Big bass attack crawfish crankbait

22 pounds of bass caught in Whiskey Canal

With a last minute fishing trip planned, my brother and I went out to Lake Cataouatche expecting to catch a few bass.

We started out fishing the cuts on the north shoreline with watermelon/red baby brush hogs, spinner baits, red/white chartreuse mini jigs and the Bandit 200 series crawfish crankbait. Each cut produced several bass and plenty of bream, google eye and chinquapin.

We would fish the middle of each cut up to the rocks and then head out to open water. We moved to each cut with the same result each time – a few bass and plenty of pan fish were caught.

Remembering a quote from Steve Rockweiler, “Find the big schools of poogies and you will find big bass during the summer time,” we made the short run to the mouth of the Whiskey Canal. At the mouth of the canal, we could see big schools of poogies jumping all around the boat. On this day, I was a passenger in my brother’s boat and had to sit in the back. He took control of the trolling motor and began throwing the Bandit 200 series crawfish-colored crankbait ahead of the boat.

Within five minutes, he yelled out, “Get the net, I have a big one!” The head of the big bass was making a small wake when he made his first jump.

Randy fought the big bass and kept him from getting tangled in the prop of the motor as the fish circled the boat. When I netted the fish, Randy had a chance to hold the big bass and said that it was the biggest one he had ever caught.

“I wish Kevin Van Dam could see me now,” he joked.

We measured the bass and took a few pictures to capture the moment. The fish measured 23 inches in length and 19 inches in girth. Randy put the big bass back into the water and watched it swim away.

“I hope someone else has the opportunity I just had,” he said after catching the more than 6-pound bass.

We continued to fish the two points at the Whiskey Canal and Randy caught four more big bass on the Bandit 200 series crawfish crankbait. He caught a 5-pound bass along with two 4-pound bass and a 3-pound bass before the fishing slowed down.

We moved to the bulkheads to catch more bass on the brush hog and white shiner swim bait under a cork.  I managed to catch a big sheep on the brush hog. At the end of the day, we released all the bass, bream and catfish we caught.

“This is the best bass fishing trip I have ever made,” Randy, who plans on having a fiberglass reproduction of the big bass he caught, said.