Herrmann invited me along on a fishing trip to test the big baits in a bass lake he likes to fish north of Lake Pontchartrain.
The technique is simple: Cast out the big swim baits, drift or slow-troll and work them in slowly along.
The swim baits swim on the surface, and some he called “S-wavers,” were designed to twitch slow and — when the tension is off the line the multiple-jointed lures ‚ to swim in a real “S” motion.
Others he called glide baits — two-piece jointed, flat-sided, lipless 7-inch models weighted to sink slow and retrieve with twitches.
He fishes with line ranging from 17- to 30-pound test and a sturdy snap swivel for quick bait switching.
On this morning trip he did quite a bit of bait switching. But it paid off with some explosive action.
We had quite a few blow-ups, and we landed some bass — the biggest weighing 4 ½ pounds.
But the real story was the one that got away. A huge fish exploded on my 9-inch four-piece jointed shad, and the entire body of the bass jumped out of the water.
Herrmann said the bass would have easily gone 8 pounds.
We worked the area over and over hoping the big fish would strike again, but to no avail.
Herrmann has successfully fished the big baits in Pearl River and several Central Mississippi lakes like Calling Panther and Lake Okissa.
And being a Chalmette native, he’s fished them in Lake Lery and the surrounding area out of Caernarvon/Delacroix, and found the voracious marsh bass would readily devour the big baits, un-intimidated by their size.
