The home of particular big fish ??? 2024
Fish Chris reply :
Do you guys know where a particular big fish lives ? You keep going back to a certain spot and seeing a big one, which you know from size and distinguishing markings / features, to be the same fish you saw before... and before.... and before that ?
You guys all know that bass, especially the biggest ones, are very territorial, right ? And believe me, if you saw a big one on a spot, on one trip, then three trips later, then two or three trips after that, the odds are VERY high, that even on those in between trips when you did not see it, it was still probably within a long cast of the same spot... just down a bit deeper, and / or out a bit further.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is, these are the kinds of spots that I always mark on my mental map. I won't neccessarily spend a long time on these spots at any one time, but I will be sure to sneak up on that spot, at least once, and maybe even 3 or 4 times every trip. One of those times, that big girl is going to be hungry, and your going to put that lure right in front of her face, at just the right time :-)
Now, although I have seen this sort of thing countless times, and finally caught a good handful, one of the most memorable of these situations was with an obese monster of a bass, which I had been seeing every second or third trip, on the same exact point, all of the Summer of 02'. I had her swat at a trout lure a couple times, but not hook up. She finally decided to come into my boat to see me, after I stuck her while fishing a bedfishing technique (was she spawning ? Well it was August the 27th, so you decide)
No since in posting a photo..... she was the 15.8 lb'er that you see in my avatar. I'd say she was worth going back 50 times throughout that Summer for :-)
Have you found a big one, which you finally caught, or which you are still working on ???
Don't get discouraged ! She will eventually eat ! :-)
Peace,
Fish
guest reply :
In my experience there is no doubt that certain spots seem to always hold good fish. I don't know if the best spots draw the biggest fish, or the best spots create the biggest fish, but there are a number of spots I fish that if I get bit, it's a good one.
p-funk reply :
Totally off topic Chris, and not to hijack your thread, but I've got a tshirt with you and a bass on it. It's a heat transfer. Just curious as to if you got that started or if someone got your permission to do it and you get a cut of it. No reason behind me asking just been curious ever since I got the prints a while back because I had seen your website before I got the prints and I recognized the picture. 
Skwerl reply :
pfunk, that's a thread hijack if I ever saw one. Try a PM.
I fish an urban chain of lakes with about 95% developed shoreline. There's only a couple sections where you're not looking in somebody's back windows. There are man made 12' wide canals connecting several of the lakes. When I get there early in the morning I usually see big ol' bass in the canals- usually near the ends but sometimes quite a ways in. One canal in particular, I usually see a bass about 27"-28" right at the mouth on the left side. There's a big clump of cattails right there and she will park against the canal seawall but only a couple feet from thick cover. It's a difficult spot to fish because you can't sneak up on it and boat traffic prevents you from hanging out there too long.
guest reply :
Hey I know this pot that always holds huge bass THE TANK AT CABELAS
Skwerl reply :
...and muddy man brings teh funny! ;D
mudcatwilly reply :
I fish a very small lake, or a very large pond, depending on how you look at it. In this small lake, an 18.1 lb and a 17 lb bass were caught and released this year. That's only the fish that I know of. There may have been other hawgs caught there recently. Anyway, I know that there has got to be a 20 plus pounder in this lake, or the 18 pounder might get over 20 lbs in awhile. When I fish this lake, I'm looking for that fish, the 18.1 pounder that is hopefully 19 lbs by now.
Low_Budget_Hooker reply :
pfunk- pretty sure it was hijacked, it was posted about previously
FC-What are the chances of knowing where all the big fish live in a 200 acre impoundment.
I have fished it for about 20 yrs and I know where quite a few of the king/queen class live. I'm sure I'm catching the same fish yr after yr and seeing them as they go from 4's into 5's and so on (don't laugh, that's big in RI,lol)
We know many of the deep fish personally also. 3 of them even have names.
Is there a chance that there is a 9 somewhere in there that I havn't met yet??
I have fished the entire body, top to bottom, side to side, many times. Through the years, the learning has narrowed down the search as I started figuring out the larger class fish.
Could I have this place owned? Is it actually possible iswhat I'm asking. In your opinion.
langs15 reply :
I am with you Chris, but I havn't caught her...yet. I know exactly where she entrances into the tress and I always see her go to the right or to the left of the tree lines so I know shes not FAR away. One day I will catch her!
langs15 reply :
I think I caught her biggest relative though at 6 pounds same spot as her, but I know it's not HER..
guest reply :
LBH - You probably have MOST of the best spots marked. Personally, I always believe that there is a bigger bass and a better spot. It keeps me going.
Plus, conditions change. Now down here in SE Florida we get Hurricanes and tropical storms that blow water and structure all over the place. So fishy spots are being created and destroyed on an annual basis. This keeps the challenge going.
I know you don't have that problem in Rhode Island.
Maybe you need to move to a REAL state
FatBoy reply :
I've been fishing this little farm pond near my house in Central Illinois for the past few weeks. The first time I went there, my friend pulled out (and threw back) a 4-9 girl. (I realize this isn't that big to most of you, but for this newbie it would be a PB.) So I know she's out there, but I can't find her. I keep going back even though all I catch are dinks. Someday I'll get her....or her big sister. 8-)
FatBoy reply :
Oh yeah. Almost forgot. My big fear is that some bonehead has (or will) catch her and decide she looks too tasty to throw back. Anybody else worry about that?
Low_Budget_Hooker reply :
QuoteI know you don't have that problem in Rhode Island.
Maybe you need to move to a REAL state
I know, I know,....but Texas is too far away from my family 
Valascus reply :
QuoteI have fished the entire body, top to bottom, side to side, many times. Through the years, the learning has narrowed down the search as I started figuring out the larger class fish.Could I have this place owned? Is it actually possible is what I'm asking. In your opinion.
I think it is possible to have a place "owned". I fish two farm ponds on family property in New Haven, MO. I have been fishing these ponds exclusively for bass now for about 12 years. I want to believe that there are bigger fish in there, but I have yet to catch one over about a pound in all these years fishing them (I think the ecosystem in these ponds is shot). i have yet to be skunked at these locations. Why? Cuz i know where the fish are. But I keep going back there and pounding the spots where the big girls may lie. I just constantly think that a big one HAS to be in there. Sometimes after 12 hours of straight fishing in these spots and an absolute ton of dink bass in the livewells lining the banks, I think maybe I do have these spots "owned". I hope not...but maybe I do.
Matt Fly reply :
LBH,
You got family in Texas. BFR.com family.
guest reply :
One of my goals is to be living in Tenn,Lousisiana or Texas within 3or 4 years I lived in Louisina for 6 years and I miss the South I work for job corps and Ill be ready to shop my resume around and make the move to a job crops down south once I finish my degree I MISS THE FOOD THE MUSIC THE PEOPLE AND THOSE BASS
roadwarrior reply :
Valascus,
Twelve years?
Find another place to fish. There are no big fish in your ponds and there never will be. Your pond is stunted and will never produce quality fish.
I have a pond, the Secret Pond, that produced the biggest bass I have ever seen in person, alive or stuffed. A friend of mine caught it last year and released it. I fish for this fish exclusively when I am at the pond. If I catch it, we'll know exactly how big she really is.
My fishing partner caught a 10 lb smallmouth on the Tennessee River in November, 2004. There is a ridge that is submerged when we have 40,000 cfs or more being released from the Pickwick Dam. When we fish this ridge, we are on high alert. Although I doubt this particular bass is still alive, I fish like it is. Every spot that has held a big fish in the past has the potential to attract a big bass in the future.
Valascus reply :
QuoteValascus,Twelve years?
Find another place to fish. There are no big fish in your ponds and there never will be. Your pond is stunted and will never produce quality fish.
That's what I have been thinking most of the last year or two I have fished there. I will continue to fish there, however. I have been keeping many of the fish I have been catching in order to try to restore order to the ecosystem. I also have been studying pond management and speaking with state conservation authorities on methods to help try to make the ponds fisheries better. If I can improve them slowly but surely I'll have my family and friends will have their own personal honeyholes to go too. Besides...in the area I live in good fishing spots are few and very far between. I can't think of ANY spots off the top of my head within a reasonable distance that carry "quality fish". The Lake of the Ozarks, Tablerock, and Bull Shoals are all too far away for me and planning a trip to them just isn't really in the cards the vast majority of the time. The only other spot is the wildly pressured Busch Wildlife Reservation. Good spots on local rivers are a pretty good drive away from here and require a boat most of the time. So, right now anyway, I make do with what I have and try to improve it anyway I can.
guest reply :
Outside probably every prime spawning area there should be at least a couple of prime habitats owned by one really large bass on each. They include at least one vegetated flat an acre or two in size, a creek channel with a bend, submerged trees and stumps, a ridge, ledge, hole, maybe a hump, and a point. The spawning area will be within 1/2 mile.
She will patrol the route with regularity, chasing off intruders, knowing the best ambushments. I talk to divers a lot, see hundreds of photos and videos shot each year. I'm seeing evidence of bass that hardly anyone else believes ought to be here following the LMBV disaster in the 90's. Lake biologists have caught a few in gill nets, so we know they are in the lake, but nobody is claiming to be catching those bass that have to be in the double digits. While none of the catch locations are let out to us, I've learned enough to know there are a few at every location described above.
She will visit each boulder, that dip in the hydrilla weedline on the hump, a break-over ditch into a deep channel at a particular large stump, up a little ditch into the flat, across the deepest run through the flat, then down another ditch back to begin the route again. They move sort of like a deer between feeding and resting areas, following the same trail endlessly with amazing clockwork regularity, departing from the annual route only for the rut. Most animals follow some routine that enables them to become masters of every plant, tree, rock or anything else that if there's any change around it, they note it.
The biggest bass do that.
Others segregate in schools by size class, small fish in larger schools, large fish in schools reducing in numbers simply because fewer bass reach larger sizes. Once they reach age 7-8 they begin going LONER. You just don't find ten 15# bass living around the same 5 stumps. You'll maybe find the one, and a host of other smaller bass waiting their turn to move in to a prime piece of underwater real estate. They are run off and must find second, third, fourth best. So I search and try, believing someday I'll connect on my home lake with THE bass most go to California or Florida to catch.
Jim
Captain Cali reply :
Still searchin'! Fish Chris, thank's for the motivational post.
Fish Chris reply :
Hope this helps some of you.
BTW Roadwarrior, you said > Every spot that has held a big fish in the past has the potential to attract a big bass in the future < and I absolutely agree ! Even if your monster bass finally sucumbs to old age (and hopefully not to a meat hunter) there was a VERY good reason that big ol' girl chose that spot, and when she is gone, the next big up and comer will fill that spot right behind her. In other words, their will be a new queen of the throne :-)
And hey ouachitabassangler, you have a most excellent insight into the way a big bass moves through her daily rout ! You said > She will patrol the route with regularity, chasing off intruders, knowing the best ambushments. < and > They move sort of like a deer between feeding and resting areas, following the same trail endlessly with amazing clockwork regularity, departing from the annual route only for the rut. Most animals follow some routine that enables them to become masters of every plant, tree, rock or anything else that if there's any change around it, they note it.
The biggest bass do that. <
Geeez ! I just couldn't have said that better myself ! :-) ...... and isn't this just such cool stuff ??? :-)
Peace,
Fish
guest reply :
It sure is Fish. I have a degree in habitat management but it took a very long time to actually learn the stuff I needed they didn't teach. What began as dry hard to get information in the early 70s turned into passion to learn the secrets of bass. Of course I had to deal with all species of fish and other animals, but all of it together has raised an awareness there are so many coincidences between most animals. It wasn't until around 1985 until I could see the links and make suggestions for undergraduates to study fish habits to better understand what was needed to improve our fisheries. Now such studies are plentiful, and I read the research results. Bass have been tracked with telemetry and what I'm talking about, a mature bass having a route, is known fact. They adjust their route timing so we rarely if ever see them, just like a Boone & Crockett buck doesn't allow a good shot in broad daylight, but goes nocturnal until the mating urge makes a fool of him. I just love this and can't get enough of it.
And I'd sure love to fish behind you at that hole the big mama came out of. Nice bass! You have me beat even over my Florida trophy, and DOUBLED my state PB.
Jim
Fish Chris reply :
those tracking studies are SOOO interesting. I used to have a paperback around here somewhere, by (I hope this is correct) John Hope, in which several big bass were tracked, and they acted just the way we are talking about.
About that big bass.... Thank you..... but you would have caught her too, given the same opportunities that I was.
Peace,
Fish
Mattlures reply :
I know where a 25lber lives. I also used to know where where two lived that were around 20lbs. I actualy lost one but could never get the other too bite. Now if I would have found them on beds thats a diferent story. I have John Hopes book and it is verry interesting. I also have Bill Murphy's book(The best trophybass book ever writen) and Doug Hannons book. after reading them you would think they were fishing for diferent species. Hannons views and opinons are SOO wrong when aplied to our bass out here. I find it extremely interesting that the same fish have such diferent habbits based on the diferent types of water. But I absoluty believ big bass are teritorial and its just a matter of time before I catch a realy big bass.
Fish Chris reply :
Matt said > But I absoluty believe big bass are teritorial and its just a matter of time before I catch a realy big bass. <
.....Of course that 17 plus of his, wasn't too awefully bad either ;-)
But I know what your saying buddy. You stand as good a chance, or better, than anybody up here, of sticking that first 20 plus from Nor Cal !
Peace,
Fish
guest reply :
QuoteLBH,You got family in Texas. BFR.com family.
somehow I think if LBH were going to move in would somewhere in Canada.
Something to do with Fords or Dodge's, or Chevy's 8-)
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