fatso

I’ve been fishing the same location from shore all summer long and I catch a lot of small bass throughout the day. I see the BIG ones amble by on occasion and they seem to swim over to check me out every once in a while. I fish mostly live bait, mostly worms and minnows, and I do accidently chum the water with dead baits from freshly caught bass. I notice a couple of big bass that wait for me to catch the smaller ones and then, as I reel them in, they steal the unswallowed baits hanging from their lips. I get some strange vibrations through my braided lines, as I reel in a small bass, and many times find a trophy bass beating the sides of my yet landed hooked fish, just as a heavy weight boxer finishes off an opponent, trying to shake loose the dangling minnow from my bass. Anyone else ever experience this sort of behavior with the BIG ones? How do you catch them?

The trophy bass will stop and ponder the situation and then decide to hang around for a few. When a younger and dumber fish comes along and gets itself hooked, the trophy fish just swims away knowing you will never know!

I wish I could use a boat but there is no access to the water. I need to hike through the woods a quarter mile to get to the water and its all up hill on a giant rock. I dont think any personal watercraft is allowed anyways-protected water! I'm having no problem casting from shore and a caught 40 bass yesterday. Still no 3 lbs! I know the bass have been in there 20 years anyways from internet stories I read of past stockings-one would think I would see plenty of 3 pounders

yea, it's kind of a double figure 8 pattern the shoreline might be the only real structure other than the submerged rocks

here is a satellite image of the water-beware you have to zoom in [click on] on the red dot [and keep clicking]: http://mapcarta.com/222183

There are plenty of small bass for sure hundreds! I've yet to catch a 3 pounder which I find strange, but I have caught 3 or 4 five pounders and one 7 pounder. There is not a lot of cover structure that I can see- being a rock bath tub and all. Even grass stands don't exist. It must be a spring feed water supply as springs abound in the surrounding area but no brooks or creeks connect here. Ive walked around the entire eight acres many times looking for signs of life. certainly no pan fish which would be easy to spot in the clear water, I would have caught one by now anyways! My fishing buddy thinks its a decimated reservoir I'm beginning to think the same but im going to give that bacon idea a try for crawdads.

I do hear the occasional Green frog but not enough to feed this population of bass, I do see plenty of smallish Largemouths patrolling the shoreline but what else could they be eating? I see no evidence of crawdads.

I tried a new body of water this summer and its a reservoir-man made. From reading the internet I find the reservoir is slightly more than 100 years old and its entirely rock. It's what i describe to people as a bathtub. Its only eight acres of water and I doubt it gets to 20 ft at its deepest point but plenty of 10 feet depths. Its a beautiful place to sit on a rock and cast my Carolina Rig all day. It's an old drinking water reservoir from the WWII era but today it only on standby, but very clean water none the less. Since June of this year, I've latched onto 200 bass in total, mostly smaller one to two pounders but the occasional 5 pounder and one 7 pounder. I cant say I caught a 3 pounder yet, which i find strange. Occasional old timers tell me of Pickerel that use to be in the water but i see no evidence of that today. In fact I see no evidence of any other fish residing in the water. The water is so clear and I've spent enough hours on the water now that I should have spotted something else? Not even bait fish of any kind? The only other water resident I've seen have been the snapping and painted turtles. Is it possible a large body of water will only be of largemouth bass?