What About Big Bass?

By Russ Bassdozer

Many Big Bass Go Unrecorded. California has more than 20 of the 25 largest bass on record, and Texas has had 328 live teen bass donated by anglers to the state's ShareLunker program since November, 1986. Of course, many big bass landings go unrecorded by anglers.

Big Bass is a Relative, Geographic-Specific Term. Big bass is a relative, geographic-specific term, state by state. Big bass is also a species-specific term, with only 3 states (Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina) having smallmouth listed above ten pounds, and only one state (California again, actually only one fish) where the spotted bass is listed over ten pounds.

Big Bass List by State. Please note the bass listed in this chart are for illustrative purposes only, and may or may not be entirely accurate or correct in terms of state records. Surely not an official chart in any way, but it does illustrate big bass potential in general, state by state. California, Texas and the Southeast states dominate the top positions, plus Southwest states of Arizona and New Mexico. Upper northern states are generally lower on the list, with Central states more in the middle.

Big Bass ARE Caught in Tournaments. There's a notion, I'd say not entirely correct, that big bass aren't caught in tournaments. Au contraire, amigo. Big bass are caught in tournaments, more than most people realize, but they often go unreported to the general fishing public and are just taken matter-of-factly by tournament anglers as a routine part of the tournament game. Indeed, some of the biggest bass (relative term again) landed on a given body of water are caught in the limited time tournaments take place. Many times, a tournament hits town, and t-anglers catch more bigger bass than local anglers believed possible. Add to this that tournaments are limited time fishing, often on crowded weekends, often when conditions are not ideal, and prohibit live bait. Still, big bass are routinely caught during T-time.

Recent noteworthy examples of big t-bass include these impressive lunkers caught on the California Delta in a two day WON BASS pro/am tourney in April, 2002:

1. 13.49 lbs.
2. 13.18 lbs.
3. 12.26 lbs.
4. 10.34 lbs.

How about these big bass weighed-in during a one night American BASS team tourney on Lake Casitas, California in June, 2002:

1. 15.54 lbs.
2. 13.84 lbs.
3. 11.43 lbs.
4. 10.94 lbs.
5. 10.28 lbs.

And the only world record bass in close to 50 years was caught in an American BASS team tourney in April, 2001, a spotted bass of 10.27 lbs.

Big Bass Hunters. Unlike tournament anglers, a special breed of big bass hunters optimize their chances for taking willing big bass by picking their own days, hours, waiting for favorable conditions to materialize, and can use live or fresh bait. Every state, every local region and even local lakes have these self-made big bass anglers who dedicate their fishing time exclusively to hunt big bass only. Many big bass hunters have flexible free time to pursue big bass whenever the time seems right. Some big bass hunters, particularly from California, achieve national recognition such as Mike Long, Bill Siemantel, Bob Crupi, Bill Murphy, Doug Hannon via Florida, to name only a few examples. Every area has its big bass hunters however. Many times, but not always, they may use live or fresh bait to up the odds of success. Of course, they often use larger artificials than usual, increasing the likelihood of big bass encounters as well.

A Word About Bait. It isn't that live or fresh bait is so special to big bass fishing. Actually, live bait will catch more of any size bass, big or small. Regardless of size, bass will almost always hit fresh or live bait better than lures. Big bass follow that universal rule, which is why big bass anglers often use live or fresh bait to sweeten the odds of a trophy encounter.

Are Big Bass Lazy? Some people may tell you big bass get shyer, slower or lazier the bigger they get. Sorry I don't think so. It's stressful to become a big bass. If it was easy, all bass would become big, but we know that's not the case. The vast majority of bass will never make it big. The few that do get big, it is not shy, slow or lazy behavior that gets them there. Quite the opposite. Big bass are super-aggressive and super-powerful. They get more aggressive and more powerful the bigger they get. Keep in mind, big bass eat more and target larger, stronger prey which are more difficult to catch. So I'd say big bass tend to exert more energy and more activity than their average-size bass brethren. In fact, big bass probably were more opportunistic, more active, and ate relatively larger, stronger prey their entire lives, even when they were small bass. Being above-average as small bass is what allowed them to become big. Big bass, even as fry, probably always lived large.