The fishing at Varner has been great the past couple of weeks for big bass. Most days for best five fish has been over twenty pounds and three of the last four trips to Varner have had a best five over twenty five pounds. In the past three weeks there have been several fish in the eight pound range caught from my boat and a ton of fish in the three to five pound range. The numbers of fish caught isn't close to what it was a few weeks ago (we had caught over 100 in a day) and on some days it's tough to get ten bites in a day with a couple of people fishing but when the big ones are biting they are biting. ;D

Last week I went out with Randy S and his son Justin. I showed them around the lake and took them to some spots I fish this time of year and caught a fish here and there as we moved from spot to spot. We fished soft plastics on some deeper spots and used some small swimbaits up shallow. Justin and I fished the whole day and Randy alternated resting with a little fishing since he had been working the night before. Randy also handled the chore of weighing our fish and keeping us honest about the weight of our fish. ;D From what I remember Justin's best five fish alone weighed a little over seventeen pounds and if you added one or two fish I caught while fishing with him we would have had been just over twenty pounds for the best five.

After dropping them off at the ramp I decided to go back out and see what I could do working a couple more spots with more of a trophy fishing approach. We had moved on throughout the day after catching one or two fish on most spots so I thought I might hit a spot or two and work it over better with some different big fish tactics for any bigger fish that might be there.

I started toward one spot and something told me to hit another spot that I had been thinking about trying for the last week. I caught three fish over 11 lbs in one week on the spot three years ago during October so it had been in the back of my mind for the last couple of weeks to check it out when I got a chance with the cooler October weather approaching. So I turned the boat around and went to that spot.

When I got there I moved the boat to just the right position and made a cast with a worm. A big fish hit on the first cast as the worm was sinking and caught me off guard and broke me off.  > I could tell it was a good fish though so I picked up a Mattlures Hard Bass and made a cast to see if one would come up after the swimbait. First cast with the swimbait and it gets hit by a big one and I get it in. I am guessing it weighes eight or maybe nine pounds so I snap a quick photo with the camera and put it back and get another cast out ASAP. For about the next hour I alternate between a worm and several swimbaits and catch fish after fish with maybe one or two fish under three pounds. Most of the fish were in the three to five pound range with a few larger ones mixed in. I lost one other big fish on a worm that I never saw and had one break a swimbait and take the rear half of the bait with it that looked to be nine to ten pounds. But for the most part it was a bunch of fun catching a bunch of good fish.

We took some photos of some of the better fish we caught and I put some in the livewell as I was catching them good for a photo or two. I will also post a couple more photos of fish a guy caught with me on another day where he caught two good ones.

Here's a few more pics.   Notice the guy with two fingers held up. I kept telling them that we weren't woried about catching the small fish as long as we got a couple of big ones. He said he just wanted to hold up two fingers to remind his son and I that he only caught two fish but they were both larger than any we caught even though we caught more than he did.  ;D

Those are some healthy pigs Randall. Great post and pictures.

Great story, Nice fish, and Congrats to you all! 8-)

Nice fish! That last picture in the first post is a pig.

Nice fish !  

Wow!

Great story, fish and pics!

;D ;D ;D

Randall is still whack'n em!  

Roger

WOW those are some really nice fish and great story as well.

Randall. I want to fish Varner in the next few weeks.  In your plastic worm selection do you have a favorite color and size that seems to work best for you.  

Real nice!

Very impressive.  

Randall. I want to fish Varner in the next few weeks. In your plastic worm selection do you have a favorite color and size that seems to work best for you.

Any green color straight tail worm between 7 and 10 inches. Mostly senkos and trickworm type worms. I just did an interview at www.ProAnglerRadio.com talking about exactly how I am catching them right now that probably would help you out also. It should be on this weeks show.

Awesome fish and great story as well! Man you are always catching some hawgs at Lake Varner. Every post you make is always about "Big Bass at Varner"! Is there a such thing as a dink at Varner????

Awesome fish and great story as well! Man you are always catching some hawgs at Lake Varner. Every post you make is always about "Big Bass at Varner"! Is there a such thing as a dink at Varner????

Yes there are a bunch of dinks in Varner right now. ?The other guy in the last two photos and myself caught four or five fish that were only about six inches long on six inch senkos. The one I caught couldn't even get up to the hook and was just holding the back of the senko and came all the way in the boat that way. Everything else though was four pounnds or better since most of those dinks don't make it through the fall since they are eaten by the larger bass and hybrids.

awsome report as usual Randall! thanks for posting.

seeing those pics make me want to get and fish a little

Great story. What an outing you had! Thanks for sharing.