A Legendary Bag of Bass on the Shadtron LT

Mikey showing off the biggest bass of the day, a 12.27 pound giant caught on the Shadtron LT.

There are a lot of goals anglers chase over a lifetime—catching a double-digit bass, breaking 40 pounds, dialing in a pattern when it matters most. For me, I’ve been fortunate enough to check a lot of those boxes. But there was always one that lingered in the back of my mind… one that I’d come painfully close to, but never quite reached: catching over 50 pounds in a five-fish limit.

On a grind-it-out kind of day—no fireworks, no nonstop flurry—I finally broke that barrier with a 51+ pound bag. And to be honest, it didn’t come easy. This wasn’t one of those magical days where everything lines up perfectly. It was one bite at a time.

There was no point during the day where I thought, “This is it, I’m going to catch 50 today.” It didn’t feel like that at all. I was picking off fish here and there, slowly building a big bag, but it took until late in the afternoon—around 5 PM—to land the fish that finally pushed me over the mark.

At one point, I had 47–48 pounds. Most days, that’s more than enough to call it. But something told me to keep pushing. One more fish. One more opportunity. That mindset ended up being the difference.

The approach was pretty simple: locate big, isolated fish using ActiveTarget 2 forward-facing sonar, then figure out their mood and whether they were willing to engage. I used a minnow-style bait to test fish, but for my follow-up, or if I saw just a mondosaurus rex, I’d pick up the Shadtron™ LT. The overall key was go big or don’t go at all.

Mikey was fishing a 6" Fast Sink Mossback Shadtron LT to piece together his epic bag.

The trick with the Shadtron related to subtlety and construction. The wag tail was a lot more natural than a big boot tail for these spring fish, and probably even more important was the elastomer build. Z-Man's® ElaZtech plastic makes for a buoyant tail, so as I was reeling the Shadtron and bumping the bottom, the tail would stand up and wag ever so slightly. I think it drove them nuts. Setup is important as well—having a rod with some tip and a faster-speed reel helps with hookup and closing the deal. 

My final bite that closed the deal on the 51-pound bag came on the Shadtron as the sun was setting. I was on an offshore spot in over 20 feet of water. I saw some fish roaming around, lined it up, made the cast, and about four cranks in, she thumped it. That fish weighed nearly 10 pounds and culled out a 5-pounder I had caught earlier in the day. When the scale read 51+ pounds, my jaw absolutely dropped. The biggest bag of my life including a 12.27 pound freakazoid.

-Mike Meisenheimer, AKA Mikeybalzz on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook