Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors Photo Gallery - Steve Keene's 18 lb. 6 oz. from Lake Casitas CA

BIG BASS -- Jim Matthews column 15mar06

A.C. Plug maker proves that big wood still works
Outdoor News Service

Allan Cole, the colorful maker of the A.C. Plug, has stirred the largemouth bass fishing pot yet again here in Southern California.

It was only 15 years ago when bass anglers in Southern California believed big bass, huge bass over 10 pounds, could only be caught on live baits. Most used crawdads here. Allan Cole showed up on the scene in the early 1990s with his huge, 10-inch A.C. Plugs and proceeded to catch a 15-pound largemouth his first time fishing for trophy bass and proclaimed that big lures like his were the key to catching big fish.

That was not really a revelation except here in Southern California. The old adage "big fish, big bait" had been around since at least the time in 1932 when George Perry used a huge, wooden Wiggle Fish plug made by the Creek Chub Bait Company to land what would become the world record 22-pound, four-ounce largemouth bass.

But it was Cole who got the big lure ball rolling here in Southern California. By the mid-1990s, everyone who wanted to catch a big bass was at least experimenting with big, wooden plugs, many of them using Cole's hand-made monsters. But many others were copying Cole's design and making their own modified versions. Then anglers started experimenting with huge, soft swimbaits designed for saltwater. These baits became more and more life-like and refined, looking more and more like the rainbow trout the big bass ate in those Southern California lakes where anglers thought George Perry's record just might get broken.

In the last couple of seasons, almost no one was using wooden baits any longer, preferring the big, life-like, soft swimbaits. It was if everyone knew that wooden baits like the A.C. Plug weren't refined enough to catch big bass again. And since Cole had moved to Henderson and was focusing most of his own fishing energies on striped bass and brown trout, it was almost as if Allan Cole and the A.C. Plug were forgotten.

Then last Thursday and Friday, Cole and fishing buddy Steve Keene of Costa Mesa were at Casitas Lake. A big storm front was rolling in and all the fishing tables said it should be a good time to fish. But Cole and Keene fished all day Thursday and never had a bite.

"I was ready to go home, but Steve kept saying, "we gotta stay, the front's coming," said Cole.

The next day the fish bite. Cole caught largemouth bass at 10, 12 1/2, and just over 16 pounds, plus "a little five-pounder."

"Steve couldn't get a bite. It was driving him crazy. When I caught my last fish, he was saying, `that's it, you're the best.' He was trying to analyze everything that I was doing different than him. And then he catches the big one. Oh, that made him happy," said Cole.

The "big one" is likely the largest bass landed in California this season. A bigger fish could be caught this year, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Keene's fish was an 18-pound, six-ounce largemouth bass. It was caught, according to Keene on the last cast of the day. "Allan has been pushing to get off the water and take pictures of his big fish, so I literally got my fish on the last cast of the day. When he netted it, he said, `You got one bigger than mine.' But he was excited for me. He knew how down I was about not getting a fish," said Keene.

The big bass was caught, of course, on one of Cole's new A.C. Triple Trout, a big, wooden bait that looks and swims like a trout. Not really a whole lot different than the original A.C. Plug Cole used to catch that first 15-pounder or the plug Perry used to catch his world record.

Big wood still works.