A massive fish sits motionless in the crystal clear water, as if in suspended animation.  It's difficult to tell whether what you are seeing on the viewing screen is a motion picture or a still photograph.   Suddenly, the largemouth bass darts toward a quivering plastic worm as it sinks slowly below ringlets of water on the surface above.   The bass, in less time than it takes to blink your eye, inhales the lure, turns quickly and heads back to his lair.  

We've grown accustomed to such scenes on our wide-screen, high-definition, flat televisions in 2009.  But, in 1971 such images were rare and capturing the unknown underwater world was a rare feat.   The task is what makes legendary filmmaker and angler Glen Lau's "Bigmouth" such an historic piece of work.

Glen Lau

"We started in '71 and we finished it in 1974," Lau told me in a recent edition of West Virginia Outdoors. "I spent 18-months underwater every possible day I could be there.  I only missed three (days).  It was something I started out to do that was going to take two weeks, then two months, and ended up being two-years."

However, the fruits of Lau’s labor are still enjoyed by the fishing world 35-years later.  "Bigmouth" is not a video, as we're accustomed to watching on the various outdoor networks today. “Bigmouth” is a film--shot almost entirely underwater.  It's also not a how-to fishing video, but rather a documentary on the life cycle of the largemouth bass.   The film would appeal not only to anglers, but to a high school biology teacher. 

Lau says the project didn't start out that way.  The original idea was to film a production called "Bassin' Man" a biography on the life of legendary angler Homer Circle.   However, the plans shifted as the work began.

"He (Homer) was able to get me permission to go into Silver Springs (Florida).  I spent two weeks there and I decided the show wasn't going to be about Bassin' Man, but rather on the life cycle of the largemouth bass,"  said Lau. 

Although not the star, Circle is prominent in the film. He became a prop for the "Bigmouth" production and served the role of "man the predator" in the film.

Most will be familiar with Florida's Silver Springs as the place you took a ride on a glass bottom boat during your vacation to observe fish and other aquatic life in their natural habitat.    The clear water and abundant bass was the perfect setting for Lau's production.   The entire project was shot in a quarter-mile area.

Lau says he learned following the life cycle of a bass wouldn't be an easy.  He first had to win the trust of the fish, a task that took two weeks alone.

"Unless you befriend these fish, they will always come up and look at you and they will go away and you can't really film anything," Lau recalled.

Lau spent the first two weeks simply lying still under the water near a single fish.   Each day he would inch just a bit closer until the fish finally accepted he was not a threat but rather a part of the underwater environment. 

"This fish took me on a trip up through a lot of bass, I probably swam through a couple-hundred and they never moved.  From that point on things had turned into a much better relationship with the fish," said Lau.

Amazingly, Lau missed one day in the water and found he had to begin the process all over again.

Filming the lifecycle of a bass is not a quick exercise.  Lau was yoked with problems of weather, lighting, and at one point losing his fish.    He had filmed nesting bass and the reproduction process from the start until the hatch--but one day arrived at the lake dismayed to learn the fry he had been watching were gone.    Lau had to wait another year, until the following year's hatch to find those fry.  The young bass had gone into a depth of 18-inches and extremely heavy cover to hide until maturing.  

The vivid camera work includes shots of bass hitting various lures, an attack on a frog, a turtle, and even a duckling.   The duckling shot is one of Lau's favorites, simply because of the time it took to arrange.

"I had seen bass hit ducks and I wanted to film it," Lau explained.  "I spent 34-days following ducks around trying to get a bass hitting a duck.  On several occasions they did, but I wasn't able to get it."

Finally, after more than a month of effort, Lau got his shot on a duckling that was almost too large for the bass to eat.  The fish struck the duck atop the water, sucked the critter into his mouth, and dragged it under.   Amazingly, the duck placed its feet on the bass' lip, pulled its head from the fish's gullet, and fled back to the surface and a successful escape.

"Whenever we show that to school kids, they always yell and cheer.  It's really a remarkable shot," said Lau.

The effort to create the movie, which has become a definitive instructional film for all bass fishermen, wasn't without danger.    The Florida waters are notoriously filled with other aquatic life that can eat you.    Lau found that out in a running feud with a less than friendly 8-foot alligator he named Eloise.    Eloise loved to chase Glen as he filmed in the water--particularly when her young were hatched.   Fearless, Glen treated her as a school yard bully.

"A friend of mine taught me how to wrestle an alligator," Lau explained. "I got hold of her mouth and got her around the front leg and pretty soon I had her upside down.   I scratched her belly and turned her loose.  She ran off and that was the last time she really bothered me."

To capture his amazing underwater scenes, Lau had to invent as he went along.  He purchased a new camera called a Milliken.  The camera was critical because it would hold 400 feet of film.  Traditional cameras of the day held only 100 feet.  Lau credits the additional 300 feet with helping him capture the amazing shots that still defy the most seasoned of videographers.   He also had a waterproof housing custom built for the machine, which weighed 35-pounds.  

"Bigmouth" won every national and international award in which it was entered.  Amazingly, it's never been seen on television.    Lau says that's about to change with the 35th Anniversary of the film.    Lau is in negotiation with a number of the national networks to air the film in its entirety.   The film, now on DVD including a special 35th Anniversary Edition, has been sold in many different formats.  Originally available on a 16mm reel-to-reel, Lau says many saw the film originally in movie houses across the country as the Shakespeare Company set up special viewings.

"They'd start with a single showing and it would turn into 16 showings," said Lau.

The film continues to be a cult classic and remains in high demand.   That demand is a credit to the quality of production and the dedication to detail of a man who spent 18-months underwater, swimming with the fish.  

To learn more about "Bigmouth" or to purchase a copy, click here.