Mainstream US bass content has trended towards forward-facing sonar and offshore deep-water breakdowns for several years. Jon B's latest 24-hour mission is a deliberate swing the other way — a boat-camping trip into Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas, and a shallow-cover, topwater-heavy week in the cypress.
"Well, this is it. Our last look of civilization before we venture deep within the cypress swamp of Caddo Lake right here," Jon B said as he launched. "It's about as open water as you'll probably see from here on out."
The lake's character is exactly what drew him there. Caddo is a tannic, black-water fishery — stained dark by centuries of decomposed cypress, moss and organic matter — and Jon B leaned into the theory that dark water fishes better than clean in a lake like this.
"It's more darker. It's kind of really the stuff you want to fish. The clean water's good, but I think sometimes that clean water makes them a little spooky. But this tannic water is really nice because it has cleanish features without all the mud."
The bass came on shallow-cover classics. A frog, a weedless rat prototype he openly showed off as unreleased Googan gear, and a lunker log wacky worm. The water depth was the story.
"Right now, we are currently fishing maybe, I don't know, 10 inches of water. It is so shallow. My trolling motor can just barely keep up and stay in this water level. But the bass don't seem to mind."
The fish were a mix of pre- and post-spawn largemouth, which Jon B picked up from their body shape on camera.
"It's that time of year where these fish will probably be thinking about spawning or maybe even have already spawned. A nice indicator to tell whether or not a fish has spawned is looking at its body morphology. If it's a skinnier fish, if it looks a little beat up, worse wear and tear, then generally speaking, it's a fish that has survived the spring spawn and is now on the chew."
"Because there's so much trees, these bass have access to terrestrial life. In other words, frogs, turtles, snakes, birds, and even the occasional mouse."
The trip's near-miss was an ancient bowfin — a primitive fish native to Texas that Jon B had targeted as the secret prize of the video.
"The bowfin, which is kind of an unassuming name for such a cool fish in my opinion. They're nicknamed the grindle, which I think is a little more ominous and cool. They are a fish that's been around for millions of years. They're completely native to Texas. They've got big teeth, hard heads, and the way they swim is very unique."
He saw a few in the water but could not get one to commit.
Outside of the fish, the boat-camping format earned a strong review from him on camera. The team slept on the boat inside the swamp and woke to an immediate bite the next morning.
"Camping on the boat's kind of the vibe, especially if you've got good weather. Being surrounded in that swamp, it's kind of like a nice little sanctuary. We woke up this morning, and I think we caught our first fish by, you know, 8:30 a.m., like moments after we woke up and made breakfast."
For Australian barra anglers, the parallels with an overnight Monduran or Awoonga mission are easy to draw — the idea that a multi-day, time-in-water trip simply beats the quick-strike weekend. The species and cover change. The logic holds.