Luke recently caught several chunky bass like this from a farm pond using downsized baits such as this grub designed primarily for catching crappie. The grub rigged with a small spinner proved deadly. Photo by Kenneth Shepherd
OUTDOORS
My love affair with the largemouth bass goes back well over sixty years. The largemouth, or ‘black bass’ as we called them back in the day, was the targeted species of my mother and dad. We were also serious trot liners for channel catfish, but bass fishing was excellent close to home and provided fun and food for our family. My parents were accomplished bass fishers and had access to most of the good farm ponds in northern Red River County. Most of our fishing was done with bamboo poles and live shiners, but my mom did treasure her steel Pflueger rod and reel and her Baby Lucky 13 and Jitterbug plugs. This was way before the introduction of the Florida strain bass into Texas waters, and an honest five-pound bass was a big one. It was also before the term ‘catch and release’ became the mantra of bass anglers. We caught and cooked the bass we caught. Looking back, that was probably a pretty good management plan for the smaller ponds we fished. If a certain amount of bass aren’t removed from small waters it’s easy for them to overpopulate and become stunted.
