Today’s Throwback Thursday historical photo is a pretty interesting piece I came across featuring the smallmouth bass world record holder, David Hayes, and a story about how he and a group of two other friends work together on the waters of Dale Hollow to produce catches of big fish. This story appeared in the local newspaper back in 1955, later that same month following Hayes’ world record catch. The piece was titled, “How To Catch World Record Fish: Adapt Deep-Sea Trolling at Dale Over Spots You Know Lunkers Like.” It was written by Earl Ruby, the paper’s Sports Editor.
Following are a few interesting excerpt’s on the details of the men’s technique and equipment, which had produced over 100 bass weighing four pounds or more for the trio to date.
- All own their own boats. All have 25-horse motors, except Hayes, who has a “40” hooked onto his 21-foot cruiser.
- All use heavy, 5-foot trolling rods and large star-type reels seldom seen in this part of the country.
- They place the rods in holders and troll fairly fast (about 6 miles per hour, usually).
- They use from 300 to 800 feet [of monofilament line], depending on the depth of the water and speed of the motor.
- They use a lure known as a Bomber almost exclusively [and usually just one color, black and white. Look closely at both pics].
- There is no shortcut to finding the holes the lunkers like, the men agree. “You just work and work at it. Troll, troll, troll! When you catch a big one, mark the spot and go back and forth over the same area.”
- They have found that gravel and shale bottom seem to be the preferred feeding grounds.
