WRB-2.0

Swimbaits. The first swimbaits were modified Rapala CD 18's cut in half and a soft plastic molded trout backend super glued to the hard front end of the CD 18. Bill Murphy created this lure and wire lined trolled it in the deep off shore structure of San V. Bill caught a remarkable 70+ lb, 5 bass limit back in the early 80's on this rig. Everyone was accusing Bill of using live trout. Murphy showed me how he tied hair jigs, he used monkey hair dyed various colors and told him how I was fishing them. Murphy would dye crawdads with food coloring and use squid sealy style hooks painted brown, soak his line in coffee to remove the sheen and odor. It's all in the details. Swimbaits are all about detail. They look like the real thing and swim like a real bait fish and that is why they are so effective. Swimbaits are not crankbaits and that is the most important thing to remember. A swimbait generates strikes by looking and acting like a real baitfish, not a frantic or panicked baitfish, but a easy meal. Water clarity is important because swimbaits are sight baits that a big bass needs to be able to see, not hear. The bass will feel the water being displaced naturally and see the lifelike profile, coloring and movement. Giant bass like to trap big baitfish against structure or the surface and that is how you should present the lure to them. Casting out over structure into deeper water and retrieving back up and over the structure is a high % retrieve. To excite the bass into striking increase the retrieve speed when you see a follower or feel a light bump, the bass reacts to the escaping baitfish by attacking it for a kill. WRB

Lake Casitas: Big Bass Paradise By Mike Blackwell The heaviest bass ever caught at Casitas weighed 21.19 pounds, just shy of the 70-year-old world record of 22-4 set by George Perry in 1932 in Montgomery, Ga. Ray Easley caught the Casitas record on March 4, 1980, on a live crawdad. I agree you have to be in the right place at the right time. Jerry Ray reported that he caught the bass on a Rebel Suspend R crank bait. I asked him what he caught it on and it wasn't a crawdad, however it was a live bait fish, not a trout! I fished the same (spot) area called deep cat ledge and know it well and still is a good area today. After Ray caught his bass, the ledge looked like a parking lot with hundreds of boats on it for several years. WRB

Old School jig fishing, but not the presentation your father learned. When the word got out that San Diego lakes Otay, San Vincente, El Capitain, Wolfford etc, was producing bass over 10 lbs on a regular bases, I joined the Pisces Bas club back in 1969 to learn how to catch these new big Florida bass. Rumor had it that the Florida's wouldn't hit a lure, only live bait. The rumors were true in some respects; almost all the good bass fishermen fished with live crawdads, mudsuckers, waterdogs and shiners. A few fished with 8" to 12" plastic worms using a round split shot clinched on the line about 8" up, the same way they fished live bait. These fishermen also anchored their boats using 150' of rope with an anchor on both ends. They set the front anchor, then let out all the rope and set the back anchor, then trollied the boat between the anchor along the rope without lifting anchors to move. They used buoys the float the rope. This would fence off the area they were fishing and could saturate the area with a slow quite presentation of live bait or plastic worms, a very effective method. Anchoring and live bait or big worm fishing worked, but drove me nuts...too slow for style of fishing. So I started to jig fish using hand tied hair jigs and custom cut pork trailers that worked for me in my home lakes for big NLMB. Hair jig worked great for FLMB if you made a long 30 to 40 yard cast and slowly retrieved the jig like a plastic worm along the bottom. Horizontal jigging became my favorite presentation to catch giant bass, no anchoring, no live bait and I could move about and fish any type of water, cover or structure. The key to horizontal jig presentation was to use the reel to move the jig and only lift the rod up to free the jig form some obstacle, then lower the rod and crank the reel handle 1 or 2 turns, let the jig settle down on the bottom and repeat. When you see the line twitch or feel the jig go weightless or loss feel, you simply crank the reel fast until the line tightens, then sweep the rod back to set the hook. You can get a good hook set with the reel setting method far better than trying to use the rod, when a jig is cast more than 50 feet. The cover was too sparse and water too clear to get close to these big bass without spooking them. WRB

The is a difference between a hybrid and a integrate. Florida strain and northern strain LMB are very similar, cousins in the sunfish family. Mixing two different fish species like green sunfish and bluegill or white bass and striped bass equals a hybrid. Each generation of mixed FLMB and NLMB are known as F, F1, F2, F3 etc., F being a pure FLMB. Only the original FLMB introduced into Upper Otay, Hodges and Miramar were pure FLMB, all the others in the state, to the best of my knowledge, are F1 to F25 and counting. Castaic, Casitas were planted in 1969 with F1 to F4's and both lakes had a NLMB population when planted and still produce giants to this date. Hodges didn't have a NLMB population when the pure FLMB where planted and could still have them. Fishermen move bass around and plant them on their own, so it's hard to say what the Perry bass was, it certainly was a one of a kind for both Florida and Georgia. Fishing pressure is the primary cause of giant bass population collapse. The SoCal lake are tiny, less than 2,500 acres, most less than 2 miles long. Castaic for example is within the LA city limits and is a popular water sport lake with year around daily fishing pressure, water skiing, jet skier, family runabouts and bass tournaments. Tournaments are held every weekend and nights tournaments starting in April to September. Tremendous pressure is put on the bass fishery, the result is few bass get the chance to grow to be a giant size. The initail planted FLMB grow at the same time, so you have a high number of those bass getting big at the same time and a boom period results, followed by high fishing pressure as the word gets out. WRB

I intended this thread to be about giant bass where ever they be located. Texas has a giant bass population second to none in numbers, if you consider a Florida strain or intergrate that exceeds 15 lbs as a giant. Northern strain LMB over 12 lbs should be consider a giant of that strain of LMB. Any spotted or smallmouth over 8 lbs is a giant in my book. Texans, IMO, are some of the best bass fishermen anywhere and have world class bass lakes to fish. WRB

We can broaden this thread out to include how to catch the largest bass in any lake and local experts like Catt and Muddy can certainly add their expertise. Giant bass where I live and fish happen to be Florida strian largemeouth bass, that is what I'm familiar with and intend to discuss. The techniques, locations, lures, baits can be applied to any location. The early years of giant bass fishing in SoCal started in the San Diego area because that is where the first FLMB were transplanted. The most famous of the giant bass trophy fishermen was Bill Murphy, due in part to his book "In Pursuit of Giant Bass", a must read for bass fishermen interested in catch big bass. Bill and others quietly developed techniques that have proven very effective;giant soft plastic worms, custom hair jigs, swimbaits, live bait and deep slow trolling methods. The early swimbaits were hand painted salt water calico bass lures that required heavy rods and big reels to cast, so most trophy fishermen slow trolled them. The Florida strain bass proved to be harder to catch on lures so the same trophy fishermen developed live bait fishing techniques based on precision anchoring. Mud suckers, waterdogs, shiners, crawdads were used. The AC plug era introduces big trout swimbaits to the public along with the Worm King dinosaur soft rubber trout swimbait and the "tin fleet" is born. The weekend fishermen had already learned to use the San Diego anchoring technique and trophy fishermen like Bob Crupi were camped out on nearly every big bass location known. The tin boat fleet ,a large number of aluminum boats slow trolling and fishing live baits, that didn't require special tackle or great skill to catch a big bass. Mike Arugo was one of the "tin boater" that proved you could catch a giant bass. The sight fishing era. The same group of San Diego trophy hunters also developed sight fishing techniques for bedding bass. Using large brimmed hats and wrap around polarized sun glasses and standing on raised bow platforms or standing on the rear seat of a aluminum boat and slowly trolling backwards, these fishermen moved around the shoreline for hours scouting for big bass. Using live bait they would target a giant bass. Time to get back to work, will continue how I fish hair jigs. WRB

We all agree that Perry's 22 lb 3 oz is the bench mark world record largemouth bass and a few California giants proved that record can be broken. The question is how? The answer to that question is; be at the right place at the right time. I have my ideas of when the right time, what is the right lure or bait and where the right locations is. If we look at the Perry bass; when and how it was caught and compare that to other 20+ lb giant bass, some of these questions have already been answered. The Perry bass was caught on a jointed floating, shallow diving wooden plug, that today would be called a wake bait. Bob Crupi's bass were caught on live crawdads. Dottie was caught on swimbaits twice and snagged with a jig once. We are not sure what Ray Easly caught his 21+lb bass on, he claimed a crankbait. Mike Arugo a swimbait. All the bass were caught during the spring or pre spawn to spawn periods. We have limited the lure or bait choice and the time period. Live bait, swimbait, jig and (crankbait?). Spring is the best time. I need to run and will get back to this thread and discuse jigs, my area of expertise. Meanwhile maybe someone else can continue to add their expertise. WRB

Catt's Big 2 PM me and I will give you a personal contact for Quachita. WRB

Kentucky. Tournament in the afternoon to late evening transition to darkness. 1. Tournament; fish your strengths so you don't donate your entry fee. 2. The bass should be active and moving from cooler deep water up to areas with good baitfish or crawdad populations. 3. Darkness; you will only be fishing a few hours during the night. This means you need to prepare for the afternoon to evening with standard lures and tackle. I would have one outfit with heavier line (15 to 20LB), with a Texas rigged 7 1/2" or 10" ribbon tail Power worm in Black with blue or red flakes. You should already have your 5 bass limit and now fishing for bigger bass. The T-rigged worm doesn't hang up at night, so you should be able to maximize your time fishing without retying. WRB PS; add a 8mm black glass bead and use a black 3/16 to 1/4 oz brass or tungsten bullet weight. The glass bead adds clicking sounds that help the bass find the worm.

OK, we know the world record is 22 lbs 4 ounces, any suggestions on how to catch a bass that exceeds that weight? Where would you would try and when? WRB

You could make the argument that less aggressive or B personality bass (LV) are harder to catch then the more aggressive A personality (HV) bass. All the bass had to eat prey, the "smarter" bass avoided lures or prey with hooks*. It's interesting that less than 10% of the population are LV, in this study. It would also be interesting to know what % of bass caught only ounce. WRB * the study didn't mention if the fishing was restricted to artificial lures?

Unfortunately Dottie's official weight is 21.7 lbs, when Jed Dickerson caught her; .05lb short of the California state record. Agree, Dottie could have been the world record. WRB

No. There are several guides that can put you on big bass. Thank you for positive reply. WRB

LBH posted 2 of my giant bass; 18.6lb photo and 19.3 lb replica mount. The difference between a giant and normal bass, other than the obvious weight, is the body shape; giants have a girth that nearly equals their length. Giant bass are always Florida strain, they are a different bass than the northern strain found in the vast majority of the country. FLMB when transplanted into deep cool water reservoirs with a large bait fish population can grow to become giants. Take few minutes and look at the Bloody tail and Fish mount thread photo's. WRB

The problem is finding a buyer for Genmar when money is tight. Chapter 11 means a bank is running the company and all contracts are cancelled, including warranties. Dealers can't return boats, so they are stuck with the inventory. If another buyer picks up Genmar or buys product lines, then that product line could be OK. For example; Genmar bought Ranger, Champion and Stratos under Chapter 11 several years ago. I agree with GK, tighten your belts, it could get ugly. WRB

The 18.6 in the photo had a scale removed and aged based on that, which is only an estimate, was 15 years old. The water in our lakes don't get much above 70 degrees and the big bass go deep into cooler water for 90% of the time. Northern bass are known to live up to 23 years in colder climates. The bottom line is Florida LMB are different bass than northern LMB. The FLMB grows to be a giant over 20 lbs, the NLMB rarely exceeds 15 lbs. These are two different bass and should be fished differently. We can see the difference between smallmouth and largemouth, but it's difficult to see the difference between spotted bass, NLMB and FLMB. All are bass with different genetics. WRB

Randall, It's OK to disagree. We all base our knowledge on what we are exposed to. I have been fortunate to have caught several hundred bass over 10 lbs during my many years of bass fishing. None that were healthy had bulging eyes and some were caught is water 35 feet deep. It could be another difference between Florida LMB planted into deep water reservoirs and NLMB. The bass that I have witnessed having bulging eyes weighed in at night tournaments were either dead or close to it. Bass caught from water over 50 feet deep, then the bass size wasn't a factor, eyes bulge out like rock cod. I have also noticed big bass in some aquariums, like BPS, that had bulged eyes and others didn't and the condition didn't seem to slow them down at feeding times. WRB

http://www.startribune.com/business/46664287.html Genmar owns; Ranger, Champion and Stratos bass boats. WRB

I believe Catt has posted several good threads regarding deep water bassin. Where I fish deep water is the norm; 15 to 60 feet 90% of the year. 1. You need to learn how to use sonar to locate underwater structure that is holding bass or bait and find the life zone or thermocline depth. Sonar with a GPS is handy to both find structure on maps and return. 2. Learn to use finesse presentations; drop shot & split shot, structure spoons, Carolina rigs, Texas rig with brass n glass (tungsten or brass) doddling technique, jigs, deep diving cranks, slow rolling spinnerbaits and swimbaits. 3. Learn to be a bird watcher; grebes that feed on shad are good fish locators. 4. Lake features like; main lake points, islands and underwater islands (humps) and river channels are easy to find. Survey each of those obvious structure for isolated rock piles, sudden break, weeds or grass, trees or stumps and bass or bait. 5. Boat control; staying on top of the structure out away from any reference points can be difficult. A GPS helps, or use marker buoys to one side of the fishing area to keep the boat positioned. WRB

The price back 1993, when this was mounted, was $12 per inch and I believe it's about the same today for a high quality replica mount. Tom aka; WRB

LBH, thank you for taking the time to post this photo for me. The reason for posting this photo is to show tail damage, eye size and how to hold large bass. Although this bass had tail damage, it still fought hard, jumped clear of the water twice and was released in good condition. Tail damage does not occur on all big female bass, only a few have it. I believe they wear the tail during the spawning process and infection can result for a few bass. In regards to bass with bulging eyes; very few large bass have that condition and could be a result of severe stress or deep water pressure change. Big bass have big eyes that allow them to see prey, however all basses eyes protrude slightly allowing better peripheral vision. When you catch a bass of a life time, hold it by supporting the fish without damaging the jaw. If you hold a large bass by it's jaw only, the fish can shake and tear the hinge cartilage. Tom aka;WRB

OK, now you have a name and face that goes with WRB. This mount was made in 1993 just before the '94 earthquake. As you can see the mount looks like new and received only minor fin damage as a result of the quake that did over 100K damage to my home. Today their isn't any reason to have a skin mount or to kill a bass to have it mounted. You need a photo of the bass and it's length and girth measurements. This bass was 29" long with 28 1/2'" girth, a true giant. WRB PS, LBH; thank you posting the photo, know how to catch them, not post them.

Catt, I'm getting old, but I said in Alabama and Goergia... Tom PS; the Perry bass is what it is. His fishing partner disappeared, the witnesses were interviewed by a local reporter who was trying to validate the catch after Perry's death nearly 40 years after the fish was caught. Everything is hearsay, even Field & Stream couldn't find proof. I agree; it is the current world record. Tom

Included the Lone Star state of Texas. Where do you think the next Texas record bass will come out of? WRB

Understanding basic bass behavior, seasonal periods, lake types and catching giant bass year around with jigs and swimbaits. WRB