How Thompson Catches A Lot Of Bass

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jackie Thompson tries to produce the kind of bass-fishing trips that his clients tell him they want to experience. If anglers choose to fish for one big bass, Thompson will use different tactics than he does if he wants to catch a large number of bass in one day.

QUESTION: Jackie, how will you fish if a client tells you he wants to catch numbers of bass in one day?
ANSWER: Fish usually school together by size, except during the summer months. I'll tell this fisherman to come to Lake Eufaula from the middle of April through the month of June when the bass really begin to school. In places where you can catch one, you can sit in that same spot and catch 12 or 15. On a good day of fishing, you may take 75 to 100 bass. You also can catch a lot of bass in the early fall.

One morning last fall, a party and I caught and released 18 bass in two hours. If we'd fished all day, we probably would have caught 60 to 80 bass. Big bass in the fall will weigh from 3 1/2- to 6 1/2-pounds, and you can expect to catch four to six of them on a good day of fishing.

To contact Jackie Thompson, write to him at 110 Marina Drive, Eufaula, Alabama 36027, or call him at (334) 687-9595.

Tomorrow: No-Boat Bass Fishing