At 8 p.m., Justice motored to the same tree that had produced the previous trio of lunkers, and dropped his 11-inch Gene Larew Salty Snake into the timbered honeyhole. He diligently fished the spot for 40 minutes without so much as a bump while his wife sat in the back of the boat reading in blissful silence. At 8:40, the exact time that his biggest lunker had been hooked the night before, Justice noticed a slight movement in his line and set the hook. The fight was on, and for nearly 20 minutes Justice wondered what was on the other end.

“I thought to myself, I either have a 25- to 30-pound catfish or a lake-record bass,” he said.

Finally, the big bass rolled on the surface allowing Justice to grab it. He’d just lipped the new lake record bass, weighing 12 pounds, 11 ounces!

How can you catch a big bass of your own? Chuck’s advice is simple. You have to fish where big bass like to be, and you need to use the right baits. In a nutshell, Justice says big bass prefer big baits.

“In the hot summer months, big bass thrive in warm-water conditions, while eating up to 1/5 of their total body weight each day,” Justice believes. “I learned more about big bass from John Hope, a Texas big-bass expert. He taught me that big bass have spots where they like to hang out to rest, and other spots where they hang out to eat. I also learned that there are two types of bass -- ambushers and flushers. As bass get older and heavier, they like to lie in wait for their food, while younger bass like to go flush their prey before eating them.”

Hope acquired his knowledge after spending several years underwater filming and researching the habits of big bass.

Justice advised that all of the creeks feeding into the lake are good spots to catch bass. He also suggested that anglers should target the edge of channels in brushy creeks as well as the deeper main-lake points such as Community Point.

Justice fishes his own jig marketed by Hart Tackle -- but, he confessed, 109 of his 110 big bass were caught on a Gene Larew soft-plastic bait.

Justice dispelled the notion that all big bass hit hard. “It is simply not true,” he said, “most of my biggest bass have hit very lightly. You have to keep a good eye on your line. Sometimes it will only twitch slightly when a big bass is picking up your bait.”

A final bit of advice from this bass expert is for anglers to fish at night when it is hot. “It is more comfortable and I believe, like most animals, big bass are nocturnal.

So if you’re in the mood for a class in catching lunker bass, call Justice at (580) 889-6742 to book a fishing trip. You might just possibly catch the biggest bass of your lifetime!