Thanks Steve for the kind words.

Don - I think this winter/spring you will get a really big one. You are doing too many things right not to get one. My prediction is for a 16+ :)

Thanks alvo69 and swim-bait.com.

I don't mean to sound cliche, but anyone in CA fishing the good lakes can catch these fish. It's so much about persistence and being stubborn with the the proper big bass techniques. Swimbait, jig, sight fish are the big 3 - always. Big worm and senko can be periphery techniques, and of course bait if you do bait.

Sometimes when you begin your journey toward catching a big one, you get a huge one right away. It happened to me, and it has happened to guys like Erik Patzner (carrot top) and Matt Allen (supermatt) too. Other times the 15+ fish take a few years to come.

At first you just think about getting bites on the big fish techniques. Then you think about getting the 10lbers. After a while you start to think about the teeners and up. Cliche again I know, but you do catch what you fish for.

Some people have it in them to go strictly big bass 100% and they have proximity to the real monster fish. Those are the guys who really get the numbers of giants. Mike Long and Butch Brown come to mind. The spark is there in me but I need a break sometimes. I didn't fish bass for 2 and a half months before last week. But little breaks are good too, to keep you wanting more :)