when inactive. If you find the place on that point where the shallowest part of the point meets the deepest water with the steepest drop thats where I would look first. If they have moved out and suspended over deep water then I would try to find some more fish since these will be tough to catch but if they are still near the bottom where the deep water and shallow water meet then I would try something like a dropshot, splitshot rig or jighead and worm fished slow since they are still most likely inactive or neutral. Unless the docks have as good or better bottom structure under them than other places in this area the fish aren't likely there. The fish will relate to structure first and cover second in an area like this. The most likely reason you can catch the fish early and not when the sun gets up is because shad and other baitfish unlike LM bass can change depths more easily. The bait fish are there at night and early in the am but move out deeper during the day. The bass being unable to follow them deeper just waits nearby in a place it feels comfortable until the shad come back up. Then the bass get active and feed again.

They are both the best at what they do. I do both but admit being better trophy hunter (if thats what you want to call it) than I am a tounament fishermen. I think I caught 15 to 20 fish (didnt really keep count) last year over ten pounds but I only won one tournament out of around twenty I fished. I placed high in most of the tournaments I fished but didn't win many. I also bombed in a couple trying to win with one or two huge fish I had found. ;D Why? Because I like to fish for the bigger fish and dont like just going out and getting a limit unless its a limit of big fish when I fish for fun. My big fish mentality holds me back. If I think theres a way to catch a huge sack of big fish I go for it and it often hurts me in tounaments but sometimes I may win big though. I don't really mind since I just fish the tournaments for fun. I did fish with a guy a couple of years ago and he ran the trolling motor and I fished from the back of his boat. We tied a club record for the most five fish limits brought in and only once didnt bring in a limit in a season. I can fish for five fish limits but just don't like to as much. We were good fishing together and won the year end Classic. Although we won money I didnt have as much fun doing it so the next year I fished by myself and went back to fishing for big fish. From doing both I can tell you that the two are very different although they are also very much alike in alot of ways but that is another topic. There is just no way to decide who is better. IMHO everybody that thinks you have to throw a big bait all the time and go days without catching a fish to catch big fish knows very little about catching alot of big "Trophy" bass. For example, most of my big fish this year were caught on trickworms although I did get a couple on swimbaits or used swimbaits to find the fish. It doesn't surprise me as it did most people that KVDs big fish was caught on a jighead and worm. It also doesn't surprise me that KVD has only caught two fish over ten pounds. He fishes way to fast most of the time to catch many big fish over ten pounds. Catching big fish is all about knowing where and how they live and getting them to bite just like tournament fishing. The thing that is different is that big fish are different. They are harder to find and even tougher to get to bite. You have to fish for big fish and tournament fish in different ways and that makes it imposible to compare two fishermen doing two different things. I can't believe I got sucked into another one of these who is better posts. LOL.

I use the suspending twitch bait and the double prop topwater bait.

I want a fifteen pounder in '07. I saw a couple on Lake Varner last year during the spawn that I am guessing were around 15lbs and there was a 15lb floater found this past summer so I know they are in the lake. I lost a 15lb 8oz fish a couple years ago only to have a bank fishermen catch it the next day and the only way to get the picture out of my mind of that fish throwing the hook is to catch another one just as big.

Swimbaits. As more people learn to use swimbaits in places other than California and more companies make good quality less expensive baits that are more suited to the rest of the country you will see more people throwing swimbaits in 2007. I also think glidebaits which most bass fishermen have never heard of will grow in popularity among bass fishermen. I don't think we will have anything close to the chatterbait craze though.

Chartruse viewed in deep water or low light conditons appears white. Here is a white and a chartruse crankbait photographed in low light.

I use a baitcaster, 7ft medium action rod and 10 to 12 lb fluro line 90% of the time. I catch fish over ten pounds out of grass and brush with no problem by just keeping steady pressure on the fish and not trying to horse it out after it is hooked. If you pull too hard against the fish it will pull back just as hard and break the line but if you just reel slow and steady you don't need a heavy rod or line to get the fish out in most cases. Spinning tackle and braid will work but the braid will not have the sensitivity that fluro does when shaking it on semi slack line so you may feel fewer bites on braid. Braid will also cut more easily on rocks if there are rocks around.