Bill Siemantel Big Bass Zone Book Reviews

Well I was spending time looking for this book, but upon our fearless leaders urging I bought the copy offered by this site. It arrived promptly and in good condition. It was a signed copy at that, even though I don't put any stock in the power of celebrity myself.

At first read, the book is adequate. It spends an inordinate amount of time deprogramming the reader from tournament "quantity over quality" fishing philosophy. But sporadically it delivers a few kernels of knowledge. Finally toward the end of the book it really gets into it with some better detail.

covered concepts include a simple structure evaluation system, a top to bottom approach, and insight into big bait presentations. Finally toward the end some specifics of trolling and lure presentation occurs.

If I hadn't read Bill Murphy, In Pursuit of Giant Bass I might be more enamored. The Bill Murphy book which is conciderably older went into more detail about anchoring, trolling, and stiching (splitshotting) for giant bass. But instead of shiny new swimbaits he used
f-18 and cd-18 rapala's.

A diffrence between these books is nearly opposite opinions about uphill vs. downhill presentations, and moon phase, weather and seasonal value. Strange because otherwise there does seem to be an obvious influence on this book from the Murphy philosophy.

I think is safe to say that The Bill Siemantel book probably recognises the influence of these factors, but wishes the reader to not bug out on the multitude of factors and accept that big bass can be caught anywhere, anytime, and in any condition.

I think the Bill Murphy book just acknowledges these factors, allowing the reader to place emphasis were needed.

I can honestly recommend both books, but I like the Murphy book better.

I made an attempt to buy this book, but Barnes and Noble did not sell it in-stock. On versus they had ANgling edge with Al Linder and Bill Siemantel and they went over a fishing trip at diamond valley in southern california, and talked about a structure rating system. An article in Bass Angler's also features this same trip from Bill's POV. They trolled large 12" swimbaits and caught a 9.5 and 11.5 lb bass on a double hook up.