How far out of the box are you guys willing to climb ?

Ok, check this out:

You hear that some guy was using a chunk of hotdog while fishing for catfish, and he sticks a 14 lb Largemouth bass ! Amazing, but surely just a huge coincidence, right ? A few weeks goes by and another guy, also fishing for catfish with a chunk of hotdog, catches a 15 1/2 lb Largemouth !!! But still, this is just way to goofy, and definately not the "In-way" to catch trophy bass. The next year rolls around and the guy with the 14 lb bass from the year before (who has been doing quite well for big cats) catches the lake record BASS, using none other than....... A CHUNK OF FREAKING HOTDOG !!!

My question to you guys is, at what point, if ever, would you start to consider using a chunk of hotdog for trophy bass ???

OK...... now replace the "hotdog" with "nightcrawlers"......
Same question ?

You can probably guess why I am asking this question. Yes, I caught another good one yesterday while fishing a wad of night crawlers (specifically for trophy bass) on my micro-light rod at San Pablo..... 11.7 lbs (will attach a photo..... I held it a little closer to myself, after being ribbed lately, about holding them out... don't know if I like the photo better or not). I'm also quite positive that I will catch more, including some real giants in the future, using this same method.
Please remember that your hearing this from a guy who just loves to stick big bass on Swimbaits too..... and on live crawdads.... and on smaller artificials on beds..... and on any other method which is legal and sporting and will put a big bass in the boat !!!

In a nutshell, "Do you want to catch the biggest bass * " Or "Do you want to catch the biggest bass, period" ???

Remember, "the crowds" are not catching big bass on a regular basis...... so if you want to catch them regulary yourself, don't follow the crowd.

Great fishing to all,
Peace,
Fish

Well I once caught a 15 lb. Cat at Castaic on a Fat Rap crank bait but would never actualy use it reguarly to fish for cats.
I don't normally fish for bass with anything but artificials, lets get some plastic hot dog chunks dipped in Crave Gravy "Hot Dog" flavor and go Bass Fishing.
Nice fish!

Great job!!
YOur getting lunkers all the time. Most people dont fish crawlers for bass and catch lunkers like that. Sounds like fun!

Ok, I can safely say that I will never ever use a hotdog for bass. I would never use bait of any kind for bass. For me personally it doesn't give me the same satisfaction. If I caught bass on bait, I would feel like the bait was catching the fish and not me. We could go into the whole bait vs. artificials thing again, but let's not :) Chris uses bait, I don't, no biggie.

And dude, if you get one on a hot dog, you gotta get a pic with a hot dog hanging out of the fish's mouth just because it would be frickin hilarious :-) :-) :-)

I can see it now, the Oscar Meyer crew says that Farmer John franks only catch dinks. Wienerschnitzel kids meals now come with treble hooks and an IGFA information booklet. Berkley comes out with the new Power Dog bait complete with mustard flavored fish attractant.

Okay, on the more serious side, I used to fish a small lake where big bass were suddenly being caught on hot dogs, chicken liver and
mackeral.I even landed a 6+ one night while throwing liver for the cats. The only problem ended up being that these bigger bass were making a living as scavengers. I don't know what happened to the bass' natural forage base, but it obviously was not enough to feed the population of fish. Many inexperienced, and uneducated anglers were throat hooking these bass on junk baits and many were dying. I don't know if it was because of anglers or the lack of natural forage, but that lake does not produce many decent sized bass anymore. When you find that big bass are being caught on dead baits, there might be a serious problem with their ecosystem. Or perhaps these bass have outgrown their environment and are not able to be as competetive for natural prey, aside from a winter influx of trout.

There will always be the odd big bass catch on some sort of bogus bait, but when it happens more and more frequently, it might be the old canary in the mineshaft. Bass weren't designed to be scavengers, I doubt they would look to eat dead baits unless they have no choice.

P.S.- Fish Chris, were these big bass you are talking about caught mainly in the summertime, or is this a more recent trend?

Dude,
He's getting them at Pablo right now. The fish look big and healthy. Pablo is an anomaly in the big bass world. The lake has like zero structure. It has a very top heavy bass population. If I took all my fish at Pablo, I bet 1/3 of them were over 7lbs and 2/3 under. I bet half of Fish Chris' fish are over 7lbs. The lake gets tons and tons and tons of trout, every single week from February to November. So big bass have lots to eat, but I sometimes wonder what the small bass have. There are crawdads in there, there are shad and silversides, but I suspect the trout and more recently the spots, really do eat a lot of the baitfish and stuff. It's not an unhealthy lake, it's just a weird lake. Sometimes I wonder if Pablo had weedbeds and clear water what would happen. Would it totally mess it up, or would it make it so these giants could obliterate the trout every single day and get totally humongous, even more than they are now. What I do know is that I'm bummed it's closed for the winter. The jig bite would be a lot of fun. It'll have to wait until February.

Hot Dawg!

Cameron, aka SocalFrogger, used to tell me stories (I think it was Cameron) about a pet bass in someone's fish tank that would eat hot dogs. And apparently lived on hot dogs!!!

I've had a couple of bass in aquariums at different times (shhh, don't tell anyone!) and I never got them to eat hot dogs.

How would fishing a hot dog like a Senko be?

Anyway, more input that bass will eat and even survive on diet of hot dogs.

Matt

I don't think theres any doubt that a nightcrawler will catch a huge bass or a huge fish of any kind for that matter.But when you factor in the possibility of deep hooking a bass alot more often this way(in no fault of the angler)then it might be good that "the masses" are not doing this! Also the argument of light tackle taking too long to bring the fish in and cause possibly another fatal situation.Some people might enjoy the fight a little too much and not tighten the drag or use proper tackle.

Using a circle hook(at least at first)might work until you get used to what the bite will feel like.And maybe decrease your chances of hooking a LMB too deep?

Alot of ways to look at it but the fact still stands that it will catch 10+ fish,and it's very tempting.But i think it's the feel of a big green freight train crashing into the end of your line rather than a 'tick' that will keep me tossing a big bait!


Also....i pro-rigged a farmer johns dog, killer action :-)

I posted this on Trophybassonly.com also... but i HAVE caught a bass on a hotdog w/ BBQ sauce as attractant :) The fish was about 5 pounds and lived in an apartment complex lake...I could see the bass just sitting there and when I flipped out the hotdog I could have sworn it charged the dog before it hit the water..it was unreal... but yeah I think that fish was a special circumstance...
Erik P.

Chris,
It is not an unlikely probability that the next world record largemouth may be caught in an unconventional manner. For example, a lake record brown was caught by a kid with a honest to god french fry, off the end of a dock. Go figure, it was slim, probably darting around knowing kids, loaded with salt, and the fish just ate the thing. So, the question is, will the the new record mean anything less depending on what it was caught on, or the target when the fishing began?
I honestly think the next world record may not be caught by a Bass pro, or even a person fishing for Bass. The person that catches it, could turn out to be an incredible ambassador for the sport, or a total embarrassment. For myself, I will just be excited no matter what the terms are. Gob of worms, a guy striper trolling, or Iovino's 101 during a BASSMASTERS.
Looking forward to it,
A.G.