Looking At 'Em

Tim Mann does what it takes to put bass in the boat, but given the option, this Florida tournament angler would rather look at them. Mann, who considers Lake George on the St. Johns River his home waters, loves the game of finding big bedding fish and convincing them to take a bait.

And it really is a game. The game begins with finding the beds and the bedding fish, but it also includes gauging their size and likeliness to bite and then doing what it takes to convince those fish to bite. That might mean finding the "sweet spot" in a bed, catching the male that's guarding the bed at the right time (catch it too soon and it will often spook the female), backing up and "sight-fishing" from out of seeing distance, popping the bait up into the fish' face at the right time... The list could go on and on. Every fish is unique, which is part of what makes sight-fishing fun.

Some fish will bite immediately. Others require coaxing and serious patience. That's a big part of the game -- especially in a tournament setting. Mann must gauge the size of the bass he's looking at and that fish's likeliness to bite and then determine whether that amount of time would be justified by the amount of weight he could add to his catch. Of course, the answer also depends on how many fish Mann is seeing on beds and what sort of weights he expect other anglers to bring to the scales.

Mann , who typically targets bedding fish with a YUM Craw Papi or Vibra King Finesse Tube, plays the game well. He and his tournament partners have won a lot of sight-fishing-dominated tournaments over the years, and he's considered a serious threat to win any event this time of year.

The appeal of sight-fishing goes beyond the game, though. It's also the best opportunity of the year to catch really big Florida largemouth bass, which just happens to be something that Tim Mann really likes to do!