Secrets of Large Bass
 

Along the Eastern Seaboard a Select group of anglers ( some young and some old) Year after Year produce Documented Monster Bass from the Surf. A few of these gents have been around before most of us were born and are still going strong. Whats the Secret. Please share your thoughts.............................

They do there homework, and have time to fish alot of nights, 7 nights a week, they know where the structure is and what tides/times to fish them.
some have old timers to show them the ropes other do it on there own. it just takes them longer

What the guy above said....spots, times, tides plus experience.

My secret is in your backyard.GET BACK TO PAINTING BOY!!!It's time.

Well , they must read the Pro-Jo fishing report and go to secret spots.

High fiber diet.
:D

Insomnia? :smash:

I have the pleasure of knowing a couple... the secret is.. wish I knew. :) Yes, they put their time in, know more about the forage for bass, than most others will ever know about bass. They know tides, moon phases, weather patterns, etc. Barometric pressure changes, affect them first,... they just know in their bones. they know that some beaches will produce at a certain tide, certain bar, for maybe 20 minutes, to half an hour, then they will move, before the fish do, so they can be at the next feeding station.
They pay a high price, professionaly, personally, for their passion for the surf, some will even tell you, in a reflective moment, that they regret ever taking up surf fishing for stripers, as they have suffered family relationships, and jobs for it. They are truly "Hard Core". I think the "secret" is that fishing for them, comes first and foremost. First over wives, kids, jobs, bills, everything.
That is the price they pay for their "secret". There might be some that can balance, "normal life" (whatever that is), and "Hard Core, Pure Fishing", but I have yet to meet one.

simple::if you live where you have friend's in these area's.I've used these before, so have other's.cheating? no!just another fishing tool.


#1.plane's...siteseeing/tuna spotter's



#2.local comm. fish pier

#3.local dive shop

did I win a prize ? or just piss off some local ledgend somewhere .

Yes for honesty and perception...send me a lure please :hee:

whats mentioned above and lots of luck

There were two local ledgend's here long before the internet came along..These two would wait till the cover of darkness then slip into their boat and head into pleasent bay.Before first lite, they come ashore and head to the local fishmarket with hundred's of lb's of fish.Folk's would stop by in the morning at this market to see what was dropped off. There would be a huge pile of fish with the same two names nite after nite....Where? How? Boy these guy's are good......got gillnet? they were never caught....the moral of this story is if you dig deep enough into SOME of these ledgend's you'll find something fishy going on.

1. They make sure their tackle is in top working order at all times.
2. They concentrate their fishing in big fish areas. They are willing to fish areas where they may catch only a few fish but have an increased chance of catching a large fish. They will travel to the areas where the bigger fish are based on the migration season. It's more important to be where the fish are then to know an area inside out.
3. Learn how to fish the plugs or baits that are known to work on big fish in a given area. Eels, live or rigged, being number one. Jigs in fast water areas and swimmers and needlefish in the surf to note a few. Need to have faith in what your using to the point where your always thinking the next cast might be the one.
4. A small group of good fishermen willing to share information and work together is a great asset. This was an invaluable asset when I was a kid surf fishing the Jersey coast in the 60s. Today with the advent of the cell phone it's even better.
5. Fish every chance you get.

I bet their jobs/life style's allow them to fish harder then most. I hope dudes like tat spend at least half the time they do with their kids as they do after big fish,,, Being a father/husband should be first, I've been guilty. If your job involves hard labor then your body can only put up with so much before break down,,no sleep ect. ect. I bet most of those guys have jobs that allows them to fish or are atleast flexiable

{ A small group of good fishermen willing to share information and work together is a great asset. This was an invaluable asset when I was a kid surf fishing the Jersey coast in the 60s. Today with the advent of the cell phone it's even better.}
fish whisperer, via the telephone.

Exactly :uhuh:

They ask "Iron Mike" .............

Living near the beach helps. Alot.

cows dont care much for plastic or wood so use live bait or chunks

The best fisherman I know don't "Document" anything. They keep quiet about it.

Is that a fact? :doh: :rollem:

big old bass get that way by not being caught or getting caught and released(which is very likely),think about it a 50lb striper is around 18 years old this old lady has seen everything from rigged eels to danny plugs.but in a sense when your fishing with bait your not tricking the bass into striking like with a plug,you are feeding the bass with a chunk of mackeral or a live pogy or eel which they will take down in a heart beat.

big bait = big fish

Whatever you say :rollem:

You should ask stiff tip about the 50 plus lb. fish in the canal that ate his plug many years ago.

Or, you could ask Al McReynolds, Tony Stetzko, or Charlie Cinto, all of whom took 70#+ fish on lures (Stetzko's even hit a teaser fly instead of the live eel that was on the same leader), or Tim Coleman and Iron Mike who have multiple 60s on wood.

Frank Daignault, 7 stripers over fifty on plugs or rigged eels, and countless amount of 40 pounders. It doesn't take any skill to use bait it's all luck. Tony C. last year caught a 62.5 on a Habs Jointed Neddle

I like to duct tape chunks onto my plugs :humpty:

technically the plug belonged to falptail and stifftip hoed it to fish with after seeing Steve nail bass after bass on it.



how about this for cow bait? :hihi: courtesy of Striperknight

that is awesome

that is totally awesome, I think if that worked it may prove that stripers feed more based on sight and/or instinct than smell....
hmmmm...

One thing that we do not Need in the Fishing Game at this time .....Talking about a few guys using nets to catch fish.....I'm sure that the fishing community at the time did not recognize these men as Legend's and especially not future legends............ The close knit family of Striped Bass fishing as a whole know's who earned there status and I am sure we all agree on that . Are you saying that these two men became legends without using a rod and reel ????? And were never seen by anyone during the daylight hours ???? As far as someone becoming a legend because he fishes twenty four hours a day... I don"t think so....If a hundred anglers fished twenty four hours a day all season long, You would still have only one or two that would attain respect by the rest... I know a couple of past and present respected angler's that there family life was batting a thousand and there children went on to make great careers for themselve's, Aided by both parents guidance... As a whole our sport is healthy and I do not think that we need to post negative things that can hurt us................

i take my wife and kids every chance i get and they have a ball. on any give night they catch 3-5 schoolies from shore....i hope i am building future legends of the bass fishing community.

It's sad but no everyone plays by the rules

Completely disagree.

Reasons?

Ive thought a lot about this thread today and here's my 10 cents which will be added to my next book "striper-mania"

The best striper men out there stay quiet, avoid attention, operate in the shadows and most of them trust no one. They may have boasted at one time, they may have enjoyed the spotlight, and they may have trusted a few. But, to go the long haul, the very best stay quiet and focus all of their energy on where to fish, when to fish and how to fish. They use the tactics that they know will A- produce the largest bass B- use tactics that are not tireing so they can fish long periods of time, and C- they use these tactics over and over and over in the same spots that they know will produce at a certain moon stage/tide. For them, fishing the suds is not a hobby, its not a passion, its an obsession which has made them sacrifice all in life to possibly catch the one fish out there that will validate everything that they have sacrificed so much for..

Using eels takes skill and experience. I know plenty of people who fish with eels and do well but then there are those who seem to consistantly catch large. Do you think that they are just lucky? I don't think so.

Most of us don't consider eels bait. They are in a class by themselves. Not lures, but not bait either. Kind of a hybrid of the two.

Well, that pretty much rules you out :hee: :rotf2: :rotf2:

Sorry.

Bait can certainly take skill to consistantly produce big fish, and eel fishing is an art to its own...

Habs makes a good point as well, if the fishing hurts the family then there's something lost.

For me it's all about time on the water. You can't learn to catch large if you're not fishing enough to monitor and recognize behavioral patterns.

-spence