Got a semi-break in the weather Sunday afternoon and decided to hit the lake for a couple hours. I haven't been focusing much on bass lately, but thought with the cloud cover, light breeze and scattered drizzle, it would be a great opportunity to have some fun. Any time I'm catching fish is fun, but to me, putting the trolling motor down and covering tons of water while chunking a buzzbait is right at the top of the list. So that's what I did.
First, the tackle. A 7'4" MH Denali Mark Tyler Multipurpose rod, a great buzzbait and Chatterbait stick which also doubles as a good mid-depth cranking rod, paired with a high-speed Shimano baitcast reel and 16# Toray fluorocarbon line. Lots of people say don't throw topwaters with fluorocarbon line, but I don't see any problem using it with buzzbaits where the line is out of the water much of the time and the bait is in constant motion. The extra abrasion resistance you get with fluoro is a benefit, and I'm not so sure you don't get better hooksets than with mono - at least that's my working hypothesis right now.
The bait was an Accent Fishing "Game Changer" buzzbait in black - small blade. I added a large 4" Ouzu Goby trailer. A couple thoughts here. First, the metal line clip on the Game Changer does a great job of holding soft plastic trailers. Nothing worse than having your trailers constantly slipping down the hook shank on every cast, throwing off the balance of the bait. Some type of good keeper whichever brand you throw, is very important in my eyes from an efficiency standpoint. Having a great squeal right out of the package like this bait does is also a nice bonus. No more time spent tuning buzzers to get the setup dialed in - just like the custom bait I also throw.
Next, trailer or no trailer? I almost always opt for a trailer, and often a large one, especially with dark-colored buzzers. There are several reasons for this. One is added weight for better casting, especially roll casting into tight spots. Another is better profile. An overlooked benefit is added mass. This helps in two areas. It slows the bait down while keeping it from sinking too fast, both positives in my book when chunking buzzers. It also serves to get you better hookups. This is due to the fact that at least part of the time, bass are still using suction feeding to try and eat your buzzbait. With the added mass at the back end where the hook is, the bait is much more likely to end up in the basses mouth when compared to just a skirted bait. When throwing lighter shad colored buzzbaits, I'll often go with a smaller spinnerbait-type trailer due to better profile matching, but it still serves the same purposes.
So the final tally was about 20 bass in just a few hours including a limit of nice chunks over 15". I got a little wet in the effort, but I'll dry out as will the boat - and I had a blast watching a bunch of bass blow up on my buzzbaits - so it's all good.
Revisiting the idea of "Big Indiana Bass"
Every year I seem to focus on something a little different in my fishing. I never know what it will be until I get attached to an idea, but there is usually always something to track. Several years it has been all about numbers of bass, but then last year was about numbers and variety, every fish I caught. Other years I've never tracked, preferring to just fish for fun. One thing I haven't really done yet, largely because I'd much rather catch a lot of bass than just a few bigger bass, is to focus on trying to target "big" bass. Seems kind of ironic given the name of the site.
Back in December 2006, I examined tournament reports from six states, which consisted of 18,000 tournaments and four million angling-hours of competition, and concluded that the average time that it took the anglers in these tournaments to catch a five-pound bass was 495.5 hours. That data was assembled just a few years after the largemouth bass virus had affected many of the southern tourney waters (primarily 1998-2002). I later looked at more recent data (2008-2010) for these same states, and the fisheries had rebounded somewhat. It still took on average 148, 189, and 288 hours to catch a five-pound bass in Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi, respectively. Additionally, data showed it took about 106 hours to catch a bass over 20-inch (4.5 pounds) in Kansas, and 211 hours to catch a bass over four pounds in Tennessee.
That four pound mark is somewhat cemented in my mind as the dividing line between what is a "big" bass and what isn't. In his book, "In Pursuit of Giant Bass", the late Bill Murphy stated, “When bass reach a size of about 4 pounds, they normally undergo a change in personality – they begin to lose the habits of smaller bass and take on the characteristics of adults.” Bill went on to state that any time you caught a bass that was 4 pounds or better, the bass and the bait/color he hit meant something.
So I've decided that this is the year I focus on primarily trying to catch these 'above average' bass. I plan on only posting photos and details of the bass I catch that exceed the four pound mark. Not "eye-balled" fours, either. Everything gets confirmed on either of the two calibrated scales I keep in the boat. Who knows, that might make for a pretty boring site as far as my fishing reports go :) but I'd like to think that as much as I fish, I would have a few things figured out by now, or at least some theories or approaches to try. I guess we'll see.
And, just to get things started off on the right foot in 2016, here are the first fish to begin the quest. The following fish went 4-02, 6-02 and 6-04 and were caught on a trip this past Friday. The smaller of the three was caught on a jig, the larger two were caught on jerkbaits.
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