Adventurous Hunting on Big Bass Lakes - By: Ayush Kumar

Most of us anglers love to catch big bass. In fact, some of us will do almost anything to get a chance at those Monster Largemouths. Our biggest problem is where to find these guys. I am sure your stories are like mine in that “You should’ve been here yesterday!” or “That front is not coming in till tomorrow.” Either way, it is rarely the day you can fish that makes for the best day to fish,but remember, a bad day fishing is always better than a good day at work.

I have my favorite local spots around home that I like to fish, and after fishing them for several years, I have learned where the hot spots are. Generally I fish in local rivers and lakes but sometimes I will travel quite a ways just to fish a new spot. Recently, a friend of mine invited me to go with him down south to a private lake. I had never heard of it, but he told me the fishing was good, so I agreed to go.

The next weekend we packed up and headed south. The lake was on a private hunting ranch out in the middle of nowhere. We arrived just after daylight and met the owner at the gate. He took us down to the boat ramp, showed us where the restrooms were, told us about a few good spots and what the bass had been hitting lately and then helped us launch our boat. He left us his card and told us to call him if we need him and then took off.

There was only one house on the lake, which belonged to the owner, and there were no boaters to contend with, it was just my buddy and I. We had the whole lake to ourselves. We could not see all of the lake, but was told it was about fifty acres. It rolled around many different ridges and back into several little fingers. We put on the sunscreen and started fishing.

My first hit came about five minutes after we got on the water on my second cast. I hung a brute up close to the top, and it came out of that water fighting and kicking like a Brahma bull. I fought it for several minutes, and then he finally shook the bait loose and was gone. I looked at my buddy with eyes as big as saucers and asked “Did you see THAT?!!” He just grinned and said “Yep, I told you it was some good fishing.” That was the biggest bass I had ever had on the end of my line and I think it scared me as much as it surprised me. My buddy had been here before and knew what to expect.

Another friend of ours was supposed to have come, but could not due to some family matters, so I got invited. I could not believe what I just saw. I immediately checked my line and bait and recast. Four casts later, I had another monster on my line dancing a jig on top of the water. I managed to get this one up to the boat and in my hands. It was a healthy and beautiful seven and a half pound bass. My buddy tied into one just a few minutes later, and I watched as he fought that monster all the way to the boat. This one weighed over nine pounds, and we were both as excited as two kids who just got their first ponies. We fished for several hours, and as the sun came up, the hits started slowing down but we were still catching a few here and there.

About noon, we came in to the bank and met the owner. He carried us up to the lodge where lunch had been prepared, and we sat down to enjoy our meal. Most of the fish we were catching were five pound plus bass, and I just could not believe the consistency of it. I asked him what made this lake so different from all of the others I had fished before. He then started telling a little bit about how the lake is managed. He talked of algae blooms and cover. He told us how he adjusts size limits when he decides to remove some of the bass. He also discussed how they feed and what they eat. He manages his fish just like he manages the big game on his ranch. This whole idea was new to me, and I never imagined it possible with bass. I have known for years that they must have food and cover, but I had no idea you could actually manage them to grow trophy bass like you would a trophy whitetail.

After several glasses of iced tea and a wonderful dessert, we headed back down to the lake. The early afternoon was still kind of slow fishing, but it was much better than a lot of other days I had fished. I had checked the fishing calendar before we came, and today was shown to be an average day for fishing. An average day on the river meant you might catch six or eight all day, if you could find them. So far, this average day had turned in to over forty for both us. As the sun started easing behind the trees and the shadows grew across the lake, those bass started coming alive again. We started catching a lot of small ones, one to two pounders. We would move to another spot hoping to get on some larger ones, but still it was the smaller ones. We were having a blast catching these smaller ones, but we both knew the day was about to slip away from us, and we were hoping for just one more big one.

We pulled away from the banks and headed toward some brush out in the middle of the lake. I cast on one side of the top and my buddy on the other. We jigged those worms very carefully through the limbs, feeling every branch. I felt the boat lean a little and turned just in time to see him set the hook. His pole bent over and I thought that maybe he was hung up. I was still jigging my worm through the brush when I felt him hit.

I jerked back and set the hook. We both had some monsters on the line and neither one of us could help the other. He kept working the trolling, trying to get us farther from the tree top and trying to keep those bass from tangling us up in the limbs. My bass came out first and hit the top of the water dancing like a porpoise.

I was trying to keep him close so we would not get tangled up. I knew I was going to need the net, but it was at the other end of the boat. My buddy had his hands full trying to wrestle his fish in and we were both hollering back and forth trying to figure out how we were going to land both these fish. Finally, we were both able to get them up to the boat.

They were resting and so were we. We knew we needed to be on the same side and so my buddy very carefully eased over to my side. It was his boat, his trip, and I was just glad to be here. Therefore, I told him I would net his for him while I tried to hold on to mine. We knew we would have to be very careful, or we would lose both of them. I eased the dip net into the water and waited, his fish slowly turned and swoosh, I scooped him into the net. I could not hold him with one hand and he was fighting like crazy.

I was losing him and could not help it, I hollered “Get him in!” to my buddy and with one swift motion we were able to swing him over the side into the boat. As soon as his fish come out of the water, mine took off again. I had loosened the drag before so he hopefully would not break my line if anything happened. The line spooled off and he kept diving. I slowly put more tension on the drag and he started easing up. My buddy got the bait out of his fish and quickly weighed him. He was a whopping ten pounds and fourteen ounces. He put him in the livewell while I tried to land my monster.

He came back up a little easier this time, but he still fought hard. My buddy netted him, and we got him in the boat. Just as he hit the deck of the boat, my worm fell out of his mouth. Boy, that was a close one. We grabbed the scale and lifted him up. I probably sounded like one of my little girls hollering, “Let me see, let me see!” while my buddy was weighing him. He just shook his head and showed me the scale.

Thirteen pounds and two ounces was the reading. That was the biggest fish I had ever caught. I could not believe it. He grabbed his camera and snapped my picture. I gave the fish a good-bye kiss and watched him swim away. We took his fish out, and I snapped his picture. I was thinking how lucky I was to have been invited on this trip as I watched him release that beautiful bass.

I was just plain lucky. We had caught over one hundred bass that day and it was only an average day for fishing. We started off with a bang, and we definitely ended with an even bigger bang.

We could see the headlights coming down the drive toward the ramp as we eased our way across the lake. Neither one of us spoke because we knew this wonderful day was coming to an end. We were exhausted from being out in the heat all day. Our backs ached from standing on the deck all day. We had fished for almost sixteen hours and had only stopped for lunch.

We still had to load the boat, gather our gear, and head back to the hotel. As bad as all that sounds and as wore out as I was, my buddy asked, as we were approaching the bank, “You want to come back next year?” You know what I told him?

So if you are planning for Fallow Deer Hunting in North America then Black Buck Hunting would be best option and make sure to have Whitetail Deer Hunting Outfitters.

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