Huddleston Swimbait in Rainbow TroutSwimbaits were a bigh part for almost all of the Top 12, much of that is probably due to the large bass and the hitch, which is a minnow that’s endemic to central California and looks similar to a golden shiner. It can reach a length of 14 inches.

There was a point during the first day of practice for the Clear Lake Bassmaster Elite Series when Steve Kennedy was convinced that California’s largest natural body of water harbored no bass under 4 pounds. He started out throwing a swimbait, and it took him awhile to catch anything that didn’t meet that standard.  He eventually discovered that 3s – and even 2s – did swim there, and he was forced to bring a couple in that class to the scales on day 1. But over the final 3 days, his average weigh-in fish went nearly 7 pounds.

The Alabamian caught 122-14 to set a new BASS total-weight record en route to his first Elite Series victory. He overtook 3-day leader Greg Gutierrez of California with a 32-10 stringer on the final day.  His total over the last 3 days was a preposterous 102-14. Had he skipped day 1 entirely, he still would have finished in 6th place in the greatest slugfest in tour-level tournament history.   Click here to view and awesome video compilation from BassZone.com

Below you will find a compilation of reports from BassZone.com, BassFan.com, Bassmaster.com and what I witnessed on the web & TV coverage.

Practice
The first day of practice was overcast with intermittent rain, and Kennedy had no trouble getting quality bites on a swimbait – a lure he used for the first time at the season opener at Amistad. He went through the Narrows, which divides the upper and lower portions of the lake, and quickly caught five that he estimated would weigh about 23 pounds.

In hindsight, he thinks that stringer probably went 28 to 30 pounds. His initial guesses were based more on length than girth, and just about every Clear Lake bass would be deemed obese by the people who put together those body-mass index charts. Their weight-to-length ratio might be higher than anywhere in the world.

He continued to get bites that day, and bent down his hook at 11:30 so he wouldn’t put anymore fish through the stress of being boated.  Wind that topped 30 mph at times showed up on the second practice day, so he stayed in the northern part of the lake near the launch at Lakeport and fished shallow tules and willows with a football-head jig.  Steve caught plenty of fish, but the north end’s quality did not match that of Day 1’s practice on the South end.

The wind laid down for the final practice day, and he went south again and ran all new water. He didn’t get a single bite on the 6-inch Basstrix swimbait that had been so productive 2 days before.  With similar conditions in the forecast, he determined that the jig would be his best bait for the first day of competition.

Days 1 and 2
> Day 1: 5, 20-00
> Day 2: 5, 29-13

Kennedy said the jig-in-vegetation pattern produced 60 or 70 bites on day 1, but the best five averaged just 4 pounds each. Again, he couldn’t get bitten on the swimbait.  He admitted, in the wake of a 61st-place finish at the California Delta, that he began to think he might be in a slump.  Kennedy was afraid that some might view last year was a fluke of sorts.

He caught another 20 pounds on the jig on day 2, then had a joyous reunion with his swimbait fish from the first practice day. He culled up to 29-13 and climbed 39 places to a tie for 12th with a 49-13 total.  Late in the day, he pulled up on a rocky point in the Narrows that dropped into 50 feet of water. It was flat on one side and steep on the other, and on the flat side he could see 15 fish that ranged from 5 to 10 pounds.

“I already had almost 30 pounds, so I didn’t want to catch a 5- or 6-pounder – that wouldn’t help me. I wanted one of the big ones.”  He’d been buying swimbaits, both large and small, throughout the western swing, and he began experimenting with some of the bigger models on that pod of huge fish. He tried an Osprey in two different colors, and a couple of brutes bumped it, but wouldn’t commit.

“I finally tied on the big Huddleston rainbow trout. I had a 9 swim up behind it and suck it down, but I missed her.” That was a bit of a downer, but the foundation was in place for a glorious day 3.

Photo: ESPN Outdoors Steve Kennedy got help from BASS tournament director Trip Weldon (left) and emcee Keith Alan in holding up his tournament-best 40-07 limit on day 3.

Days 3 and 4
> Day 3: 5, 40-07
> Day 4: 32-10
> Total = 20, 122-14

Kennedy went straight to the rocky point to begin day 3, and those giants were still right where he’d left them the previous afternoon.  

He caught a 9-08 and an 8 on back-to-back casts. On his first seven heaves with the 5-ounce Huddleston, he boated seven fish that combined to weigh an estimated 35 pounds.

“Once I had (five of those) in the boat, I went out looking for more big fish. I put the trolling motor on high and covered tons of new water.”

He hit a few more points, then switched his focus to docks once the sun got high. He culled a 6-03 with a 6-06, and culled the 6-06 with another 8-pounder.

The 40-07 bag was easily the biggest of his career, and it cut the nearly 17-pound margin between him and 3-day leader Greg Gutierrez to just 1-10.

Naturally, he went back to the point in the Narrows to start day 4, but it had lost its magic. Between the boats that followed him, the helicopters circling overhead and the fact that he’d put a big whacking on the fish the previous day, it was all but barren. He caught a 3 1/2-pounder but, in accordance with California state regulations, had to release it because it was hooked outside the mouth.

He moved south to the next point and caught a 5-plus, but it was foul-hooked too. He didn’t put a fish in his livewell until his fourth stop, which was another point.  He switched to a the jig for a while and caught a few 2 1/2- to 3-pounders that left him one fish shy of a limit. He arrived on a dock in the south end, where he’d seen three fish of 5 pounds or better the day before, at about 10:30.

He threw the Huddleston down the deep-water face of the dock and caught a 9-pounder on his first cast, which ended up being his 5th fish and gave him the confidence to stick with the huge swimbait on the final day.

The next cast produced a bite that he said was considerably bigger than the 9. That fish pulled the split-ring off the hook that held it and was gone. He’d obtained larger split-rings from Bill Smith the night before and put them on most of his big swimbaits, but for some reason had neglected to make the switch on that one.

After another missed bite followed by a lull in the action, he moved to another spot where he’d found fish and caught some on the Basstrix that improved his bag. He then went back to the dock at 1:00 and caught a 5 and an 8 on his first two casts with the Huddleston.

“At that point I knew I’d broken the (4-day weight) record and I was pretty excited about that, but I didn’t think I’d won. Then a couple minutes later, I hooked a 10-pounder.”

But like his first fish of the day, that one was hooked on the outside of the head and had to be thrown back. With just a few minutes left to fish, he caught a 5-pounder to complete his 32 1/2-pound bag.  “What a roller-coaster that day was. I had the biggest fish I’d ever caught in my hands (the 10-pounder) and had to let it go, and I had one that was even bigger pull the split-ring off.

Gear Notes
1 – A Huddleston Swimbait in Rainbow Trout
Huddleston Swimbait in Rainbow Trout
Most of the big fish came on this lure. This was also the lure that Steve recovered from the bottom of Clear Lake after breaking off a 10 pounder.

2 – A BassTrix 6″ Fat Minnow in the Hitch Color. 
This lure was used when the bass did not respond to the BIG swimbait.

3 – A 3/4 Ounce PJ’s of Arkansas Football Jig with a Kinami Double Tail Grub
All 20 pounds the Steve brought to the stage on day one, were caught on the football jig.

> Big swimbait gear: 7’11” heavy-action Kistler Helium 2 LTX rod, Shimano Curado casting reel, 30-pound P-Line Fluoroclear line, 8″ Huddleston Deluxe swimbait (rainbow trout).

> Small swimbait gear: 7′ heavy-action Kistler Helium 2 LTA rod, same reel, 15-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, 6″ Basstrix Paddle Tail swimbait (hitch).

> Jig gear: Same rod, reel and line as small swimbait, 3/4oz PJ’s Finesse Baits football jig (green-pumpkin), Kinami Double-Tail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).

While the other top finishers relied on swimbaits for their primary pattern, their back-up patterns varied greatly, though. While Kennedy relied on a football-head jig, his closest pursuers used everything from a small finesse worm to a big topwater bait.

2nd: Skeet Reese has fished well everywhere he’s gone over the past 6 months – he now has five consecutive Top 10s on his ledger, including three runner-up finishes. He has more than two decades worth of experience at Clear Lake, and he was a popular pick to win this event.

He would have won, too, had Kennedy not gone bonkers and weighed in more than 72 pounds over the last 2 days. Reese was the most consistent angler in the field over the tournament’s entirety. He was the only one who never weighed a bag under 25 pounds.

He employed a combination of a swimbait, a jerkbait and a shaky-head worm.

> Swimbait gear: 7’6″ medium-heavy Lamiglas XFT764 rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 20-pound prototype Berkley Trilene fluorocarbon line, 8″ Osprey swimbait (hitch).

> Jerkbait gear: 7′ medium-action Lamiglas SR705R Skeet Reese signature series rod, same reel, 15-pound prototype Trilene fluorocarbon, Lucky Craft Jerkbait (ghost minnow).

> Worm gear: 7’3″ medium-action Lamiglas Skeet Reese signature series dropshot rod, Mitchell 308Xe spinning reel, 1/4oz unnamed darthead jig, 7″ Berkley Power Shaky Worm (watermelon-red).

3rd: Greg Gutierrez, another Californian, had originally planned to fish shaky-heads around docks to catch 15 to 17 pounds, and then go try to flip up a couple of kickers.  “Then I saw where some giants had moved into a creek,” he said. “I thought if I could get in there early, I could catch those fish.”

Those fish (which he caught on a swimbait), some other big ones that were hanging around rockpiles and the ones that fell to the flipping stick later in the day allowed him to weigh the biggest bags on days 1 and 2. He had an 11-pound lead at the midway point.

He couldn’t sustain the momentum, though. He caught just 41-07 over the final 2 days, which was just a pound more than the charging Kennedy weighed on day 3 alone.  His swimbait fish had completely run out by the end of day 3, so he resorted to a Zara Spook to get his initial limit on the final day.

“My pre-spawn fish had morphed into spawners, and I wasn’t prepared for that. I was so locked into fishing offshore structure, and I just couldn’t make the changes I needed to in the time frame I had.”

> Swimbait gear: 7’11” heavy-action and medium-heavy Okuma Guide Select rods, unnamed casting reels, 20-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid fluorocarbon/copolymer line, 8″ Osprey and 5 1/2″ California Swimbabes Baby “E” swimbaits.

> Jig gear: 7′ heavy-action Okuma Solaris rod, Okuma IDX 150 casting reel, 15-pound Yo-Zuri H2O fluorocarbon line, 3/4oz homemade football-head jig (black/brown), unnamed twin-tail trailer (purple/blue flake).

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ heavy-action Okuma EVX flipping stick, Okuma IDX 150 casting reel, 20-pound H2O fluorocarbon, 3/4oz Tru-Tungsten weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, Zoom Brush Hog (black/red).

> Spook gear: 7′ medium-heavy Okuma Solaris rod, Okuma VS casting reel, 15-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid line, Zara Super Spook (clear with blue head).

Photo: ESPN Outdoors A tip from Scott Rook put Gerald Swindle on his way to a Top-5 finish.

4th: Gerald Swindle caught a mediocre bag on day 1, but was solid as a rock the rest of the way. The key to his improvement was a bit of advice from 10th-place finisher Scott Rook.

“I was fishing swimbaits in the morning and then switching to a shaky-head, but Rook came by and tipped me off,” he said. “He told me the fish were suspended, and I should keep throwing (the swimbait) and not let up.

“After that, I put the worm up. I was done with him.”

> Swimbait gear: 7’4″ Quantum Finesse Flipping Gerald Swindle signature series rod, Quantum PT casting reel, 20-pound Spiderwire G-String line, 6″ Basstrix swimbait (hitch).

> Worm gear: 6’6″ Quantum spinning rod, Quantum GT 30 spinning reel, 10-pound G-String, 1/4oz unnamed jighead, 5-inch Zoom Finesse Worm (green-pumpkin).

Main factor in his success – “Persistence in staying on the dock pattern with the swimbait. It might take you all day to catch a big bag on it. If you get 30 to follow it and one to eat it, that’s fine.”

Performance edge – “The swimbait, absolutely.”

5th: John Murray spent the vast majority of his time on a spot that had been productive for him over the years. It’s a stretch of docks in the southern end that has a major breakline, and fish stage there in preparation for the spawn.

“It’s a place I’ve always fished over the years, and I fished it in the (Bassmaster Open) 2 years ago and caught them really good,” he said. “I was excited when I got there and nobody else was there.  He alternated between a swimbait and a finesse worm. One or the other was highly productive each day, but usually not both.

> Swimbait gear: 7’6″ medium-action Powell 765CB rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 17-pound prototype Berkley Trilene fluorocarbon line, 1/2oz jighead, 6″ Basstrix swimbait (rainbow trout).

> Worm gear: 7’3″ medium-action Powell 733 spinning rod, Daiwa Sol spinning reel, 3/32oz jighead, 5-inch Yamamoto Slim Senko (green-pumpkin).

Main factor in his success – “Really working over that one area that I had all to myself.”

And a quick summary of 6th through 12
Kelly Jordan (6th place, 102-10, Mineola, Texas)
Lures and patterns? “Pattern was fishing staging fish, trying to find the areas where they do their last little feed before they spawn. I’ve been throwing a swimbait and just hope to find an area where they are smoking.”

Biggest factor? “The swimbait is my predominant deal. Every fish I’ve weighed in but one was caught of a swimbait, a Basstrix.”

Paul Elias (7th place, 101-15, Laurel, Miss.)
Lures and patterns? “I’m fishing different than anybody else in the tournament. I’m crawling a lipless crankbait slow, slow, slow. “

Biggest factor? “Slow. And having patience.”

Peter Thliveros (8th, 99-4, Jacksonville, Fla.)
Lures and patterns? “I threw a Storm swimbait most of the week early. After that I slowed down and was throwing a Zoom super fluke. I was working it slow around boat docks, rocky banks.”

Biggest factor? “Slow. I was fishing leftovers, I think, fish that other people weren’t able to catch. All these prespawn fish that were getting ready to move up. That was the only way I could get any bites.”

Jared Lintner (9th place, 97-4, Arroyo Grande, Calif.)
Lures and patterns? “A shad rap to start off the morning, a Basstrix swimbait and an Osprey swim bait. I’ve got like four or five areas. This afternoon when the winds picked up a little bit, they started just biting them.”

Biggest factor? “As soon as we get this afternoon wind, they bite. If I don’t get wind, as soon as that surface clarity gets broken up, they bite.”

Scott Rook (10th place, 97-1, Little Rock, Ark.)
Lures and patterns? “I started out fishing on the banks. Swimbaits in between docks. They started piling up underneath the docks.”

Biggest factor? “If you hit the right (dock), you catch 20 pounds.”

Pete Ponds (11th place, 96-7, Madison, Miss.)
Lures and patterns? “I’m throwing an Osprey. The color meant a lot. A clear one or clear chartreuse. I’m sitting in one area that’s flowing into a little pocket and the fish are chasing the little hitch, the baitfish.”

Biggest factor? “Line size.”
Glenn Delong II (12th place, 80-9, Bellville, Ohio)
Lures and patterns? “I’m fishing a jig and a jerkbait. I’m actually fishing the Clear Lake Oaks, canal systems.”

Biggest factor? “Working the jig out all the way to the boat, instead of everybody else just throwing to the bank and not getting bit. All the bigger fish are out in deeper water.”

Rich
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