Entry 162-1

Mark Menendez on Jerkbaits and Big Bass

Part 1: The Bass That Changed My Life

Editor’s Note: Mark Menendez of Paducah, Kentucky, who has fished the Bassmaster Tour since 1991, has held the record for the biggest bass, weighing 13-pounds, 9-ounces, ever caught in a bass tournament. His record, which has stood for two years, bettered a 31-year record. Menendez, who holds the record for catching the largest creel for a three-day tournament in 1998 on Pickwick Lake, has qualified for the Bassmaster Classic three times, has qualified for an Open Championship, has had 11, top-10 finishes and has won over $350,000 in tournaments besides winning a Top 100 tournament on Pickwick and Wilson lakes. The winner of the Southern Open on a Strike King Spit-N-King, Menendez also instructs at Bassmaster University.  

Question: Mark, where did you catch your biggest bass?

Menendez: I was fishing Lake Richland Chambers in a Megabucks Tournament in Corsicana, Texas, on an overcast morning with a slight north wind. The air temperature was 55 degrees, and water temperature was 35 degrees. When I left the marina with my partner, I told him, “Someone is going to catch a big bass today. The weather’s so right that someone has got to catch a giant today.” I ran to my number-one area and saw another competitor catch a 9-pound, 15-ounce bass right in front of me.

Everyone fishing in the cove that morning except me caught a bass. Even my partner caught a bass, but I didn’t. I was really getting frustrated. I told my partner, “Let’s run over to this place where I caught a bass yesterday.” I cranked my engine and ran straight across the lake into a big fog bank. This time was before we had GPS in our boats. However, I was able to run straight to the little cove that I wanted to fish. I’d scouted this lake in December when the water level was down 8 or 9 feet, and this was March.

I’d found a creek channel bend that had four big oak trees in it. The creek channel was in about 9 to 10 feet of water and it dropped off into about 22-feet deep. I decided to fish those trees with a 1/2-ounce spinner bait with a No 4 gold Colorado blade and a number 4 gold willow-leaf blade. I’d developed a color combination for my skirt that we called Bleeding Cantaloupe. The skirt was a soft cantaloupe orange with five strands of red in the middle of it.

I threw past the trees and retrieved the bait until I got it to my side of the tree. Then I’d let the bait fall and bounce through the limbs underwater and retrieve the spinner bait back to the boat. I made three casts and got no bites. On the fourth cast, my spinner bait dropped off an underwater limb, and I got a good solid bite. I set the hook, and I looked at my partner and said, “This is a good one.” The bass came straight out of the tree and moved to open water, which really kind of surprised me. I had a 7-foot rod and a 20-pound-test line, and when the bass went by the boat, I could see it in the fairly-clean water about 4 feet below us. I told my fishing buddy, “Partner, I’m going to need your help; this bass is about an 8- or a 9-pound fish.”

My partner got down on the side of the boat to help me, and I realized I’d never felt a bass pulling this hard before. I’d caught an 11-pound bass, the biggest bass I’d ever taken, two days before on this lake.  When the fish got about 20 feet from my boat, I put my thumb on my spool to try to stop the fish. The bass came straight up, and I took six quick turns on the reel. “You got her coming our way; keep winding, and I’ll get her,” my partner screamed.

When the bass came to the boat, my buddy grabbed her by the jaw on one side with one hand and then grabbed her by the jaw on the other side with the other hand. Just as he got both hands on the fish, the spinner bait fell out of her mouth. The bass had never been hooked and was simply holding the bait in her mouth. I examined my spinner bait. Apparently when I set the hook, the strike bent the point of the hook. My partner said, “Friend, this is a big bass.” I said, “You’re right this is a big bass. I don’t know what she’ll weigh, but I don’t believe anyone has caught a bigger bass in any other tournament.”

I knew this bass was bigger than the bass caught at a tournament at the St.  John’s River that weighed 12 pounds, 13 ounces 31-years ago. When I arrived at the weigh-in, one of the anglers asked me, “How many fish have you caught?” I said, “I’ve got four but one of them is a giant.” He looked in the live well and couldn’t believe the size of the fish.

When I reached the scale, Ray Scott guessed the weight of the bass at 13-pounds, 9-ounces, which was exactly what it weighed. Of course, this was the catch of a lifetime, and I’ll never forget it, but what makes the catching of this bass so phenomenal was the name of my partner for the day. His name was Noble Handy and he lived close to Waco, Texas. So, I donated the bass to the Texas Share a Lunker program, but I retained ownership of the fish.

After the big fish was used in the Share a Lunker program, I decided to place it in the Chattanooga Aquarium. About 2.1 million children per year went through the aquarium and got to see that big, old bass. The aquarium put a plaque beside her tank, telling who she was, where she was caught, and what was the significance of the catch. She stayed in the aquarium for 8 years until she passed away.

Next: My Biggest Three-Day Bag

Contents:

• Part 1: The Bass That Changed My Life
• Part 2: My Biggest Three-Day Bag
• Part 3: The Big Bag Tactic
• Part 4: How to Catch Bass in Cold Water
• Part 5: How I Learned to Fish a Jerkbait