You can lead fishermen to big-bass water, but you can’t make them think. Everyone wants the tip, the tactic, the inside deal to angling success but it isn’t that easy. Big bass or otherwise, your success hinges on acquiring, and understanding, a compendium of knowledge. Whether these are tidbits or “big picture” strategies, they’re all pieces of a much larger and more intricate puzzle.

My aim in the following article is to describe the checklist I use when trying to establish a pattern in late summer and early fall – the series of baits and areas I work through to establish an understanding of what the fish are doing that day.

There are people who are a part of the bass fishing industry and then there is a rare breed of people who fuel it. Tim Tucker was a member of the latter group. In fact, Tucker may have been the de facto leader of this fraternity.

Mike Ellenstein of Newburgh, Ind. recently wrote: "Just when I thought I was beginning to understand the Big Bass Zone concept, Bill throws me a loop. When he said it's obvious that Amistad was a jig lake because of all the structure, it totally confused me. What are points, humps, flats, creeks and ridges if not structure? If he would have said "cover," I think I could have absorbed it. But not structure. Can you elaborate?

In the time since the Bassmaster Elite Series events at Amistad and Clear Lake, we've had some time to assess the impact of swimbaits at the professional level. While most of the pros are still wandering in the wilderness of big baits, the results of these two tournaments pointed up some basic BBZ credos.

In psychological terms, meta-knowledge is the ability to assess the quality of one's own knowledge. It's a measure of self-awareness that makes a huge difference in every facet of life, including things as mundane as fishing. For big bass anglers, meta-knowledge is the true coin of the realm. It's currency with a priceless value.

In the Big Bass Zone (BBZ), one of the most common questions goes something like this: "If I needed to know just one thing about big baits, what should it be?" To us, that's an easy one. You need to know when not to use them.

Simple but deadly way to troll swimbaits BBZ style. Fished Castaic Lake with a Shimano 400 TE, 25# Maxima UltraGreen, Lamiglas Inshore, Spro 8" BBZ-1 Floater in Silver Fish.

Since the introduction of the Spro BBZ-1 swimbait, we've been getting a lot of questions about lure color, and specifically, the choice between gloss and matte finishes. Pardon us, while we take a deep breath.