Way back in April, in 46 degree water, I caught a 7-14 on a tiny (2.5"),
smoke, Lunker City grub on a 1/8 ounce jig head, just nudging it around a
rock pile at the base of a drop off in 18 feet of water. The color was
smoke. Small, slow, low-viz. Not exactly the kind of stuff most bass
fishermen would throw for big fish.

The drop-off this fish came from might just be the single best spot in the
lake. It gets fished pretty hard, and it turns out a lot of big fish. It's
a big fish spot, and most of the guys who fish it fish it with big lures.
After all, big lures catch big fish, don't they?

I got a big fish off an isolated boulder in 18 feet of water a couple
hundred feet south of that rock pile on 4th of July. I got it drop shotting
an insignificant little 3", smoke Reaper. This fish wasn't quite as heavy
as that last pig, but it was still over 7 pounds. I thought it was
interesting that my two biggest fish of the year from a lake where big
baits usually rule, had come on the tiniest of offerings.

It wasn't until the next day, when I printed out a photo of the fish and
hung it on my office wall, next to the other one, that it jumped at me. The
same split anal fin. Identical markings along the flank. Even the same
irregularity in the scale pattern on the side of the belly. A bit skinnier,
to be sure, but there was no doubt it was that same fish. Lighter by the
load of eggs and extra fat it had been carrying prior to the spawn, but
already starting to put some weight back on, despite its exhibited
preference for small meals.

It's certainly not the first time I've caught the same fish over again, or
the first time I've recaught a fish very close to where I'd caught it
before. But what strikes me most about this fish is that both times I
caught it, it had ample opportunity to hit a "full size" meal before it
succumbed to a presentation that very few bass fishermen would bother
employing in this lake, because neither is a "big fish" technique.

This particular fish doesn't seem to share the same behavior traits that
MOST bass do. If it did, it would have been eating crawfish and yellow
perch along the edge of the vegetation in 10 to 12 feet of water. Its
unusual forage size preference and possible preference for deeper water may
insulate it from the efforts of most bass fishermen. The question is, how
many more big ones are there not getting caught because they don't follow
what we accept as the big fish rule book?

I believe that every significant fish we catch has something to teach us,
and this fish is no exception. It's telling us that sometimes, the way to
the big might just be to separate ourselves from the crowd, and fish with
techniques that MOST of the fish tell us are wrong. Or at least that not
all big fish get that way eating big meals.

There's a composite of the two photos at
http://www.richz.com/fishing/images/samefish.jpg for those interested in
comparing them.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing