BIGGEST BASS FISHING
much an integral part of his technique in catching the bigger bass.
“Most times I throw a Pig–n- Jig, a 1/4 ounce jig and custom pork from Uncle Josh on 20 pound mono. And I really do like to track the bait right down to a bass’s face and, if I get their attention and get them to nose up on it, pop it real good a couple times.”
One of the biggest parts of Everett’s technique includes a large dosage of patience. He’s learned when to make his casts and when to just leave his prey alone.
“The worst thing you can do is just go out there and pound a fish for eight hours,” laughs Everett. “All you’re doing is educating them.”
When he’s not throwing the pig-n-jig combo, Everett likes to switch up to baits such as the Lake Fork Magic Shad, to, as Everett puts it, “Put a different profile down there for the fish to see.”
Everett also looks to be the aggressor every time he casts on a bass. “I think it’s so important to make your presentation and have it come right up to her face, so that all that fish wants it to do is get off of her bed.” Everett continued, “If the bait’s leaving her bed, why should she get aggressive… it’s doing what she wants it to do.”
Another favored approach of Everett’s is to make his cast around the docks of LMV and then free spool his reel while using his trolling motor to get his boat into a better position. He then cranks his reel back
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over once he is ready to move the bait into the fish’s view from a direction he couldn’t achieve until he made the move.
“There’s times when the male keeps pounding me, and she wants to get there but he won’t let her.” Everett tells, “So I’m gonna catch him and put him in the box. Then I’m gonna see what she does. Now if she fades, I’m going to immediately dump him back in there. If he’s not there to keep her around… then boom, she’s gone!”
Once he’s dropped the male bass back down and the female can see it and cools down, Everett will back off for five or six hours and allow the situation to cool off even further still. “Now I know exactly where she’s at. I can go fish other fish for a while and come back knowing I know exactly where she’s at, which way she’s facing towards the dock and so on.”
Once he catches a large bass, Everett makes it a point to pursue that same fish again the following season. He’s caught several fish more then once.
“I got George’s fish in ’08. That got me the cover of Bassmaster Magazine.” The fish weighed in at 19.12 pounds at that time. Everett pressed for that one bass, along with a couple others, for the following two seasons, seven days a week. When he eventually caught the bass again it weighed in at 16.8 pounds, actually losing quite a bit of weight.
“Sometimes they’ve gained weight and other times they’ve lost it,” states Everett.