So I was fishing with my bud the other day. Had a real slow day so we decided to work this shelf off the main lake channel. We saw a HUGE bass come across a submerged log and then followed him down the shore hunting/hoping for a hit. They everything but the tacklebox at him. All we kept getting was small hits (sunfish/etc). He disappeared from view completely.

Getting annoyed, I broke out a small jib with a grub tied an extra treble hook on and decided to catch a couple of these little guys who were hitting our large tackle all the way across the shelf.

After a couple casts I hook on a large sunfish, pull him about 6 inches off the shelf. All of a sudden the big boy we have been hunting comes out of nowhere (actually just under the shelf), grabs the sunfish on my line and takes off, bends my rod half over and it was on. I fought him back and forth all the way back to the boat before he finally let the sunfish go.

Quite a wild ride. It was fun but the amazing thing, he had been there the whole time. He has seen every thing we threw, every presentation we had and never bit. Apparently he was waiting for something fresher.

Did you boat him?

No, the bass was just hanging onto the sunfish until he decided to let go, M Starr didn't boat the beast.

I've seen that a couple times from videos on the internet, but I've never seen it in person.

Cool story M Starr.

Anyways, I would try some live sunfish, or a sunfish type swimbait to catch em!

Anyways, I would try some live sunfish, or a sunfish type swimbait to catch em!

You'd better believe I spent about 30 minutes on that spot throwing Live Target sunfish crankbaits, some of my shad flukes, and about anything I could think of off the shelf to see if he had some friends down there.

Got nothing. I had to just keep shaking my head at that though.

The sunfish are most likely bedding, and the bass are keying in on them. They literally will NOT hit anything but a live 'gill.