What is the "OLD WAY"?

Back before most of us old fashioned guys knew about crank baits, spinner baits and all of the other new fangled ways to entice a largemouth to play with us, there was a giant river shiners, a big hook, a paddle (for sculling), big heavy line and a stout rod.

When I was a kid, some 35 years ago, this is how we caught largemouth bass. We might have also used a giant cork but on this trip, I left the corks at the house.

Lets start by getting some giant river shiners. There are two ways to get these. Catch them, using some sort of chum, like oatmeal, grits or something like this. A hair hook, yes a hook so small a human hair is the same size as the hook, a long cane pole and a small piece of earth worm or a piece of bread moistened and pressed on the hook. This way can take hours if you do not have a place that readily holds these shiners and that could be time that could be spent fishing for bass instead of bait.

OR, you can go to a place that is set up to catch and sell these giant gold river shiners.

This is what I opted to do. I drove to Hawthorne Bait and Tackle on Highway 20 and for the poultry sum of $12 a dozen, I bought a few dozen. By the time I purchased a few dozen hatchery shiners to go with the wild ones, I had spent the better portion of a 50 spot.

I was ready, I had my Keep Alive portable live well full of shiners and I was on my way to Lake Sante Fe for some killer bass fishing.

Arriving at the public ramp, I sort of noticed that the wind was blowing but the ramp in tucked in behind a big tree line and it only seemed like about a 10 mph wind. I went on and launched my 16 foot Carolina Skiff J-Series, I left the big boat at the house thinking I was lake fishing and would not need that big ole boat. When I made it through the canal and out towards the edge of the lake, you should have seem my facial expression, I was in disbelief of what I was looking at on the lake. Three foot waves with the tops covered in foam and may be two to three feet apart.

I was in trouble, ocean size waves and I am in a Jon boat. Why didn't I bring the big boat? See, the big problem, was I needed to go to the other side of the lake and this eight mile run was not going to happen in my Jon boat in these conditions.

I had only one choice, fish the canals for small fish or try to find a few on the bed. My attitude had gone from very excited to I almost want to throw my hands up and say I quit. If not for my videographer, I might have done just that. He convinced me to head towards the canals and give it a try.

The first canal was at least one quarter of a mile from where we were and that seemed like a hundred miles in this big chop. I told him to hold on and off we went. Up one wave and down another, with large amounts of water coming over the sides on just about every other wave. At one time, I swear I was eyeball to eyeball with a four footer but the little boat rode up and then down as we made our way to the canal. When we finally got to the first one, I had such a feeling of relief, I wanted to kiss the little boat for getting us safely through the BIG WAVES.

We fished the canal, Scott on the casting deck, operating the Minn Kota, looking for beds and me in the back dragging a big monster wild shiner.

Scott found a bed or two that held little buck bass and I caught a 3 pound bass on a hatchery shiner, the big wild shiners were much too big for the small fish in the canal. I WAS NOT HAVING FUN. I had barley slept the night before with great anticipation of catching very large, large mouth bass on giant wild shiners and here I was in a canal struggling to catch small fish.

We did this for about 6 hours until around 2:00 pm and then I noticed the tree tops were no longer moving. Had the wind laid down? We made our way out of the canal and into the lake. No more three foot waves, they were only a foot high. We could make the run in this, even though we had to go about eight miles into the milder blow. We battened down the hatches and we were off. When we got to the other side of the lake, it was protected and the wind had little effect on this side of the lake. ALL RIGHT, we could now do what I had dreamed about this previous night.

I was already rigged, so I got the first giant wild shiner from the live well, hooked him up, sent him out way behind the boat, did the same with the second shiner and we were fishing. Scott ran the Minn Kota and I sat in the back waiting for the sound of my Pfluegers' clicker.

It was not long and the Pflueger PFL 66 started making the sound that I was so anticipating, CLICK, CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK. I them eased the rod from the holder, took off the clicker, pointed the rod tip in the direction of the fish and waited and waited. After about 5 to 10 seconds, I gathered all of the slack line back on the spool and set the hook . As soon as I hit the fish, I knew it was a nice one. It felt like I was setting the hook in a stump, nice and solid. The fish felt the hook and made his way to the surface for a little tail walking. Now I had this bait well over 100 feet behind the boat, so just imagine a 7 to 8 pound big fat largemouth 100 feet behind the boat coming out of the water and thrashing like a sailfish. THIS IS WHY I HAD COME HERE! After several runs and 5 more jumps, I had the fish at the boat. I was so excited that I could hardly speak. Not so much that I had never caught a fish of that size but because I was out of the canal.

I landed this big dog and on the Boga grip it hit the 7.5 pound mark.

After releasing this one I sent out another shiner and was back to waiting on that sound to happen a gain. This fish came in ten feet of water, so we concentrated on that depth. My Bottomline recorder was marking a light grass, maybe one to 2 feet deep, growing just off of the bottom when I hooked up. This also must be a key. Are the fish suspended just in the grass waiting to dart out on an unsuspecting giant wild shiner?

What was that, was it the sound? Click, click and more clicks. I once again eased to rod from the holder, took of the clicker, pointed the rod tip at the fish and waited about 10 seconds. Again I took up the slack and busted the fish and again it was like I had set the hook in a stump, A GREAT FEELING. This fish did not jump like the last one but was a little bigger and really pulled back good. Again I was landing a nice fish and on the Boga, it weighed in at just about 8 pounds.

I managed to land two more fish in the 7 to 8 pound class and lost one at the boat that would have gone about 12 pounds, the downside to a fish that jumps.

It was now getting late and Scott had to get back to do family stuff, so we headed to the ramp.

Not a bad two and a half hours. Four nice fish to the boat, lost a big big one and had two or three more bites without a hook up. Imagine how many we would have caught if we had been able to get to this spot six hours earlier.

The rig:
I was using a Pflueger PFL Trion 66 reel, a Shakespeare 7 foot medium heavy Ugly Stik Lite, 50 pound test Power pro line, a 30 pound test Cajun Lightning red line as a leader and a 5/0 Daiichi X-Point worm hook. No weight, no cork, just the hook and the shiner. Hook the shiner through the nose and send it out at least 75 feet behind the boat. I was fishing over a grass bottom in about 10 to 11 feet of water. I had the Minn Kota on low, just enough to keep the shiners moving. Leave the reel in free spool with the clicker on. When the fish grabs the shiner, point the rod tip at the fish and take the clicker off, so there will not be any resistance on the shiner. Let the bass have the bait a long time and rare back and set the hook.