Entry 218-2

Catching Big Bass at White Oak Plantation with Chad Brauer

Part 2: Fishing the Tube

Question: Chad, how did you start fishing trophy-bass lakes like the ones at White Oak Plantation?

Brauer: Academy Sports has a new marketing director, Jerry deBin, who had been the information and education chief for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and he knew about White Oak Plantation. He asked if we might come and film our TV show there. We were traveling through the area, and Jerry called the owner, Robert Pitman, at White Oak. That’s how we were able to film there.

Question: How big are the lakes?

Brauer: Each of the lakes is about 40 or 50 acres. Because of the drought this area had been having, the lakes were a little bit-low. We were filming an episode for the 2008 season of the “Academy Outdoors Show,” which will air on “The Outdoor Channel.”

Question: You mentioned that you caught your bass on the Series 5 crankbait in the Sexy Shad and the Tennessee Shad colors. You also said that you caught some of your fish on a tube bait. Why were you fishing a tube bait, since most fishermen never consider a tube bait when they’re fishing ponds?

Brauer: There are some people who fish a tube bait in ponds. We were Texas-rigging the tube and flipping and pitching it around heavy cover. In ponds, like the ones at White Oak that have a lot of standing timber and heavy cover in them, the Strike King tube is hard to beat. You can catch numbers of bass on the tube in ponds, if you use it like you’re fishing a major reservoir or a river. We were flipping mainly around wood cover. A 2-year-old lake, like the ones we were fishing, will still have a lot of standing timber in it. There were also a lot stumps and blow-downs in this lake.

Question: How were the bass taking the tube?

Brauer: Once we pinpointed where the bass were holding in the lake, the fish became really aggressive. There was no problem determining when you got a bite. The real key to catching those bass was putting the tube in the heavy cover where the bass were holding. Some of the drop-offs in this lake had big blow-downs right on the edge of the drop-off. So, you couldn’t fish thoroughly with a Series 5 crankbait. We’d fish around the blow-downs with the crankbait. Then go back and flip the Strike King tubes into the heart of the blow-down where the bass were holding.

Question: What color tube bait were you fishing?

Brauer: We seemed to do the best with the Strike King Coffee Tube bait. We particularly like the Crazy Craw pattern. Even though it’s called Crazy Craw, this tube looks an awful lot like a bluegill. I think the bass in this lake were feeding a lot on the bluegills, so when we put that Crazy Craw-colored tube bait in that thick cover where the bass were holding, they didn’t hesitate to eat it.

Question: What pound-test line were you using?

Brauer: Twenty-pound-test fluorocarbon line on a 7-1/2-foot All Star rod with a Shimano reel.

Question: How fast were your bites coming?

Brauer: Once we learned that the bass were really schooled-up, we’d catch four or five, 3- to 6-pound fish on consecutive casts. We had to fish for a while until we located another school and then we’d catch five or six fish consecutively. Once we discovered the areas that were holding fish, we’d return to those same spots at various times of the day and continue to catch bass.

Question: How many 3- to 5-pound bass do you think you caught and released in 2 days?

Brauer: On the first afternoon, I probably caught between 30 and 40. On the next morning, I caught about 25, 3- to 6-pound fish, which is great fishing.

Question: What other baits did you use while you were fishing at White Oak?

Brauer: The only other bait we fished a lot was the Strike King Pro Model jig. We fished that in the same sections where we fished the tube. We were using the Chameleon Craw pattern with a Denny Brauer Magnum Chunk behind it on the same rod, reel and line we used when we fished the tube.

Question: Were you getting more bites on the tube or on the jig?

Brauer: We actually got equal amounts of bites whether we were fishing the tube or the jig. The spot where we were fishing really seemed to be the key to our success.

Question: Once you fish an area with a tube, do return to that same site and fish a jig? Did you expect to catch as many fish on the tube bait as you did on the jig?

Brauer: Generally I work just the opposite. I fish a jig first, and then I return and work the same area with a tube. The tube is more of a finesse-type lure. You usually can pick off the more-aggressive bass with the jig and then go back through that same region fishing a Strike King tube and catch the bass that are a little-more reluctant to bite.

For more information on fishing at White Oak Plantation call (334) 727-9258, email hunt@whiteoakplantation.com, or visit www.whiteoakplantation.com.

You can contact American Sport Fish Hatchery at 334-281-7703 or by visiting www.americansportfish.com.

Next: Why I’d Fish a Trophy Lake like White Oak

Contents:

• Part 1: Every Fisherman’s Dream – Big Bass and Plenty of Them
• Part 2: Fishing the Tube
• Part 3: Why I’d Fish a Trophy Lake like White Oak
• Part 4: Striper Time in Missouri
• Part 5: Midwest Bass Fishing Now