My bass trip with a new world record holder...

[bigwoodsmn]

This past weekend pro Keith Combs set a tour level world record of 110 pounds (3 days / 15 fish) eclipsing the previous record by 26 pounds.

He has now won the Texas Toyota Bass Classic three of the last four years... which is unreal.

Here are four nice ones I caught from his boat in 2010. A buddy and I got lined up with him by chance on a trip to Texas and the three of us had a couple of killer days on Amistad.



http://www.toyotatexasbassclassic.com/2014/05/12/keith-combs-world-record-wins-toyota-texas-bass-classic/

Edit - all of these fish in the picture were caught with a clear Heddon Zara Spook - surface strikes walkin the dog. Pretty exciting.

[Edcyclopedia]

Outstanding FUN!

[mheichelbech]

Awesome! It's amazing to me how those guys find fish like they do....kinda similar to ol' Dan on his bucks...

[bigwoodsmn]

Awesome! It's amazing to me how those guys find fish like they do....kinda similar to ol' Dan on his bucks...

His dad entered him in tourney when he was a kid. He won the tourney and the rest is history. Said he gets up, fishes, works out, goes to bed, gets up, fishes, repeat... ~310 days a year. Winning the TTBC three times in 4 years totals $350,000 and 2 boat packages together worth $100K. Other tournament winnings, the TTBC winnings, selling the boats to buyers right after the tourney, guiding 150 days a year... sounds like a pretty good gig... especially if you're addicted to the fishing part.

[P&YBuck1]

What a excellent fishermen!

Pretty cool you got go out with him, must have been a blast.

[DEERSLAYER]

[Singing Bridge]

Those bass are huge, what a trip you had.

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[Hodag Hunter]

Nice looking bass.

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[Jackson Marsh]

Nice!

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[Spysar]

Did you learn anything from him? Do you think he learned anything from you?

[bigwoodsmn]

Spy good questions - I fished with him 16 hours and I was paying attention

1. He reiterated working the lure all the way back to the boat. That is just as important in MN on a jigging (pitching/retrieving) bite for walleyes too. Just heard a local walleye pro say the exact same thing last week.

2. If the bass misses on a surface lure keep retrieving as you would have - big ones can come right back.

3. Don't set the hook when you're using a lure that has multiple treble hooks, like a Spook. All you're going to do is lose some of the fish that strike... Or you'll pull the lure out of the strike zone after a miss, so there's no chance at a second strike (see #2).

4. I use the Palomar knot for nearly all terminal tackle now, because he does. Since I switched I've had 4 years of bent and broken hooks, etc., but that knot holds.

5. I asked questions about scouting with Humminbird sidescan - that's how he found the fish for his single day largest bag. He was scouting along using Sidescan and found a submerged road and at an intersection spotted a submerged standing tree and went back to inspect... pulled out a couple of 10 pound hogs. He could see other fish up inside that tree with sonar. So he went back the next day and pulled nearly 70 pounds - 5 fish - from that spot. At that time, I believe that was also a record for the FLW tour. Anyway, now I use my Lowrance StructureScan side scan capability a lot more when I'm trolling leadcore for walleyes... making plans for next passes and it just keeps my eyes open when I'm trolling along.

Did he learn anything? The second morning in about 60 minutes, I pulled 4-5 big ones back to back to back and missed a couple big fish (see #3 above) fishing the same water as he was. I did see him watching. I suppose he was watching speed of the retrieve or cadence of the retrieve. Maybe he was thinking about lunch. In reality that guy has his 'wheels turning' all the time. He's a pure bass junkie at the top of his game.

I learned so much that I've since hired other local pros and guides for walleyes just because it's awesome to fish with people that are that good at it...


[glow=red]Anyone else had a chance to fish with good guides or have a key tip that really changed your game?[/glow]