Monster Largemouth Bass

Down in Southern Illinois on Friday we shocked up a very large largemouth bass.


Growing trophy largemouth bass is not an easy thing to do in a natural balanced typical pond or lake setting. Most people think given enough time that a bass will grow 3-5 lbs and if lucky even bigger...Not So!

Let me just tell you straight up that a bass that is born in your lake or pond will grow to 12 inches long and if your lucky 14-15 inches....if you disagree, so be it.

The average adult full grown 5-7 year old largemouth bass in Illinois is simply 12 inches or just a hair shorter.

So anyhow one tip to growing trophy largemouth in your stunted pond is believe it or not, but to stock some bigger sized largemouth in there! The food source is depleted for the little guys, but if they could just get up to the 14-16 inch size with a few 'good' years left they will turn into trophies like the above pictured bass or the below pictured bass in short order:


Bass of different lengths have different food needs, certain size bass may be starving whereas other size bass in the same body of water are thriving.....The key to growing a trophy bass is to make sure that every day of her life she has exactly what she needs to eat.

Once you have a baseline for what your lake provides in terms of forage, its much easier to have a mgmt plan for correct harvesting and stocking. Most people have the most simple forms of management dead wrong for producing the fishery that they want.

I still have a couple open dates in October for Electrofishing Surveys. Pretty much got trips headed in all directions of the state so if you want to check out your fish population and have alot of fun doing it, just call me up 309-303-5691. This is THE BEST TIME OF YEAR for pretty much everything, Electrofishing Included.....