Texas FRESHWATER by MATT WILLIAMS :: TF&G Freshwater Editor
Hawg Hunting Season
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E ARE ON THE CUSP OF another lunker season in Texas. Bass junkies, it’s time to get your game faces on and get ready for war! More heavyweight Texas bass are caught between January and April than at any other time of year. Back in the late 1980s and 1990s, I spent several days fishing with a guy named John Hope. Hope lived in Palestine at the time and worked as a fishing guide on Houston County Lake. He was well known across Texas, largely through his affiliation with the now-defunct publication, Honey Hole Magazine. Hope lived for the big bite. He loved it so much that he became infatuated with learning all he could about big bass behavior. The guide was so obsessed with fat fish that he began equipping them with electronic transmitters so he could monitor their daily routines. Between 1986 and 1994, Hope surgically implanted electronic transmitters inside 57 fish ranging from six to 15 pounds in more than a dozen Texas lakes. Three were Texas ShareLunkers, including a 15 pounder from Lake Fork, a 14 pounder from Lake Murvaul and a 13 pounder from Sam Rayburn. Hope worked tirelessly on the project. He once spent five consecutive days and nights tracking fish at Houston County. The guide slept in the bottom of his boat in a sleeping bag, waking periodically to document the movements of his finny subjects. The studies taught Hope a ton about big bass. He wrote a book documenting the findings. Fittingly, the book is titled Trackin’
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Location a huge key. The guide spends an abundance of time fishing creeks. He does so slowly and methodically. “I basically pick a creek apart, and I take my time doing it,” he explained. “I fish up one side, down the other and pay real close attention to bends in the channel with sharp breaks, especially if there is a bunch of brush down there. The more cover there is, the better the big fish like it.” When Stevenson’s bait comes in contact with thick cover, he makes a point to fish through it instead of around it. “When I feel my bait bumping brush, I actually slow down and allow my bait get down into it,” he said. “I may not get the bait back. But then, I may get it back with a big bass holding on to it.” Stevenson said it is essential to have the right mindset in when targeting big bass. “Fishing for big bass is an entirely different ball game than going after numbers,” he said. “You have to realize you aren’t going to get as many bites and not get discouraged. Fishing for big bass is a lonely game, but it can be really rewarding if you don’t mind putting in the time.” According to Stevenson, big bass are prone to go on the prowl when nasty weather sets in. “Don’t be deterred by the weather,” Stevenson said. “The days that are most conducive for comfortable fishing are not necessarily the days when big fish bite the best. For some reason, big bass go on the prowl during nasty weather. Something about it turns them on.”
Texas Trophies. One of the more valuable lessons Hope learned is that big bass are home bodies. “Every big bass has a bedroom where it rests and a kitchen where it feeds,” Hope said. “And those places won’t be very far apart. I never had a fish move more than 400 yards from its bedroom when it went to feed. They don’t go roaming around all over the lake from one day to the next.” Hope also learned that big bass feed predominantly at night, 12 months a year. “Every fish over seven pounds is a nocturnal feeder,” Hope said. “They may feed periodically during the day, but they do most of their feeding at night, usually in two hour intervals. They feed for a while, then rest for a while.” Hope also learned something about how fish relate to cover and structure in shallow, mid-range and deep water. Furthermore, his findings helped him firm up his “funnel point” theory. “For several years I would mark an X on the map when I would catch a big bass,” Hope explained. “At the time, the only common denominators I noticed between the spots were deep water access, cover and structure.” Hope was referencing the X-riddled lake map one day, when he made an interesting discovery. “It was like someone flicked a light switch,” he said. “There was a narrow trail leading to all the X’s. They looked like funnels - wide at one end, narrow at the other. These are the types of places big bass like to travel. Spend more time fishing defined funnel points, and you’ll catch more big bass.” Mark Stevenson knows what it takes to land the big ones. Since 1984, Stevenson has caught nearly 300 weighing 10 pounds or more from Lake Fork, including a 17.67pound former state record that still ranks as the biggest Texas bass ever caught on an artificial lure. Stevenson says there are number of things anglers can do to boost the chances of getting big bites. F I S H
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Email Matt Williams at ContactUs@fishgame.com
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12/16/21 4:26 PM
