In one of the most lopsided victories of the year, Mike McClelland won it going away with some impressive bags of bass.  See below how he methodically got the big bites and carried his momentum from a recent Top 12 finish at the Bassmasters Memorial.  Grand Lake Final Story & Standings

1st – Mike McClelland used his previous knowledge f the lake and ran about 30 isolated spots each day.  The spots were subtle points that brush & rocks on them.  He slowly dragged a 1/2oz Jewel Football Finesse Jig tipped with a Baby Brush Hog in natural colors or Carolina Rigged a Large Grn Pumpkin Brush Hog with the tail dipped in garlic chartreuse SpikeIt Dip N Glo Dye.  Main factor in his success was fishing slow and just being his turn.

2nd – Matt Reed shared a key hump with Paul Elias, Ken Cook & Joe Thomas.  He worked this area with a 10/5″ Zoom Ol’ Monster worm (plum) rigged with Bass Pro Shops  17lb fluorocarbon and tungsten weights.  He alternated that with a BPS Football Jig.  On days 1 & 3 the hump fish did not produce and scrambled to other hard bottom areas.  He credits his success to figuring out the pattern early on the first day of practice.

3rd: – Greg Gutierrez dragged a custom 1/2oz football on rocky flats in 3-8ft of water.  The jig was trailered with a NetBait Paca Craw in natural colors.  His success was consistency and having two good areas to himself.

4th – Edwin Evers threw a jig as well, his jig of choice was BPS football jig (brown/green & green pumpkin), the jig were paired with BPS craw-worms & twin-tail grubs.  He targeted secondary points & channel swings.  He credits his success to covering water and his Lowrance26C HD & 111HD.

5th – Dean Rojas was the only one not dragging a jig in the Top 5.  He targeted willow trees with his Signature Spro Dean Rojas Series Bronzeye Frog .  He caught fish anywhere he could find good cover in 2-3 ft of water.  The trick to his success was keeping the bait in the strikezone by walking the bait so it walked with out moving away from the cover very fast.

So deep jigs sounds like the main pattern on Grand Lake, I think you will see some guys really move up the standings now that we will be in a more summer pattern and other spring specialists will start to slide.  McClelland’s 25-03 bag should land him in the Busch Heavyweight Standings but he had already qualified at the open championships.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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