Fishing exclusively for bigger bass. 2024

Whopper-Stopper reply :

I am getting just plain tired of catching 1 to 2 lb bass or less all day long. I'm going to try to fish exclusively for big fish. Does anyone have tips on how to go about this?

I understand that catching bigger fish means catching less fish; but I would rather catch a couple of four pounders than 10 small bass.

I have been using a c-rigged 12" ribbontail worm and caught a couple of three pounders today; but that's not big enough. I realize that I will have to be using bigger baits also.

Can somone tell me about the habits of big fish. I know they don't stay shallow as much as the smaller bass do. Do they stay down deep or suspend over open water? Where and when do they do this? Do they normally come shallow at night or become more active.

I also understand that I have to be fishing in big fish water to catch big fish; but I've got that covered. This year in early March I Hauled in several 4 and 5 lb bass. So this is the lake that I will be fishing.

In my area "big" starts at 3 lbs. I am going to try to beat my PB of 7.5 lbs, which was caught out of this same lake.

roadwarrior reply :

Focus your efforts on structure in deeper water.

Steeply sloped, rocky points surrounded by deep water is a prime example.

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

or somthing like a hump out in deep water that doesn't come all the way to the surface but is surrounded by deep water on all sides. Prime.

mwhitworth25 reply :

we always fish for the bigger bass unlike splat_baseball51 who thinks he better than me because he catches a lot of tiny fish every day and we only catch a couple....ok sorry but yea fish in the deeper water structure

mwhitworth25 reply :

we also had a couple of three pounders under a walkway that extended to an electrical building right above the lake. try casting a few deep divers in a place like that early in the day

Matt Fly reply :

What lake? And are big bass known to be there? If so, keep throwing bigger baits and jigs. In Tx, we are past post spawn on the majority of waters, and the summer pattern is settling in. My big worm bite usually kicks in late june or early july.

Maybe as you mentioned, and not knowing your location, the fish are still post-spawn and suspended, you might try a few large cranks.

Brian_Reeves reply :

I'd put my chips on deepwater weedlines adjacent to both shallow and water, variations in cover/vegitation/bottem structure, an abundance of forage (crawfish, bluegill, big shad, or frogs) and a lack of fishing pressure. Structure+Cover+Forage=Fish.

Personally I don't think that there is a better big fish bait than the Jig and pig...or plastic. A 3/4 oz jig in 20ft or so of water along a weedline or slightly into the weedbed is probably a good place to start looking for some bigger fish. Larger profile crankbaits and spinnerbaits slow rolled across points or crashed around in submerged timber is another good place to look. 5-15ft (some lakes dont' get any deeper) banklines with a lot of shade from cypress trees and things like that are another good place. Just think like a big fish. You don't wanna use up all your energy, you don't wanna be caught by fishermen, and you want to eat a lot. So when you fish, go big and slow in "big fish places." Hope this helps

Fish Chris reply :

I'd love to help, but I need to know several things first. I assume your lake holds Northern strainers, huh ? Are there trout in this lake ? What is the lake record, and what is the biggest bass that you here of being caught from there, with any regularity ? How clear is your water ? Do you know of anybody who catches the larger fish from this lake, that you are after, with any regularity ?

If you can please answer these questions, I think I might be able to help.

Great fishing to you,

Fish Chris

RoLo reply :

"Three pounds" is the first weight-plateau for ole Mossback, and although we're all

shooting for 9 and 12, the 3 pounder isn't any easier to catch, just far more abundant.

I've noticed that you described your "lures" but you haven't described your "lake",

that puts the emphasis on "presentation" rather than "location".

I don't even know if your lake is Natural or Artificial, so the word "deep" has no meaning.

In natural lakes, "weeds" are the key, and depth is just the Bellhop for "weeds".

In manmade impoundments, bass are faced with a host of manmade obstacles.

In manmade lakes, the key is "river and creek channels" and here as well

depth is just the Bellhop.

Quote
I know they don't stay shallow as much as the smaller bass do.

Do you really "know" that, or is that just what "everyone" is saying?

That's very close to the truth, but no cigar:

Big bass spend most if not all of their lives in water that is not deep. However,

whatever depth a big bass chooses, he strongly insists on having deep water nearby,

the deeper the better. On that, you can hang your hat.

Roger

guest reply :

Wherever the lake is, largemouths become loners more & more each year, staying away from little bass which eat way more than their share of available forage. Bass don't grow large competing with juveniles that try to eat anything they see. They learn the most reliable source, much better than shore minnows and crayfish, are large schools of roving baitfish. They become increasingly lazy, choosing to find spots they can ambush baitfish coming by on a fairly regular schedule. As shoreline pressure mounts against shad, they move out into open water, where their forage base is heaviest, clouds of plankton driven back & forth by wind and current. I just don't see signs of large shad schools spending time shallow near shore except when spawning or going up into coves in the Springs & Fall for a brief time. While I catch a few decent bass near shore, most come from water over 15 feet deep, and around channels with interesting structure that breaks up the bottom. My primary target is main lake points from now on through summer, where they dive off into deep water, preferably where a channel swings in close. If I can find a hump near that all the better. I spend a lot of time locating those close by humps where the outside edges have some spotted clumps of vegetation. All that's hard to find compared to following a shoreline weedline, and those little spots are quickly fished over compared to casting around a mile long weedline, sending me searching again over open water. While I'm out there probing I watch a parade of shoreline pounders mopping up on dinks, catching lots of bass. Those are the guys convinced all the big bass are gone, rarely if ever even trying a C-rig or drop shot. They are mostly spinnerbait tossers. My bites are far fewer but quality, unless I come across a group of larger bass feeding together before they break up to follow their loner routes. I want bass from 2-4#, good eating, a mess of 6 making a fine meal or two. Anything larger gets released unless a partner wants them.

I mostly ignore breaking bass unless they are close to those point/hump areas. Roving schools here tend to contain mostly 2 pound bass that haven't grown lazy, tracking shad, herding them to the surface for feeding frenzies. When that action gets close to resident loners, the deeper larger bass will follow the action, picking off the leftovers from an attack above by stripers and juvenile largemouths. Instead of going for the surface bite I'd rather pull a spoon deep under the action, avoiding stripers and juvenile bass unless i'm needing to go ahead and get some of those. Once the schools move too far away the larger bass turn back to their loner routes where the C-rig and drop shot works well. Depths of those loners ranges from around 12-35 feet until a thermocline forms, usually around 20 feet. When that happens I concentrate on structure coming high enough to intersect the top of the thermocline. IOW, hump, slope/ridge, ledge portions less than 20 feet deep. Shoreline pounders would be wise to focus on places the top of the thermocline intersects bottom, the farthest out from shore a bass can go and still find the most secure water with forage available. As shoreline water temps climb larger bass will prefer deper cooler water with shade if it can't find thick floating vegetation in shallow water, maybe just a single sunken log or stump barely above the thermocline, or a North facing slope where the thermocline pokes against it.

It isn't easy converting to deep structure bassing from a habit of fishing shallow. It's a tough decision to pass on larger numbers of smaller bass. Of course the easiest is pounding the shoreline, but for me the rewards of deep water bassing are worth the sacrifice. It took me 5 years to figure deep water out and I have a long way to go with that. I figured out the Arkansas River before coming here, where bassing was necessarily a shallow water emphasis, fishing eddies along the banks, and probing slackwaters. Here I found probably 99% of anglers lining up to fish the same easy places day on day without end, quality bass few. I watched Mark Davis, who lives and fishes a lot here, and guys like George Cochran, a local, fish out of the box and decided to find out how they did it. Detecting bites over 15 feet deep is much more difficult, water resistance against the line dampening vibrations. The exception is drop shotting, the line staying tight.

Jim

senile1 reply :

Jim,

That's a very good post, full of information. I need to hone my deep-water bassing skills as well. Thanks for the info. This gets me anxious to get out on the water.

RoLo reply :

Quote
Largemouths become loners more & more each year, staying away from little bass which eat way more than their share of available forage.

My take is a bit different than Jim's.

The biomass of "every" year-class of bass shrinks with every passing year.

Quite obviously, the older the year-class the smaller the school.

Members of the oldest year-class in a given lake do not choose to be loners,

they simply represent the few and only survivors that are still remaining.

Quote
Bass don't grow large competing with juveniles that try to eat anything they see.

Juveniles would not make it to adulthood, that dared to feed in a school of large bass.

I constucted a backyard pond in Georgia, and I know from personal experience,

that the largest bass in an area are at the top of the pecking order. They also get

first pick of personal lair. You can catch a trophy bass from an isolated group of lily pads

in 2 ft on a ledge to 5 feet. Come back the following year and take another trophy bass

from the exact same spot! This is known as the "replenishing factor", where the largest bass

get to choose and control the "sweetest spots" in the area.

Quote
They become increasingly lazy, choosing to find spots they can ambush baitfish coming by on a fairly regular schedule. As shoreline pressure mounts against shad, they move out into open water, where their forage base is heaviest, clouds of plankton driven back & forth by wind and current.

Well, a bass that grows increasingly lazy, would be very unwise to abandon the prolific bounty

of food that paves the fertile shallows. Schools of offshore shad are prey that are best suited

to highly competitive, fleet-footed youngsters. Fall "jump-fishing" is a phenomenon

where young year-class bass (schoolies) behave like bluefish in the ocean, and ball up

pelagic shad. A fat old bass wouldn't stand a chance in that youth-dominated blitz.

And unlike giant bluefish that lie well beneath marauding schools of school blues,

bass swallow their prey whole, so there are no bits and pieces fluttering to the bottom.

Furthermore, why would a beer-barrel bass elect to give chase to a 3" shad in open water

when he's got those dumb 12" bass in the shallows that dare to eat with him?

Quote
I spend a lot of time locating those close by humps where the outside edges have some spotted clumps of vegetation. All that's hard to find compared to following a shoreline weedline, and those little spots are quickly fished over compared to casting around a mile long weedline, sending me searching again over open water.

Jim, as you and I have discussed, deep water fishing is my forte'.

I've spent an enormous amount of time fishing deep water for pike, walleyes,

smallmouth bass, a host of saltwater species and yes, largemouth bass too.

Though it may contradict popular belief, I find deep-water fishing to be significantly easier

than shallow water fishing. I also believe that fish concentrated in deepwater

are easier to fish-down than fish scattered throughout the shallows. The deepwater itself

grossly narrows down the search. Turn an angler loose on a 3-mile-wide flat

in Lake Okeechobee and you've got a totally bewildered and overwhelmed fisherman.

For this reason, Pro bass anglers use search lures like cranks and spinners to help

narrow down the vast shallow acreage.

I can only wish that big bass would gravitate to the deepest water in our lakes.

How easy it would be to anchor-down on the deepest hole in every lake,

take out my favorite sandwich, then proceed to mop-up those poor soles with live minnows.

Wake-up! Wake-up! It's time to go to work!

Roger

-Drums- reply :

Jim/RoLo - AWESOME posts! Excellent info.

Thanks!

senile1 reply :

Roger,

Great post. I always like it when you and Jim give your take on particular technique's, etc. Though, you both might disagree on the reasons the big bass choose certain locations, the fact remains that there is still information to be gleaned from your posts that will help those of us who are lesser mortals. And when I read different viewpoints that are well-thought out it encourages me to research the issue for myself and develop my own opinion. Thanks.

russ0101 reply :

it may just be the lake i fish in, but the replenshing factor exists, but its more like 5-6 3#to 10# bass staying together in the same spot on top of each other.

the area im talking of is at the end of a creek channel which is a 2' flat on the shoreline... about 30 yards out it hits the creek channel which dips down to 5' to 6'.

shad are abundant on this end of the lake as well, and the last 4# i caught had 3 - 2-3' shad in his belly - i check out most bass i clean just to see what they are eating on. Most of them though seem to have a ton of quarter sized bark or deadwood in them, is that something they generally eat or are they eating worms/crawfish like that off them?

splat_baseball51 reply :

Quote
we always fish for the bigger bass unlike splat_baseball51 who thinks he better than me because he catches a lot of tiny fish every day and we only catch a couple....ok sorry but yea fish in the deeper water structure

ive never bragged on any tiny fish ive caught, but all of mine seem to be bigger than yours you lying sack of hrell , it helps if you know what your doin, even slightly there buddy

mwhitworth25 reply :

lol its not that hard catching little fish off shore, but we go for the big stuff. like stated above big bass=big bait and big bait=less fish.

Whopper-Stopper reply :

The lake that I am concentrating on is more of a very large pond than it is a lake. I am not sure how many acres. Its maximum depth is about 15 to 20 ft. The water is clear with about 4 to 5 ft visibility.

Yes, they are northerns. No, there are no trout. Their primary forage is bluegill. The biggest fish that I know of being caught from there is the 7.5 lb that I caught. I think that I hooked into one that was bigger in march.

I am not sure about structure and have yet to encounter a snag on the bottom. There are large trees in places around the sides; and one side of the lake is lined with busted up concrete. It has alot of shallow flats. There is only one dock.

This is a man-made lake from the 60's. I have already caught a few quality fish from it. (4, 5 and 7 lbers.) If it has been there for 46 years, who's to say there isn't a 10 lb bass in there?

Sinking some brushpiles is something that I have been considering; but I'm unsure of how large, how deep, what location, and how many. I think that the fewer I sink the better. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hinkle2891 reply :

you would be surprised at how shallow BIG 'OL BASS can be. one story i have:

I havent caught a fish all day long. I switched to my rapala dives-to series 6 ft baby bass crank, and i saw a downed tree with a V of branches comming up. i casted right up at the tip and BOOM! 6.5 pounder hit, and landed. ive caught almost all my big fish up in the shallows. wooded cover seems like a good place. usually a place where other fisherman can't get to, is a good place. be adventurous. we've had to hop logs before, lol. usually, if you're in a hole, and there are lots of baby bass around, but you havent been catching something, there's a lunker just waiting for something. problem is, what to use?

Whopper-Stopper reply :

Hinkle:

Yes I know that big fish can be shallow or with smaller fish. But I think that there are places with concentrations of big fish. What I am trying to find out is where these concentrations are.

I have made catches like yours before but it seems that they were almost by accident.

Earlier this year I was seeing plenty of big fish shallow whether spawning or otherwise.

But when the spawn was over the bigger fish disapeared and the smaller fish remain. So I think it would be logical to say that the bigger fish moved to deeper water; How far and how deep I don't know. So I am now trying to develop a pattern to catch them.

guest reply :

My perspective is for a clear water upland reservoir with very little nutrient, where dissolved oxygen reaches much deeper than in lowland lakes rich in nutrients where oxygen is mostly shallow. It's much like some canyon lakes out west where largemouths are often found 100 feet deep much of the year. However the lake also has plenty of shoreline heavy cover that gives bass a choice of habitat. I'll try to qualify my comments by being more lake type-specific. Lake Ouachita usually has very clear water attracting more divers and bow fishermen annually. We're even having bowfishing tournaments at night, custom built aluminum boats arriving with sodium lights arrayed around the edges with at least one shooting deck perched high over bow and sometimes transom. I've visited with those guys for years, many scuba diving days to spearfish carp and gar. They take lots of video and photos. I won't argue about what I know. It's a fact, the largest bass in sizes not being caught near shore are being found in very deep water, not concentrated in schools, but one here, one there. They are predictable, almost always in the same spots at the same times of day. From the photos and observations of the hunters some of those bass are in the double digit weights, yet the largest I've known caught on artificial bait in recent years is 9 pounds, hearing of one 11 pounder measured on a Rapala scale. There have been other claims but nobody is making much of it, none of those reports witnessed properly. I've gone to their waypoints and fished for those big bass, but no takers. My best here remains 8 pounds. Some are being caught on live bream occasionally, usually in winter. But that doesn't mean a thing to those of us not using live bait except that more anglers are learning those fish are out there. There have been several studies over the year, tagging large bass, tracking their movements, confirming the loner habits, bass feeding on deep crappie and bream while the usual bass we catch feed on threadfin higher up in the water column. When shad go deeper the big bass catch some of those too. It only takes one nice panfish every few days to keep a big bass going. They do come up shallow occasionally to feed on shore minnows, small bream, and whenever shad venture in shallow, trapped against points, but mostly at night. They are learning to stay out of sight during light hours, somewhat nocturnal. Of course when they arrive they are king of the hill and have their pick of forage, able to eat many of the bass we take home if they pester too closely.

I'm inclined to believe the deep diving crankbait, drop shot and C-rig testimonies of pros like Mike Auten, David Fritts and Mark Davis who tell of fishing for lunkers to 22-23 feet, beyond which the wrists just don't hold up and pinpointing strike zones becomes increasingly difficult. It's vital to get a bait within a few feet of a large bass buried up in deep structure. I read them and heard them and others speak at BMU sessions on this and went out trying their techniques, and they work, but not on the double digit bass. I've pinned them down on many of the specifics and they are all somewhat in agreement about what I've reported in this thread. From those depths come my biggest catches not nearly matched in shallow water except during the spawn.

I wouldn't dispute that some of the largest bass take up permanent residency in shallow water less than 15 feet deep, maybe 12 months a year in lakes that remain warm enough.

BTW, while a particular size class diminishes each year, each size class is increased by bass coming out of smaller size classes to overfill the lower range of the largest bass size class. In a good year that succession can result in an overpopulation of large size classes. I believe we had that situation when the LMBV struck here in the 90s. It was simply mind boggling the numbers of huge bass found floating dead daily for months. Nobody would have ever otherwise believed such bass existed here, catching those things being a rare event before the virus. In that case I believe more of the larger bass that are newcomers are forced to take up haunts shallower than they prefer, the best sites taken by the most dominant bass.

Jim

Bankbeater reply :

If I start catching a bunch of small ones in any given spot, I will move out and fish in another part of the lake or try to fish deeper.

Whopper-Stopper reply :

This is a man-made lake from the 60's. I have already caught a few quality fish from it. (4, 5 and 7 lbers.) If it has been there for 46 years, who's to say there isn't a 10 lb bass in there?

Fish Chris reply :

That sounds like a nice pond, with pretty good visibility. I think I would start by throwing something big and obnoxious, like a 9" MS Slammer (if I wasn't really trying to catch them, but just to shake them up, and call them out.... I'd use the Hud if they were actual trout eaters) but the big thing is, getting them to come up and follow the thing, thereby giving themselves away. Always wear some good polarized glasses. Every time you see a good one, mark that spot on the map in your head. Put together a rout of all the known big fish spots you have found.

Then when you hit the lake, you can just go through your rout, focusing on spots that you already know (at least at the right times) will hold big fish.

You might try those spots at night too.

Anyway, you gotta' find them first. Then just keep going back, and back, and back. Eventually you will hit one of those spots when that big girl is fired up, and then you will put her in the boat ! :-)

Peace,

Fish

Whopper-Stopper reply :

I have been fishing at night and it's starting to pay off. I caught a 3.5 pounder last night and a 3 pounder the night before. Both were caught on a half-ounce black and blue jig.

RobDar reply :

my wife and I were having bad problem with catching undersized fish every tournament. Two weeks ago is a perfect example...we caught 17 fish...not a single keeper ( 14 inch limit)...the guys who won had 4 fish between 14 and 19 inches...and had just 5 bites the whole day. Frustrating!!!! to catch a lot of fish, but none worth wieghing in.

an old timer gave us this advice...

fish smaller ( baits)...fish slower...fish deeper...

this past weekend, our next tournament...we did just that...cut down the plastics, used a little dead stick time...and fished deeper waters...

by 9 am we were culling fish and weighed in a limit.

Z71 reply :

For all those in pursuit of big lunkers in deep water structure, I recommend " In Pursuit Of Gaint Bass" by Bill Murphy. Some incredible insight on how he personally caught many double digit bass. You can get it through Amazon.com. A good read.

JeepFish reply :

What about fishing a large area where there are old trees sticking up out of the water? Is that good for large bass? I caght a 3.5lb'er there. Water is around 10-15' deep. At BigHill lake in South east Kansas.

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