This article is about the 5 (five) biggest mistakes that I used to make while fishing for Trophy Size Bass. I didn't realize the difference between the Florida strain bass and the Northern strain bass. Florida strain bass seem to move into the shallows earlier and stay in the shallows longer than the Northern strain bass. Florida strain bass tend to like the shallows better than the Northern strain bass, the Florida strain bass will be on the top of humps while the Northern strain bass tend to stay on the sides of the humps with deeper water nearby. I didn't fish enough. I would only go fishing on the perfect days, the days when the wind wasn't blowing too hard, or it wasn't raining, etc. I found that the Trophy Size Bass tend to bite on the days that the wind was blowing or it was raining, etc. I also found that the Trophy Size Bass are usually caught on the slow days. I hold the McGee Creek lake record and held the Sardis Lake record for the Largemouth Bass. Both of these fish came on slow days where that they were the only bite that I got for the day. I fished too light of line and not a powerful enough rod. Bass are cover orientated and you need a line strong enough to horse the fish out of the cover. I was hooking the fish but they would break off before I could get them to the boat. In the winter time I will drop down to 12 pound Stren line, but for the rest of the year I usually use at least 25 pound Stren green line for my Hart spinnerbaits, Gene Larew salty sluggers, Gene Larew paddleshads and crankbaits. For my Hart jigs, Gene Larew hoo daddies, Gene Larew salt craws and tube baits I use 50 pound Power Pro test lines. For my jig and worm fishing I use a Falcon 6' 10" rod that is 7 power. My second favorite rod is a Falcon 6' 6" Expert heavy rod. I use a Falcon 6' medium heavy Cara for my spinnerbaits, soft plastics and my hard baits. I also use this rod for fishing Gene Larew grubs in the wintertime. The next mistake that I made was fishing what everyone said you had to fish to catch a Trophy Size Bass in that lake. People would say that if you wanted to catch a Trophy Size Bass that you had to throw a Black/Blue jig, etc. Now I will fish a jig, but it might be Pumpkin Pepper Green or a Watermelon Green jig. When a bass gets to be Trophy size, it has seen several lures. Chances are it has seen several Black/Blue jigs and even been caught on one. I want to throw something that the bass has probably not seen before, thus, I will throw a different color than most of the people are throwing. Another lure would be the red rattletrap. I will throw a rattletrap, it will probably be a Bluegill or "perch" colored. In the springtime, the Bluegill or "perch" is an enemy of the Trophy Size bass because it will eat the eggs if it gets a chance. I was fishing too fast. Even today, it takes me a little while to slow down and fish for Trophy Size bass. Some days it takes me an hour to get slowed down enough. Trophy Size bass like what I call pizza delivery. They want the bait put right in front of their face. Trophy Size bass are just like humans as they get older, they get lazy and fat. Smaller fish will tend to roam and flush the bait out of cover. The Trophy Size bass tend to hide in dark spots and dart out and catch bait, so the Trophy Size bass are ambushers. Because of this you have to fish slow. If I find that I am fishing too fast, I will use the Blakemore Brush Gripper and fish the area out thoroughly before I move. I have also found that Trophy Size bass will move around in "wolf packs". I believe that 3 to 5 of them will work together and flush fish out to another Trophy Size Bass that is hiding in a dark place. I have found that when the Trophy Size Bass are working in "wolf packs" that you can catch multiple Trophy Size Bass in the area. Another thing about slowing down was in my boat control. When I was fishing too fast, I was scraping bushes, trees and other cover alerting the Trophy Size Bass of my presence. By slowing down on my boat control, I was more in a stealth mode and could sneak up on these Trophy Size Bass. Hopefully, this article will help you in your endeavor to catch Trophy Size Bass. Be sure and check out the other articles on my site. |
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