I decided to head out fishing on Sun to continue to test Bill Murphy's tactics laid out in "In pursuit of Giant Bass" once again. Since Calero and Anderson prevent boats without reservations from entering the water before ~11AM I decided to hit up Coyote. This was actually a good test as I, like many anglers, often have a difficult time fishing Coyote with much success on a consistent basis.

My approach for this day was to locate and quietly fish (anchored, with electronics off) 1-3 giant bass ambush points. After launching and setting up my poles, I decided to head across the lake to an area I had graphed a number of small to medium size fish hoping to figure out what color combination they wanted. I knew the fish were feeding on Trout, bait fish and starting to hit some of the smaller spawn now that we're in a post spawn mode, but at what depth, retrieve, etc would prove productive. 30 min later I was unsuccessful and the wind/waves were pretty intense so I opted to go farther north near the 5pmh buoys and escape the wind.

Just beyond the 5mph buoys I found a calmer section of water with an exaggerated point which now held a lot of weeds and had access to deep water from multiple angles. I graphed a small area to figure out how the fish were relating the structure and found they were tight to the weed line awaiting a trout or bait fish to swim by (lots of bass in this area). I quietly backed up, anchored about 25 yards away from where I wanted to fish and went to the back of the boat to start my pursuit.

About an hour into one location I decided to drop down to a lighter rig with 10lb test along the weed lines. Just as another boat comes within 100yrds of me ... BAM! I get hit while not paying attention to the line. I set the hook then backed off the drag (just like Bill says) and fought the fish to the boat. I take a few pictures, show the fish to the nearby boat and weigh her - 3.6lbs. I gave her a little kiss and sent her on her way.

About 30 min later I start working the inside weed line where the water is a little deeper before heading to the shoreline when I feel a small tap on the end of my line. I reel down, set the hook and quickly notice that this is a much bigger fish and I'm starting to get worried... did I mess up the line when I tied the knot? are there any frays in the line? does this pole have enough strength to land this fish? crap is this line strong enough?

As the fish starts to fight I gently let off some drag as to not break the line and just play the fish closer to the boat. The fish makes a break for the inside weed like and I realize that there is no way I can muscle this fish out of the weeds on 10lb test and this light pole. Oh no... the fish is stuck right in the middle of the weeds. I gently keep the fish there adding a little pressure to coax the fish out of the weeds, but I'm out of luck. She does not want to come out and she's pissed.

Pretty soon a husband/wife come down the shore in an aluminum boat and decide to watch the commotion. He asks me if I'm stuck (as my tip/pole is really showing strain) and I tell him that I've got a big bass on the line w/ 10lb test. He thinks I'm joking when the fish starts to pull deeper into the weeds. He immediately sees the look of "oh crap" on my face and put down his pole to watch the ordeal.

About 10 min goes by and I still can't get the fish to move. I jokingly tell the audience I might have to put the pole down in the boat and dive in after the fish like an Aussie wrestling an alligator. Just then I let up a bit on the tension just slight enough for the fish to make her way free. By this time she's a bit tired and she makes one last dive for deep water. I let her fight against the drag and count my lucky stars that I listened to Bill Murphy's advice on "landing a big fish".

I work her to the top of the water and gently scoop her into the net and almost fall out of the boat. After a round of applause from the boaters that stopped by to see the fight I toss her in the live well and let the fish rest for a few minutes. I ask one of the other boaters to take a picture and weighed the fish - 6.8lbs.

At this point I'm ecstatic. This is the biggest fish I've caught for 2002 and I owe it all to reading Bill Murphy’s book, "In pursuit of giant bass" and the advice from people I've met on this board.

After landing this bass, I decided to take a break and just relax for a few minutes to break down what I did right in that scenario and how to repeat it again. I then fished for about 20 min more and decided to pack up and head back to the launch ramp. Back on shore I realized the fish was still in the live well so I took her out (in front of about 50 people this time - yeah I'm a show boat) and took a couple more pictures before letting the fish go.

I also had about 10 people mock me for practicing catch and release, so I decided to give them a lecture on the entire process. I have my little speech on catch and release to those who commented and hopefully they'll understand that for coyote to remain a trophy lake, we should all practice catch and release. I pointed out that in a few years that this very same bass could be over 10lbs and there's a good possibility that the world record could be living in Coyote Reservoir right now due to DFG stocking of trout.

Anyway, I had fun on the water and I definitely think that anyone who's serious about making a transition from small fish patterns to a big fish pattern should seriously consider reading Bill's book.


Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

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Good deal. One thing I would've suggested while you were trying to get the fish out of the weeds is to put the reel in freespool and completely slack off. As you experienced, the fish will often swim out on it's own and then you can turn it around and continue on. Just ordered my copy of Bill Murphy's book last night, can't wait to read it.
-Brian

To be honest with you, with my heart beating a mile a minute I don't know if I would have the courage to freespool my line. I just made sure that I was using med to med-light pressure on the line and kept the pole stationary. When the bass worked it's way out I really let up on the pressure to the point where I could feel the fish trying to swim away with short bursts. It was at that point that the bass worked it's way free.

As for the book, there is a lot of information in this book that I felt I skimmed over too fast. Currently I'm about 200 pages into the book and I found it was very helpful to read this book much slower and reread a few sections after going out fishing. In the first chapter, Bill points out that, "the single most important element in making catches of big bass from heavily-fished waters is ATTENTION TO DETAIL" and I firmly believe this now. I think you'll thoroughly enjoy this book.

BTW, side note. I noticed a cool new feature after the message board software upgrade. When you attach pictures to a post they are now automatically visible. Very cool, no more html tags are needed to make the pic viewable for the post.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

Brian, or anybody for that matter, where did you order the book from? I've seen one place but it was $6.50 for shipping and handling alone. Amazon has a few but I'd rather order from a fishing site instead.
Thanks,
Erik

________________________________

Pretending to be a swimbait fisherman since 2001.

Got mine from Amazon.

Got mine used from Amazon through a company call Alibris. If you search the used copies on Amazon you'll see a screen name of alibris as the seller. Apparently this is a used book dealer/website that has a lot of used, hard to find or out of print books. Their website is http://www.alibris.com and have over 100 titles related to bass fishing.

As for a site that sells this book, chech out http://www.worldrecordbass.com/ on the home page. They have a link to purchase this book and most likely give some money back to their website.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com