Big Bass Spots: Do Certain Locales Draw More Lunkers?

Posted: January 8th, 2014 by Bill Dance

I have been in a tournament where we caught a fish with very unique markings–an unusual/unique spot on it–and kept it in the livewell, and later culled it three miles away. And then, on the last day, fishing where I originally caught the fish, I landed him again…same fish, same unusual and unique mark. Sure, several people told me I was lying, but I firmly believe that fish returned to the spot where I first caught it.

Do bass home-range tendencies? It’s hard for me to believe differently.

Earlier, I compared home-range tendencies of big bass with big deer. My good friend, Dick Tillman, loves to deer hunt. He killed a deer in Kansas that scored over 184 on the Boone and Crockett scale. He had been hunting the deer for five years in the same small area. The deer had been there all the time.

Now, I don’t know a lot about monster deer, but

I can tell you a lot about bass. Once I caught the same bass five times in a month’s time. I know it was the same bass because it had four very distinguishable marks on it.

Now, will bass move or change locales? Yeah. But bigger fish, if they have everything want, why move? If there is adequate cover, adequate food supply, why would they want to move and leave good habitat?

And as far as an ideal spot for a big bass, well, bass seek out the best conditions they can find in the waters in which they are spawned. The ideal condition in a small lake is not going to be the same as the ideal conditions in a large reservoir. It might be a fallen log on a barren shoreline at 3 to 8 feet of water in one lake. On another body of water the ideal might be a rock pile, while it might be vegetation elsewhere. Again, they seek out the best habitat and conditions available, and once found, evidently they really consider these locales “home.”

The fish adapt to what they have. I can’t say specifically that fish adapt to this specific structure, well, because one body of water might have it, while another may not. I’ve caught big bass in spots that seemed to be the perfect place for one to be caught, while I’ve also caught them in places you would have never thought a big bass would have survived in. Bass have to deal with where they are spawned, and make the most of what they have to work with. And hey, that could also be said of us humans as well!

Until next time, catch one for me!