Something else to add today...
At the end of the afternoon, about 1730, I was surprised to catch an adolescent bass on a 6" watermelon worm. He was about 6" in length so I decided to keep him hooked (upper palate, coming out near the eye) and use him to bait the HAWG, wherever she was hiding!
I didn't have anything to keep it alive in so, I kept him hooked in the water and walked around the pond, like a dog on a leash, lol! When I came to cover to navigate around, I took it out of the water and put him back in once I cleared the obstacle.
We'll, I came to, what I figured, was the first deeper spot a HAWG would be hiding, released the bail, took the bass in the other hand, and chucked him out. I reeled in slack, felt the faint action of the fish but, he dove for the nearest cover (a known rats nest of debris and fishing line) and got hung up..."darn it Jim!" Needless to say, that was the end of my session, smh.