For the first time this entire season, a tough fishery slapped the Bassmaster Elite Series pros upside the head. The Arkansas River at Little Rock, Ark. isn’t a bad fishery – but the recent Bassmaster Legends Major hit the venue at the worst possible time.   I believe in general, the Major’s have been tougher tournaments that the regular Elite Series events, not sure if that is by deisgn or coincidence….

The result was a host of zeros and one fish sacks. It took only 12 pounds to make the Top 12 cut on day 2, after which the field moved into the pre-designated six-hole course.  Three locals made the final Top 6 cut on day 3 – Scott Rook, Kevin Short and Greg Hackney (a former local). No angler caught a limit on either day 3 or 4, and Rook locked up victory with just a little over 15 pounds.

It was his first-ever BASS win. Here’s how Scott Rook did it.

Practice 
Rook grew up on this stretch of the Arkansas River and knows it like his truck cab. He did a little prep and planted some brush before the off-limits period, but entered practice with one goal: to establish a pattern, rather than rely on hotspots.

He couldn’t establish a reliable overall pattern, but did have one spot – a backwater area – that he wanted to check. He went there on Tuesday and got six or seven bites on a worm and stuck one, which measured. Then he pulled two or three more toward the boat that were under the 15-inch minimum.

“Then I had another bite that felt like a keeper, and I’d caught keepers there before, so I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just come in here on day 1 and catch two or three, then go fish some underwater dikes.'”

About the underwater dikes, he said: “They were basically submerged rocks from 2 to 5 feet deep. The fish get up on top of them this time of year.”  So that’s what he carried into the tournament – his backwater area, his submerged dikes, and the scattered brushpiles he’d planted.

Days 1 & 2
> Day 1: 5, 12-13
> Day 2: 3, 6-08
> Total = 8, 19-05 (2nd)

On days 1 and 2, anglers were allowed to roam, but they couldn’t fish most of the Little Rock pool, which was reserved for the hole course.  Rook started in his backwater, flipped up three keepers in the first 20 minutes and decided to stay longer. “I ended up with another keeper 3 hours later, then with 20 minutes left caught my last one,” he said.

He ended the day in 2nd, with a comfortable 5 1/2-pound buffer between him and the 12th-place cut spot.  With that buffer, he knew he could be less aggressive on day 2, so he spent almost the entire day in the backwater once again.

“It was 11:00 before he got his first bite, then about a half-hour later he caught another keeper, and he just continued to mill around in there, then caught a 3-pounder with 30 minutes left.  He only weighed three fish, but retained his 2nd-place position.

Days 3 & 4
> Day 3: 3, 7-14
> Day 4: 4, 7-06
> Total = 7, 15-04

Day 3 marked the beginning of competition inside the six-hole course, where anglers fish each of the six holes for 70 minutes. During the final hour, anglers can fish wherever they like.  All weights were zeroed for day 3, so effectively, a new tournament began.

Rook started the morning of day 3 with 18 rods. “I did the old hometown deal,” he said. “I fished a lot of key areas where I’d caught fish in the past. At about 11:00, I hadn’t caught a fish and was staring a zero in the eyes.”  At that point, he moved into a creek and “flipped around.” He finally caught a keeper, then several shorts, all shallow fish.

He left hole 3 and moved into hole 4, where he immediately flipped grass on the topside of a jetty. He caught a 3 3/4-pounder.  “Then, two jetties up from there, I caught a 2 1/2-pounder. When I got to the next hole, there wasn’t that type of cover. It was at the upper end of the (Little Rock) pool, and I didn’t get that many bites at all.”  He ended day 3 with a three-fish, 7-14 sack. Not bad, but not nearly as good as Shaw Grigsby’s 11-05. He trailed Grigsby by 3-07.

The morning of day 4, he noticed the water in the Little Rock pool had dropped 10 inches. He’d caught his fish shallow the day before, but knew that bite would be over.  He caught an early keeper, then basically waited until he could get into his creek in hole 4. When he got there, he moved away from the bank and targeted submerged cover. He caught two keepers in the creek, then returned during happy hour for his fourth and final fish of the event.

“I caught three of my four keepers out of that creek,” he said. “With the water drawn down, I had the local knowledge of knowing I should go in there. I flipped bridge pilings, a concrete culvert with water and shade around it, and laydown logs.  “It was a narrow creek – not more than about 60 yards wide,” he added. “I caught a keeper off a laydown, one off a culvert and one off a bridge piling.”

Winning Gear Notes
He flipped plastics all 3 days. He caught his day-1 fish on an 8-inch Snaketail worm (black/red with silver glitter), which he said he recently bought.  The second day, he caught his fish on a junebug Berkley Tournament Strength Bungee Power Hawg.

On day 3, he ran out of the Bungee Hawgs and switched to a Zoom Tiny Brush Hog in two color variations – junebug and black/red-flake.

He flipped with a 7-foot medium-heavy St. Croix Legend Elite rod and Abu Garcia Revo STX-HS casting reel (7.1:1 gear ratio).

He fished the plastics on 20-pound Vanish fluorocarbon. His terminal tackle included a 1/4-ounce lead weight (unpegged) and 5/0 Daiichi straight-shank hook.

The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success -“Local knowledge – I could adjust to the water drop (on day 4) because I knew where the fish would go when they pulled out of the grass.”

Here is how the other top finishers caught their fish.

2nd: Greg Hackney
Hackney spent days 1 and 2 cranking shallow wood, and caught all his fish on a Strike King Pro-Model Series 1 Crankbait.

Hack was fishing back in a creek and in the mouth of the creek – right next to the main river. It was critical to make contact with the crank, and  got all his bites as it deflected off wood. Often it took repeated casts.  His timing improved on day 2, when he caught his only limit of the tournament.

Once he switched to the six-hole course for the final 2 days, he flipped.  “I caught most of my fish flipping vegetation. It was some shallow grass, and some vine-type grass that was floating. It had to have at least 3 feet of water under it, but it could have had up to 12 feet under the floating mats.”

> Crankbait gear: 7′ Quantum PT Gary Klein signature series cranking rod (fiberglass), Quantum Accurist PT casting reel, 12-pound Gamma fluorocarbon line, Strike King Series 1 Crankbait (chrome with a gray back).

> Flipping gear: 7’11” medium-heavy Quantum PT Greg Hackney signature series flipping stick, same reel, 20-pound Gamma LIne and 65-pound unnamed braid (in heavier cover), 1 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight (black), 4/0 Tru-Tungsten prototype hook, generic plastic crawfish (green-pumpkin and watermelon).

> The prototype Tru-Tungsten hook is one he’s designing. “I can’t say it’ll be out next year – we’re working on it – but it will be the deal for flipping heavy vegetation,” he said. “Tru-Tungsten is the first company that’s building tournament tackle, not fishing tackle. It’s tackle designed for tournament fishermen in all the extremes.”

> Main factor in his success – “I was slow and methodical and I fished every piece of cover like it had a fish on it.”

> Performance edge – “I’d say that it was my boat and motor. I was making a long boat ride (on days 1 and 2), and I had no trouble winning the boat race. I actually had extra fishing time because my boat was so fast. I’m running a Triton 21-X with a Mercury 250 Pro XS on back. When you lock, everybody locks together. The first day, we had 36 boats in the lock, and when I got to where I was going, I looked around and I couldn’t see another tournament competitor. I was pumped when I got there. It was like I already had an edge.”

3rd: Kevin Short
Kevin Short focused on schooling fish each day. It’s a dominant pattern on the river this time of year, and will hold up reasonably well, but it’s a timing issue. The schools only bite at certain times.

“The key to it is figuring out what time period during the day each school is going to be active,” he said. “Lots of times, at the same time up and down the river, all the fish will start biting.  On day 1, he flipped to a school that was in matted grass. On day 2, he fished a school in pool 7 and caught one on a topwater and three on a crank.

Once inside the course, on day 3 he found a school and threw a crankbait. That took him up to 3rd place. He got to the school late on day 4, due to his hole rotation, and only caught one.

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ heavy-action St. Croix Legend Elite rod, Shimano Castaic SF casting reel, 65-pound Triple Fish Bully braid, 1-ounce Bass Pro Shops XPS tungsten weight (pegged), 4/0 Owner straight-shank wide-gap hook, Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw(watermelon/candy and blackberry).

> Topwater gear: 6’8″ medium-action St. Croix Legend Elite rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound Triple Fish CamoEscent line, 3 1/2″ homemade propbait (Tennessee shad, double-prop).

> Crankbait gear: 7′ St. Croix Premier rod (fiberglass), Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound Triple Fish Fluorocarbon, Norman Deep Baby N (pink/white) and Lucky Craft RC 1.5 (black/white) exclusive at Bass Pro Shops.

> Main factor in his success – “Finding those little schools of fish and knowing what to do when I found them. It was a timing thing and I had to keep checking them.”

> Performance edge – “Probably, with all those zebra mussels, it was my Triple Fish Fluorocarbon line. I was fishing around rocks quite a bit and the fluorocarbon is so tough and durable around zebra mussels. If I was fishing with regular mono, I’m sure I would have broke off several times.”

4th: Shaw Grigsby
Grigsby spent the entire tournament with a big stick in his hand.  He was flipping vegetation like alligator weed and hyacinth – all floating vegetation, just flipping every nook and cranny he found.  He caught a fair amount of fish in practice, but squeaked into the cut in 12th. He whacked a big day-3 sack in the hole course and led with 1 day of fishing left, but then zeroed on day 4.

“(On day 3), I pulled into hole 5 and whacked three keepers first thing,” he said. “Then I went back to the same stretch in the afternoon and caught four, but only one kept.

“(On day 4) I went back there and didn’t catch a single bass.”

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ Quantum PT Gary Klein signature series flipping stick, Quantum Tour Edition PT 1160 baitcasting reel, 65-pound unnamed braid, 1-ounce Penetrator tungsten weight, 4/0 Eagle Claw straight-shank hook, Strike King Wild Thang Jr. and Shaw Grigsby Pro Series The Beav (black/blue and watermelon-flake).

> Main factor in his success – “Just perseverance – staying out there and chunking and getting it done. Then finding that little stretch of bank that held those fish (on day 3).”

> Performance edge – “If you have to look at one thing, it was probably the (electric) Power-Pole on the back of my boat. When you’re going down a bank and get close to a mat and try to stop, your momentum carries you forward. And if you reverse your trolling motor, you blow the mat out. Instead, I just drop the Power-Pole and it stops me. Then I can lift it a little, move, and drop it again. It allows you to fish a lot more efficiently, and I think that was the key to my flipping this week.”  The Power-Pole is an after market electric unit that mounts to the stern of a boat. It extends up to 6 feet below the surface to penetrate the bottom with a composite spike.

5th: Gary Klein
Gary Klein had two different patterns working, but his main focus was on a single area.  He chose it, then worked it for everything it had.  “It was an area I didn’t think could win an event, but one I thought I could make a Top 12 out of,” he said. “Instead of running around, I stayed and milked it.

“The first day, I was fortunate enough to catch four keepers. I caught two flipping and two on a shallow crank. The second day I caught one flipping a jig, then two on a shallow crank.”  He noted his area was on the back end of a large flat.

Once inside the course, he switched to main-river fishing. He caught two keepers off rocks with a jig on day 1. He caught his biggest fish on day 2 flipping grass.

> Flipping gear: 8′ Quantum PT Gary Klein signature series flipping stick (has a parabolic bend), Quantum PT Accurist 500 casting reel, 65-pound Spiderline Spiderwire Stealth braid, 1-ounce Penetrator weight (pegged), 5/0 Gamakatsu hook, unnamed plastic creature bait (black/blue and green-pumpkin) and Spro prototype jig.

> Crankbait gear: 7′ Quantum PT Gary Klein signature series cranking rod (fiberglass), same reel, 17-pound Berkley Trilene XT (green), unnamed crankbait (square bill, shallow running, shad pattern).

> He caught one topwater fish on day 4 that bit a Lunker Lure Original Buzzbait.

> Main factor in his success – “Probably confidence. I had an area I felt had some fish in it, and went fishing instead of worrying about it and running around.”

> Performance edge – “That’s hard to say, since everything I have basically becomes me. My rod is an extension of my hand, then the reel and performance of my boat, stealth-like maneuvering with my trolling motor, my GPS and electronics – it’s all a package.”

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Blog

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Kelly Jordon’s water was the best, and one key grass patch gave up the three winning bites. There is more to his win than that, though.  Here’s a closer look at how Jordon won the Potomac Elite Series.

Practice
Practice was tough for almost everyone in the 102-angler field. Jordon’s approach was two-fold and he concentrated on topwater in the mornings. He then went and flipped matted grass – mainly milfoil – in the afternoons.  He went into competition with two primary areas – one for buzzing, one for flipping – and a number of secondary spots.

Days 1 & 2
> Day 1: 5, 17-09
> Day 2: 5, 12-03 (10, 29-12)

Jordon started day 1 in his buzzbait spot, which was in a little bay. He caught only small fish and moved to another spot with the buzzer. Soon after, a storm hit. He stopped short of his destination and “jacked around” in a little bay for an hour.

He waited for the storm and wind to subside, because he still wanted to fish his matted-grass area. “It finally slicked off around 12:30, so I buzzed down there and my first cast was a 5-12. Then I caught a 4-plus-pounder.”

His two flip-fish weighed nearly 10 pounds, and along with three smaller ones from the morning, he weighed 17-09, which put him in 3rd place.

Day 2 was a disaster. He didn’t catch any big fish, went three-for-eleven on the Boogerman Racket Buzz, weighed 12-03 and dropped to 6th place. It was a disappointing day.

Days 3 & 4
> Day 3: 4, 12-14
> Day 4: 5, 17-15 (9, 30-13)
> Total = 19, 60-09

Jordon started day 3 – another bluebird, post-frontal day – in his best buzzbait spot and caught a 4-pounder on the first cast. He had four more blowups after that, and hooked two with a Senko that he threw back.

He hooked his third fish, a 1 3/4-pounder, in the tongue, and was sure it would die. BASS rules prohibit the culling of dead fish at the Potomac, so if he kept it, he wouldn’t be able to cull it. Limits hadn’t been a problem, but he agonized over the decision and opted to throw it back.

He caught a fourth fish (a 3-pounder) late, but never caught a fifth keeper. His four-fish total weighed 12-14. Turns out the rest of the field had a tough day too and he moved up to 4th. But if he’d kept the fish, he’d have been the leader.

Instead, he started the final day exactly 1 pound behind leader Rick Morris. And the fish he tossed back was front-and-center in his mind.

He started day 4 with the Boogerman Racket Buzz and missed two bites, but caught them both with a throwback Senko. They were both 1 1/2-pounders. After that, he decided to go flip a limit spot, with the goal of eventually heading downriver.

He went to where there were mats at high tide and fished some areas he’d found in practice, wanting to catch a limit, then do some running.  He did catch a limit, but it was only 7 pounds.

“I was getting ready to leave – to run downriver – and saw something good,” he added. “I pulled in and caught a 4 1/2-pounder.”  That’s when things took off.

“I said, ‘What the heck’s this thing doing here? This one’s lost.’ It was really thick, matted stuff. I was ready to get out of there and said to myself, ‘I should fish this longer.’ “I got another bite, set the hook and it was a 4-pounder. Then about 10 minutes later I caught a 5 1/2. It was all between 11:00 and 12:00.”

And that was it. He weighed those three fish and two rats for 17-15. He edged 2nd-place Reese by just 7 ounces.

Photo: Kicker Fish Bait Co./Lake Fork Tackle Jordon flipped a Kicker Fish Kicker Kraw (top) in the super-thick grass, and a Lake Fork Tackle Craw Tube (bottom) in sparser stuff.

Winning Gear Notes

> Buzzbait gear: 7′ medium-action Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 20-pound Berkley Trilene Sensation line, 3/8oz. Boogerman Racket Buzz (chartreuse/white with chrome blade), 2/0 Gamakatsu trailer hook.  

> Senko gear: Same rod, same reel, 17-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon line, 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline hook, no weight, Gary Yamamoto Senko (watermelon/black-flake).

> Flipping gear: 7’9″ heavy-action Fenwick Techna AV rod, same reel, 65-pound Spiderline Stealth braid, 4/0 and 5/0 Owner extra-wide-gap offset hooks, 1-ounce Lake Fork Tackle tungsten Mega-Weight (unpegged), Lake Fork Craw Tube (junebug and blue bruiser), NetBait Paca Craw (black/blue with silver-flake) and Kicker Fish Kicker Kraw (black/blue with blue-flake).

> He noted he fished the Lake Fork Craw Tube around sparser grass. In thicker mats, he switched between the Paca Craw and Kicker Kraw. On the final day, he only threw the Craw Tube and Kicker Kraw.

The Bottom Line
Main factor in his success – “The fact that I love to grass-fish and I was excited about the fishing. I’m not a big tide-fisherman, so I can’t tell you what the fish do. When they leave me I don’t know where they go. But when I see the right kind of conditions and the way the grass is, that’s the key deal. Here, it was clumpy milfoil with holes. Clumpy was the key.”

Performance Edge – “My key piece of equipment this week was my whole flipping combo. Actually, I was doing more pitching than flipping with that big rod. I’m just so comfortable with that setup, and the braid.”

Here is some details on how other top finishers caught their fish.

2nd: Skeet Reese
> Day 1: 5, 16-05
> Day 2: 5, 17-00
> Day 3: 3, 8-15
> Day 4: 5, 17-14
> Total = 18, 60-02

Reese relied on laydowns in 1 to 7 feet of water for his fish. “They were all in a creek,” he noted. “My number-one bait was a 4-inch Berkley  Power Hawg, but I also caught fish on a Terminator buzzbait and Terminator Pro’s Top Secret Jig.”

He started flipping with Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon on day 1, but ran into trouble. “I broke off four or five fish – there were barnacles all over the wood. They just shredded the line. I switched to Berkley Trilene Big Game and didn’t break as many off – only one (on day 3) and one (on day 4).”

> Flipping gear: 8′ fast-action Lamiglas XFT 806 flipping stick, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 25-pound Berkley Big Game  line, 3/0 unnamed extra-wide-gap hook, 1/2oz Tru-Tungsten Worm Weight, 4″ Berkley  Power Hawg (green-pumpkin).

> He caught his biggest fish on day 3 using a 1/2-ounce Terminator Super Stainless buzzbait. Three other fish he weighed were caught on a 5/8oz Terminator Pro Top Secret Jig in the Skeet’s secret color, which is a mix of olive-green, black neon and pumpkin.  

> Main factor in his success – “I think I just was able to find an area that had good-quality fish and I played to one of my strengths, which is flipping. They caught them a lot of different ways here, but I stuck with what I knew and fished on wood.”

> Performance edge – “I think this week the most important piece of gear was the Berkley  Power Hawg. I flipped a lot of other different baits, but that bait was consistently getting more bites than any other. I don’t know if it was the curltails or what, but they definitely wanted it.”

3rd: Steve Kennedy
> Day 1: 5, 15-15
> Day 2: 5, 13-05
> Day 3: 5, 13-14
> Day 4: 5, 14-06
> Total = 20, 57-08

Steve Kennedy also flipped, but he focused on matted grass. He’d find a group of fish concentrated in certain mats, then work them over with a variety of baits.  He had two primary spots – one at a creek mouth, the other up the river. He did find another upriver area late on day 3 that produced fish too.

> Flipping gear: 7’11” heavy-action St. Croix rod, Shimano Curado casting reel, 65-pound Power Pro Braided Line, 4/0 round-bend straight-shank hook, 1 1/2-ounce Bass Pro Shops tungsten weight (unpegged), Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver 4.20  (blue) and 4″ generic craw (blue) and Yamamoto twintail grub (blue) and Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw (sapphire blue).

> After he thoroughly worked a mat, he came around one more time with a green-pumpkin Sweet Beaver.

> Main factor in his success – “Just flipping that grass. I came in there planning on doing it, and I stuck with it. It’s what you have to do to win here.”

> Performance edge – “It was the Minn Kota trolling motor with a Weedless Wedge 2 prop – it got me through that grass. You’d get into the heavy grass, and once the water dropped to low tide, you pretty much had to plow through acres of hydrilla to get to what I call the real mats – the stuff that floats up to the surface.”

5th: Rick Morris
> Day 1: 5, 13-06
> Day 2: 5, 13-10
> Day 3: 5, 16-10
> Day 4: 5, 11-02
> Total = 20, 54-12

Rick Morris also focused on grass, but he threw a Chatterbait.

“I was fishing a Chatterbait on the edge of the grass when the tide dropped down – making short little pitches to the outside edge,” he said. “I was throwing right to the edge, where they were tucked up underneath. They’d come out screaming and slam it.”

His primary area was up a creek. During low tide, he fished in 1 to 2 feet of water. During high tide, the water was over the grass.  He also caught a few fish in the morning throwing a toad to arrowheads during high tide.

> Chatterbait gear: 7’6″ medium-heavy RPM Custom Flipping/Pitching Special rod, Pflueger President casting reel, 20-pound Shakespeare Supreme line, 1/4- and 3/8oz Rad Lures Chatterbait (green-pumpkin).

> He used the 1/4-oz Chatterbait on day 1, but after losing some fish, decided to go to the 3/8oz size, which had a larger hook.

> Toad gear: 7’9″ heavy-action RPM Custom Okeechobee Flipping/Pitching Special rod, same reel, 65-pound unnamed braid, 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline hook, Stanley Ribbit (watermelon) and RPM handpour frog (white).

> Main factor in his success – “I concentrated on one small area which was maybe an 1/8-mile stretch of creek. I was persistent with the Chatterbait for many hours until the tide got right and the fish turned on. It was a late bite every day.”

Sounds like grass was king on the Potomac, but several ways to pry the bass from the heavy cover.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Check out what it took to win and contend on the Bassmasters American Major.  Conventional wisdom suggests deeper water is the way to go this time of year on Wylie, but Wolak shrugged off that textbook approach when he discovered packs of fish along the banks.

Practice
Wolak had never fished Wylie before, but he knew from experience on similar lakes that deep water was the standard during mid-summer. During the first day of practice, he started in deeper water, but quickly discovered that approach wouldn’t work for him.

Next he tried shallow water and saw bass that were good-sized and accessible.  “I saw a lot of fish cruising and just sitting in shallow water,” he said. “There were little wolfpacks hanging around the banks and attacking the shad.”

He tried to get them to strike with a number of baits, before he finally settled on a Zoom Ultravibe Horny Toad. He also found if he pitched a worm behind it, he could get some of the fish that wouldn’t hit the Horny Toad. Most of the fish were at a depth of between 6 inches and 2 feet.

As he found more packs of fish, he marked them on his GPS so he could go back to them during the tournament. By the end of practice, he had a stockpile of points marked with quality fish.

Competition
Day 1: 5, 15-06
Day 2: 2, 4-13 (20-04)
Day 3: 5, 15-06
Day 4: 5, 10-08 (25-14)

On day 1, Wolak went back to his GPS points and started to catch fish. He bagged 15-06 and knew he had a pattern that could carry him through the tournament.

He tried the same pattern on day 2. The fish were there, but he had a tough day and only caught two keepers for 4-13. He didn’t catch any until the afternoon and one came at the end of the day.  “I didn’t execute,” he said. “I missed a couple. I squeaked into the cut, but I was optimistic, because I knew my pattern would hold up.”

On day 3 he fished a frog and pounded the fish. He finished with his second 15-06 sack of the tournament and held a nearly 5-pound lead.

Day 4 was sunny and still, and he figured the frog wouldn’t be as effective, so he fished a worm and caught his target of 10 pounds to win the tournament.  “I learned from day 2 that when it was super sunny and stagnant, they didn’t get that frog that well,” he said. “I fished with a worm a lot more. Knowing I only had to get about 10 pounds to win, I knew that was a better strategy.”

Winning Gear Notes
> Frog gear: 7’6″ unnamed flipping stick, unnamed reel, 50-pound unnamed braided line, Zoom Ultravibe Horny Toad.
> Spinning gear: 7′ unnamed rod, unnamed reel, 10-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/8oz weight, Zoom Finesse Worm (green pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “I did something a little bit off the wall that most guys wouldn’t have thought would win it. I pretty much ran with it and said this is what I’m going to do, and stuck with it.”

2nd: Kevin VanDam
> Day 1: 5, 16-04
> Day 2: 4, 9-07 (25-11)
> Day 3: 5, 9-02
> Day 4: 5, 13-13 (22-15)

When Kevin VanDam started the tournament, he felt deeper water would be the key to a victory, but he soon discovered shallow water would be more productive. Why? The bass were still hanging around the bream beds.

The first 2 days of the tournament, he concentrated on offshore structure with a jig. He worked the fish slowly and the approach got him 16-04 on the first day and 9-07 on day 2. However, he figured out the slow approach wouldn’t work for the six-hole format on the final 2 days.

So on day 3 he moved to shallow water and threw a mix of baits at the banks and docks. He landed 9-02 to make the final six.  “The main thing was to target the secondary pockets in the creeks and find the bluegill beds,” he noted. “I was fishing the docks and everything that was in there. I was just using whatever I thought would work. I had 15 rods out on the deck.”

He stuck with the same strategy on day 4. He moved quickly from one area to the next as he attempted to find fish, and finished with 13-13 – the largest sack of the day.

> Flipping gear: 7’4″ heavy-action Quantum PT Series flipping stick, Quantum Energy Burner reel (7:1 gear ration), 20-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon line, 5/16-ounce weight, 4/0 Mustad Big-Mouth Tube Hook, Strike King Craw Tube (green-pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “I think the biggest thing was working extremely hard and making accurate casts. Those docks are tough to fish. A lot of fish were suspended under the foam and you needed to put it right in there.”

3rd: Gerald Swindle
> Day 1: 5, 12-00
> Day 2: 5, 14-04 (26-04)
> Day 3: 5, 10-07
> Day 4: 5, 11-14 (22-05)

During practice, Gerald Swindle figured his best bet for a victory was to flip shallow water, and he stuck with that pattern throughout the tournament. At times it was a struggle, but he found enough fish to stay in the hunt.

On day 1 he only had 1 keeper in the boat at 1:30, but he felt his pattern would produce if he stayed patient. He caught a pile in the last hour.  Every day it was an all-day battle to catch five.When the fish didn’t bite, he had to remind himself that they would eventually, if he stayed with it.

“I just had to hunker down and wait for it to happen. You have to fish your pattern and stay mentally strong.”

> Flipping gear: 7’4″ heavy-action Quantum Tour Edition PT Gerald Swindle signature rod, Quantum Tour Edition PT reel (6.3:1), 15- and 20-pound Berkley G-String line, Zoom Trick Worm (watermelon, green-pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “The biggest key for me was patience. I had to make myself slow down to get the strikes. When you fished slow, you’d get the big ones.”

4th: Jason Quinn
Day 1: 5, 9-02
Day 2: 5, 11-12 (20-14)
Day 3: 5, 8-06
Day 4: 5, 13-07 (21-13)

Like many other anglers, Jason Quinn figured the best bite would come in deep water. But once practice started, he discovered good fish were still shallow and he changed his mindset.

“The bluegill are usually done bedding by now, but this year they were still bedding and the bigger bass were still shallow up around the beds,” he noted. “They should have been back out there on deep structure.”

The first 2 days of the tournament, he concentrated on those shallow areas, but spectator traffic increased dramatically the final 2 days and he was forced to move to deeper water.  He found that many of the fish were still in transition from shallow to deep, so they were tough to locate, but on day 4 he found some schools and caught his largest sack of the tournament (13-07) with a crankbait.

Every day the offshore structure kept getting better and in another week and it would have been different.

> Deep cranking gear: 7’10” medium-action Team All-Star crankbait rod, Pflueger President casting reel, 8-pound Shakespeare Supreme line, Rapala DT 16 (shad) or 3/4-ounce Luhr Jensen Hot Lips (green back) crankbaits.

> Topwater gear: 6’6″ medium All-Star Topwater Special rod, Shakespeare Supreme casting reel, 17-pound Shakespeare Supreme Super Tough line, Brian’s Bees Prop Bee (bluegill).

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ heavy All-Star Platinum flipping stick, Shakespeare Supreme casting reel, 20-pound Shakespeare Supreme Super Tough, 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten Jason Quinn jig.

> Main factor in his success – “I think the key to my success was staying focused and not letting everything around me affect me.”

5th: Mark Menendez
Day 1: 5, 11-07
Day 2: 5, 8-09 (20-00)
Day 3: 5, 8-14
Day 4: 5, 10-05 (19-03)

On the first day of practice, Mark Menendez tried to fish deep structure, but couldn’t find any fish. Then he moved in along the banks and spotted some bluegill beds with bass on them. Once he saw those beds, he knew that’s what he’d fish during the tournament.

He threw both topwaters and jigs, but didn’t get many bites during the first 2 days of the tournament.   He made the cut, but the last 2 days of the tournament weren’t any easier.

“The last day was excruciating,” he noted. “I was so worn out from the heat, it took me until about 10:30 to get in any kind of rhythm with my casting. In the last two holes, I caught my limit. They came on a topwater chugger.”

> Jig gear: 6’6″ medium-action Pflueger Trion rod, Shakespeare Supreme reel, 14-pound Shakespeare Supreme line, 3/8oz Strike King Premier Elite Jig (black/blue).

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ heavy Pflueger Trion rod, Pflueger President reel, 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 3/8oz Strike King Premier Elite Jig (black/blue).

> Casting gear: 7′ medium-heavy Pflueger rod, Shakespeare Supreme reel, 15-pound unnamed fluorocarbon, Strike King Spit-N-King (Arkansas shiner) or weightless Strike King 3X Plastic Bait – Zero (watermelon-red).

> Main factor in his success – “The key was being persistent and not panicking. Also, I only lost one fish. I fished a clean tournament.”

What a weird deal to be fishing Bluegill beds in July in NC, I have not seen bluegill beds in MN for weeks….

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Denny Brauer has fished 251 Bassmaster and 36 FLW Tour events since 1980. Only on a very few occasions has everything come together as well as it did at the recent Champlain Bassmaster Elite Series.  The flipping master from Camdenton, Mo. notched his 16th tour-level victory with a 4-day total of 80-03. It was nearly 8 pounds more than runner-up Brent Chapman of Kansas and included a massive 23-04 sack on day 4.

Here’s how he did it.

Practice
Brauer has made his reputation (and more than $2 million) primarily by catching shallow-water fish, so there was never any doubt that he’d focus on largemouths at Champlain. Even the smallmouth experts had a tough time getting on bronzebacks last week as they seemed to be in a post-spawn funk.

The water was about 4 feet above full pool and the shallow vegetation was brimming with bucketmouths. In spite of the lake’s reputation as a smallmouth mecca, it was obvious that green fish would be the ticket to the top.  He spent the first of his 3 practice days in Ticonderoga at the far southern end of the lake, where Tracy Adams won the Champlain FLW Tour last month and Dion Hibdon averaged more than 20 pounds over the first 2 days of that event. He caught a 20-pound sack, so he stayed away for the remainder of the pre-fish period.

He traveled in the opposite direction to Missisiquoi Bay on each of the next 2 days, and liked what he found there as well. He’d had success up there in the past and had a good idea of where the top-quality fish would be.

“It felt a little bit better to me up there,” he said. “There weren’t as many boats, and on the third (practice) day I was able to expand on what I had there.  He was one of eight Top-12 finishers who ended up fishing the same square mile of reed-laden water.

Competition
> Day 1: 5, 19-05
> Day 2: 5, 18-10
> Day 3: 5, 19-00
> Day 4: 5, 23-04
> Total = 20, 80-03

Brauer began the tournament with a specific plan that he thought would allow him to weigh a strong bag each day: He’d fish until he had 18 pounds, and then spend the rest of the day expanding his water.  It worked brilliantly, despite all the company he had in his general vicinity. He stayed close to the lead over the first 3 days, then whacked a tournament-best sack on day 4 to win going away.  He had to make a slight adjustment on day 1 because a steady north wind muddied up the area he’d planned to start in. That ended up being the only day that it blew from that direction.

“I relocated about a hundred yards and whacked them over there,” he said. “Then when the wind changed to the south the next day, they were back to where I thought they would be the first day.

He fished his day-4 area, a patch of reeds and grass about 100 yards long, off and on over the first 3 days, but saved the heaviest of the heavy cover for the final day. On a day 4 that he described as “magical,” he used a 3/4-ounce Strike King Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model Jig tipped with a Strike King 3X – Denny Brauer Chunk to catch 4-pounders on both of his first two casts.

Over the course of the day, he added a trio of 5-pounders that went to the scales with them.  “One of the keys for me was realizing there were a lot of big fish in that one patch of reeds. I really bore down and fished it slowly and methodically, and I was able to get quite a few of the better-quality fish.  “I started to penetrate the cover farther and farther as the tournament went on, and (on day 4) I ended up dead-sticking the jig a lot of times. I’d just let it sit and wait for one of the big ones to come pick it up.

Winning Gear Notes
> Jig gear: 7’6″ Team Daiwa flipping and pitching rod, Daiwa X-Series casting reel (6.3:1 gear ratio), 60-pound Mustad braided line, 3/4-ounce Strike King Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model Jig (black/blue), Strike King 3X – Denny Brauer Chunk (black/blue flake).
> He also used a 1/2-ounce jig (same model and color) for vegetation that wasn’t as thick and in clearer water. He threw it on 20-pound Mustad Thor, which he said will be introduced this week at the ICAST show in Las Vegas.

Notable
> Main factor in his success – “Having so much confidence in what I was doing and where I was doing it. I was really focused and I had a very efficient tournament.”

Denny Brauer, perhaps the best flipper on the planet, won the Champlain Bassmaster Elite Series with the long rod. The anglers who finished right behind him also spent the majority of their time holding 7-8′ sticks. Champlain, the big lake that runs along the New York/Vermont border, was 4 feet above full pool, which put a ton of quality largemouths in the shallow vegetation (primarily reeds and willows). Four of the Top 5 focused on the same square-mile area in Missisiquoi Bay at the north end of the lake. 2nd: Brent Chapman > Day 1: 5, 19-02 > Day 2: 5, 16-05 > Day 3: 5, 18-15 > Day 4: 5, 17-15 > Total = 20, 72-05 Brent Chapman of Kansas improved by 141 places on his finish at the FLW Tour event here last month by switching his focus from smallmouths to largemouths.  “My first day up there I knew I wanted to try (Missisiquoi) Bay,” he said. “I wanted to stick a couple to get my confidence up, and I caught a few 3- and 4-pounders. Then I bent the hook on my jig (intentionally) and shook off 30 or 40 more.” He fished a jig in the reeds and buckbrush and a Zoom Flukes around willow trees.  His 17-15 bag on the final day was second-biggest behind Brauer’s tournament-best 23-04 stringer. He thought it might give him a chance to win, but Brauer didn’t give him the help he needed. > Jig gear: 7’6″ heavy-action All-Star Platinum flipping stick, Pflueger Supreme casting reel (6.3:1 gear ratio), 25-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 5/8oz Terminator Pro Top Secret Jig (black/blue), Zoom Super Chunk trailer (blue sapphire). > Fluke gear: 7’6″ medium-heavy All Star Platinum pitching rod, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon, 4/0 weighted (1/16-ounce) Falcon Lures Bait Jerker Hooks, Zoom Flukes (watermelon). > Main factor in his success – “Confidence in the area and confidence in the lures. I used the best big-fish baits and I was putting them in the best places for the big fish.” 3rd: Terry Butcher > Day 1: 5, 19-02 > Day 2: 5, 17-03 > Day 3: 5, 17-01 > Day 4: 5, 16-15 > Total = 20, 70-11 Oklahoma’s Terry Butcher, who’d never been to Champlain before, discovered the Missisiquoi Bay community hole late on the first practice day (Monday).  “I looked for mainly laydowns or reeds,” he said. “I was both flipping and pitching, but mainly pitching.”  Most of his fish bit a jig, but he also caught a few on a spinnerbait. He caught a big bag the first day, and his next three were all within 4 ounces of each other. > Jig gear: 7’3″ extra-heavy American Eagle flipping stick, Bass Pro Shops Qualifier casting reel (6.3:1 gear ratio), 65-pound Power Pro Braided Line, 3/8oz Red River Tackle jig (brown), Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw trailer (green-pumpkin). > Spinnerbait gear: 6’6″ medium-heavy American Eagle rod, same reel, 50-pound Power Pro Braided Line, 1/2-ounce Red River Tackle spinnerbait (white/chartreuse). > Main factor in his success – “I’d say the water being up as much as it was. It put the fish up there in places there not at a lot of the time.” 4th: Mark Tyler > Day 1: 5, 18-15 > Day 2: 5, 15-01 > Day 3: 5, 18-13 > Day 4: 5, 16-09 > Total = 20, 69-06 Arizona’s Mark Tyler needed a strong finish to get back into the hunt for a Bassmaster Classic berth (he moved up to 43rd in the points). He was the highest finisher who didn’t fish in Missisiquoi Bay.  He went south to Ticonderoga, where three of the Top 10 finishers in last month’s Champlain FLW Tour (including winner Tracy Adams) assembled strong bags of largemouths. “Then on the short day (the third practice day) I got six or seven bites and never stuck anything, so I went in just hoping for 15 pounds. I just got on more and more fish and found more areas as I went along. Things really started to click, and it probably helped that I had no expectations.” He had two flipping sticks rigged with Zoom Brush Hogs – one with a 1/4-ounce weight, and the other with a 1/2-ounce for occasions when the wind was stiff & the vegetation was especially thick. > Brush Hog gear: 7’6″ Kistler Magnesium flipping stick, Pflueger President casting reel (6.3:1 gear ratio), 20-pound P-Line fluoroclear, 1/4- or 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten Tungsten Sinker, Zoom Brush Hogs (pumpkin). > Main factor in his success – “Patience. I fished very slowly and didn’t get ahead of myself. I made the most of the few spots I had.” 5th: Tommy Biffle > Day 1: 5, 18-09 > Day 2: 5, 19-00 > Day 3: 5, 15-09 > Day 4: 5, 15-11 > Total = 20, 68-13 Oklahoma’s Tommy Biffle was in search of back-to-back wins after his triumph the previous week at Oneida. He was in contention at the midway point, but fell back a bit with a light bag on day 3. After missing the cut at the Champlain FLW, he stayed over an extra day and found a big bunch of fish in the grass in Ticonderoga. However, he discovered on the first day of practice that they’d moved out. He switched to Missisquoi on the final practice day. “I already knew the area and the banks that were good. I just missed the bank that Denny was on.”  He caught all of his weigh-in fish by flipping a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver. > Beaver gear: 7’6″ extra-heavy Quantum Tommy Biffle signature series flipping stick, Quantum PT Burner casting reel (7:1 gear ratio), 25-pound Stren High Impact line (clear), 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Tungsten Sinker, 4/0 Reaction Innovations hook, Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver 4.20 (black neon). > Main factor in his success – “The water was up and the fish were up shallow in the bushes. It suited my style of fishing and what I do best.”

Well they have both they NY lakes on next year’s schedule, maybe the big smallies will play a larger impact then.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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On a lake thought to be dominated by bronzebacks it was the green fish that garnered the most green backs ($$) in the end.

Tommy Biffle started to practice on smallmouths, but switched the second day when he got shallow bites.  Nearly everyone who handicapped the recent Oneida Bassmaster Elite Series predicted the event would be won with 60 pounds of smallmouths. This super-clear New York smallmouth factory did kick out thousands and thousands of smallmouths. And Kevin VanDam weighed 60 pounds of them.

But flipping legend Tommy Biffle took everyone to school. He knew he could catch smallmouths, but instead, he worked the bank and weighed largemouths all 4 days. While others fought the battle of ounces, he won the tournament by nearly 3 pounds – a virtual blowout. It was his first BASS win since 1995, and it moved him past the $1 million mark in career BASS earnings. Here’s how he did it.

Practice
The official practice started on Monday, which left anglers 2 1/2 days to pattern a bite. Like nearly everyone else, Biffle started on smallmouths.  “At the start of practice, I took (someone) from the Ranger service crew around, just so he could catch smallmouths,” he said. “I did that for a couple of hours, but never caught any good smallmouths. We just kind of messed around, really.”

Day 2 was when he switched his focus. “I started looking for largemouths, had a few good bites, and knew that was the way I wanted to go. So I started hunting places to catch them.”  He mixed up depths and found an inconsistent flipping bite in the grass. Then he started moving shallower. “I caught some real shallow – out from under trees, overhanging bushes and limbs. That’s what got me on it.”

He explored the super-shallow flipping bite with a Sweet Beaver, and learned about another key cover element – undercut banks. “They were really shallow there too – more or less a foot underneath undercut banks. They were in the shade of the undercut – that was the key.”

Day 1: 5, 16-12
Biffle began the tournament on his best undercut bank. In fact, he started there all 4 days.

He started down a bank of wood that was both wood and undercut, and caught three on a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver 4.20. Then he ran to a tree that’s had two good ones and caught both of them.  The first  five fish gave him a good day 1 stringer, so he went looking after that. He caught his biggest fish that day – a 4-14 – on a Stanley Ribbit Frog, he was throwing it between cover.
> He ended day 1 in 2nd (1-10 behind leader Lee Bailey).

Day 2: 5, 14-07 (10, 31-03)
Day 2 kicked off with clouds and fog – usually bad news for a flipping bite. So he started throwing the frog right away and caught three good ones.  He never fished the frog within cover – only between cover or just outside of it. However, day 2 was the last day he caught a frog-fish.

“I threw it pretty religiously between cover spots, but never got a bite on it the rest of the tournament.”
And it was overall his toughest day – he only caught six or seven keepers.  He ended day 2 in 4th (1-03 behind leader Yusuke Miyazaki).

Day 3: 5, 16-07 (15, 47-10)
Biffle headed right for his undercut bank on the morning of day 3 and flipped up three keepers on his Sweet Beaver.

About his day-3 water, he said: “I was just fishing – flipping whatever I found. I fished both places I knew, and (new) places I found.” One concern did arise though. He was fishing inches of water, and the water was dropping. “I was really worried,” he said. “They all said (the largemouths) couldn’t last – that they’d run out. And I was waiting for them to run out.”
> He ended day 3 in 1st (7 ounces ahead of Ken Cook).

Day 4 : 5, 16-00 (20, 63-10)
Day 4 started cloudy and overcast, and Biffle struggled.  The clouds were one factor – he needed the sun to force his flip-fish tighter to cover. At 9:00, he finally caught his first bass.  He struggled the rest of the day with a fish here and there.

Biffle used a Tru-Tungsten weight, pegged with the new Tru-Tungsten Peter “T” Smart Peg.

He’d blown leads in the past, and as the clock wound down, he decided he needed to do something.  “I had a good stringer, but in the last 25 minutes, I said, ‘I have to do something. I have to have a 4-pounder.”  It’d been a while since he got bit, so he decided to run and try three spots he hadn’t touched since practice.

“I ran to the first, caught one and culled. I ran over to the second and the same thing – I caught one and culled. Then I ran over to the third, and my Sweet Beaver got hung up. I moved to go up and get it, and as I turned my trolling motor to go around under a tree, a 3-pounder swam out.

“It had a big, black spot on his head. I ran over in the direction he went, flipped in a tree and caught him.  “Then I knew I was going to win.”

Winning Gear Notes
> Flipping gear: 7 1/2′ extra-heavy Quantum Tommy Biffle signature series flipping stick, Quantum PT Burner casting reel (7:1), 25-pound Stren High-Impact mono, 1/4-ounce  Tru-Tungsten weight (green-pumpkin, pegged with a new Tru-Tungsten Peter “T” Smart Peg), 4/0 Reaction Innovations hook (new, made specifically for the Beaver), Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver 4.20 (green-pumpkin/watermelon).

> About the new pegging method, he said: “It’s a little deal they’ve come out with. It’s like a little rubber bobber stopper. You put your line through, and it goes down inside the sinker and pegs it. It’s awesome.”
> Frog gear: 7 1/2′ heavy-action Quantum flipping stick (not as heavy as his signature series), same reel, 50-pound Stren Super Braid, belly-weighted frog-style hook (name/size unknown), 3 1/2″ Stanley Ribbit Frog (green-pumpkin/red-flake/pearl belly).

Notable
> Main factor in his success – “It’s hard to flip in crystal-clear water, but I was flipping in 6 inches to a foot. You could see every pebble on the bottom. I stuck with it, knowing sooner or later I’d run across one somewhere.”
> He overlapped Matt Reed in his main area for all 4 days. Reed finished 11th.

2nd: Charlie Youngers found his smallmouth pattern on the first day of practice, and it held up for his first-ever Top 12 at this level. He also shared his area with Peter Thliveros (who finished 16th).

He found the hotspot by chance. Before the event began, he’d studied maps and determined where he wanted to start practice. On his way across the lake, he noticed an isolated spot where the depth went from 22 feet to 12 feet.  

“I caught a 4-pounder on my third cast, and when I pulled it up, there was 20 fish following it. I said, ‘I need to leave here. This is a Top 12 place.'” He also caught some practice fish on a old suspending balsa Rogue jerkbait.

A high-pressure front came through, and he threw a small tube during competition. He and Thliveros then both circled the hump throughout the tournament.

> Tube gear: 6’0″ medium-action Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Torno casting reel, 10-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon, 3/16-ounce homemade insider jighead (2/0 hook), assorted 3 1/2″ Bass Pro Shops and Berkley Power Tubes (watermelon/green).
> He noted that when he went to a bigger tube, he got less bites, so he stuck with the smaller versions.
> Main factor in his success – “Just sticking with it and grinding it out. Every day, you’d get a limit by 7:00, then go through 2 or 3 hours and only catch five or six fish. But I kept moving around and bearing down and I’d run across them.”

3rd: Kevin VanDam also focused on smallmouths. He did spend a few hours on largemouths the final day, but couldn’t upgrade.   “I was fishing for smallmouths on the main lake,” he said. “I was offshore, where they were feeding on perch fry mostly, and some bigger perch too. I was looking for edges of grass and areas where there was sand and grass, or rocks and grass.

KVD looked for clean spots – anything that made an edge.  The fish would tightly group along that edge, and he worked a series of such areas all 4 days – bouncing from GPS coordinate to GPS coordinate. He threw a number of different baits, but caught most of his quality fish on a Strike King Kevin VanDam’s Pro Model Tube. He estimated he caught well over 300 fish in 4 days.

> Tube gear: 7′ medium-action Quantum Tour Edition rod, Quantum Energy PTi spinning reel, 8- and 10-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon, Bite-Me Tackle Big Dude insider jighead (“The new one, with rattles.”), Strike King Kevin VanDam’s Pro Model Tube (Great Lakes goby).
> He used Mustad Ultrabite scent for two reasons. 1. It helped lubricate the inside of the tube to insert the jighead. 2. “I think on smallmouths, when they’re bunched up, it gets you more bites.”
> He also used his Biosonix electronic fish-attraction unit. “The fish are bunched up on those spots. Typically with smallmouth, when you pull them off a spot, you pull a school. Then they scatter and quit biting real quick. The Biosonix is able to keep them biting for 30 to 40 minutes longer on a spot.”  Find Biosonix @ BassPro.com 

> Main factor in his success – “Just probably my knowledge of northern smallmouths going into the tournament.”

4th: Dave Wolak started the tournament with smallmouths in mind. “I had a couple of smallmouth areas. One, Aaron Martens was on – he was right on my GPS point. I felt like a chump, but I stayed there for 5 minutes, caught one fish and left. “Then I went to my other spot and (Mike) Iaconelli was on it.”

He spent most of the day running humps and had an average limit. Near the end of the day, he pulled the plug on his smallmouth bite and went after largemouths. He caught one and culled to 14 pounds. After that, he focused on largemouths for days 2, 3 and 4, but contacted occasional quality smallmouths in his largemouth areas.

“I was just flipping the grass,” he said of his largemouth pattern. “And the reason I used heavy stuff was there’s zebra mussels all over the grass, and when you flip in there and a good fish saws you through 30 stalks of grass, you can’t have light line.  “I’m willing to sacrifice bites to get the fish into the boat when they do bite.”

He also noted that in the mornings, or whenever it was cloudy, he stayed on the edges in the sparser grass. As the day progressed, he flipped “the heart of the grass.” Neither method produced decidedly better fish than the other.  In general, he fished water about 8 feet deep and the fish were suspended in the grass.

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ extra-heavy flipping stick, unnamed casting reel, 50-pound Power Pro Braided Line, 1/2-ounce Fin-Tech Title Shot jig, a variety of pale-green trailers (rear section of a Brush Hog with arms cut off, double-tail grub, NetBait Paca Craw).
> He made his own perch-colored jig skirt.

> Main factor in his success – “Knowing the way the New York fish relate to grass, and what grass to look for. There’s lots of grass in this lake, but if you found a good mix of vegetation and hung around
it long enough, and were very persistent, you’d get bit.”

5th: Ken Cook dropshotted smallmouths all 4 days. He began day 4 just 7 ounces behind leader and eventual winner Tommy Biffle, but his quality bites finally sputtered.

Ken was fishing a big bay, he said. “I’m sure the smallmouths spawned somewhere in there. The main thing I was focusing on was the presence of huge schools of yellow perch fingerlings.

Within the bay he concentrated on spots where the deep weed-edge contacted sand. He felt that was a spot where the smallmouths gathered to flush young perch out of the grass.  “I was throwing my dropshot into those sandy, open spots. You couldn’t really see them – you had to figure them out where they were.  They were in about 10 to 12 feet of water.

> Dropshot gear: 7′ medium-action Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia 503 ALB spinning reel, 8-pound Berkley Vanish Transition, 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten Convertible Drop Weight , size 1 VMC Fastgrip hook (red), 4″ Berkley Gulp Sinking Minnow  (watermelon/red-flake, wacky-hooked).
> About his technique, he said: “I caught most of my fish on bottom, and the better fish came from bottom. I was trying to fish below the school for the bigger, lazy fish. I was shaking it with a slow shake.”
> He noted the Tru-Tungsten weight was important because it helped him feel where the sand areas were.
> He first found the bay through observing bird activity.

> Main factor in his success – “One of the real keys to my success, and why I was able to stay on them so well, was the Biosonix (unit). I discovered it last year at this lake, and I believe smallmouths are really affected by the sound that makes. The fish would come up chasing minnows, and I’m convinced they stayed around my boat because they could hear that activity around my boat.” Find Biosonix @ BassPro.com 

It will be interesting to see whether the bronze or green bass bring home the gold this week at Champlain.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Deep Stuff Dominated at the recent Kentucky Lake Bassmaster Elite Series was the first event of the season where deep patterns dominated. The majority of the top finishers spent the entire tournament working the vast system of main-lake river ledges.  It was spot-on-spot fishing that demanded exacting presentations and a knack for timing.

Here’s how the winner, Morizo Shimizu, and the rest of the Top 5 caught their fish.

Winner: Morizo Shimizu fished shallow on day 1, shallow and deep on day 2, mostly deep on day 3, then only deep on day 4. His deep baits were a Texas-rigged worm and 3/4-ounce jig. He threw them on river ledges that had brush or were near brush.  When he fished shallow, he threw a spinnerbait and jig, and also flipped.
> Jig gear: 7′ medium-heavy Evergreen rod, Shimano casting reel (available in Japan only), 14-pound Sunline Shooter Defier Monofilament, local unnamed football-head jig (brown), Bait Breath Bysclaw trailer (green-pumpkin).
> The Bysclaw trailer is a crawfish-style plastic that he designed.
> His Texas-rig consisted of an unnamed 9 1/2″ curlytail worm (cranapple color) with a 5/0 Gamakatsu Worm Hook and 1/2-ounce weight.
> Main factor in his success – “After I came here from Japan, this is my 4th year fishing the big tour. The 4 years gave me lots of experience. I learned a lot. That brought me this win.”

2nd: Kevin Wirth, Kentucky local, who carried a 3-pound lead into day 3 but ultimately, fell short of Shimizu, targeted river-channel ledges and bars in 19 to 20 feet of water.
> Worm gear: 7′ medium-heavy Airrus Casting Rod, unnamed casting reel, 12-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon, 3/8oz weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend w/  Berkley 10″ Power Worm (blue-flake).
> Jig gear: 7′ heavy-action Airrus rod, same reel, 17-pound Vanish, 3/4-ounce unnamed football-head jig, generic double-tail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).
> Hair jig gear: 6’8″ heavy-action Airrus Rod, same reel, 12-pound Vanish, 1/2-ounce hair jig (white, no longer in production).
> Crankbait gear: 7′ Airrus cranking rod, same reel, 10-pound Vanish, Rapala DT16 (white with greenish back).
> Main factor in his success – “Home water had a lot to do with it. I used my knowledge a lot – just knowing when the fish got in a pattern and what the fish were actually doing, and being able to keep up with it.”

3rd: Kevin VanDam also fished the drops and ledges, where he worked a crankbait and jig. But he mixed up his structure to include some points and creeks. On day 4, wind forced him into a temporary shallow move, where he caught a limit and culled a few times on a lipless crank. “I fished a lot of different spots – some creeks, points, drops, shelves – all summer-type structure,” he said. “I fished a little bit of everything.  “He noted he used the crankbait as a search bait. Once he got a bite, he’d slow down and pick the area apart with slower stuff. 
 > Jig gear: 7’4″ heavy-action Quantum PT Series rod, Quantum Energy 1160 casting reel (6.3:1), 17-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon, 1/2oz Strike King Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model Jig  (brown and Texas-craw), Strike King 3X – Denny Brauer Chunk  trailer (green-pumpkin).
> Crankbait gear: 7′ medium-action fiberglass Quantum Tour Edition rod, Quantum Energy 750 casting reel (5:1), 12-pound XPS fluorocarbon, Strike King Series 6 Crankbait (powder-blue back/chartreuse belly).
> Main factor in his success – “Persistence. I just really worked the spots thoroughly and worked a lot of places until I hit them.”

4th: Skeet Reese worked a worm out deep, but he was the only one of the Top 5 who dropshotted. Four of his five fish every day came on a dropshot, he said. “I was fishing a new Berkley Drop Shot Power Worm, in oxblood color. “And I caught my biggest fish each day on a 10″ Power Worm.  He said his tournament “boiled down to two spots. That was pretty much where I caught all my fish the last 3 days. If I’d known what kind of fish were there, I’d have done a heck of a lot better than I did. On day 1, I only caught 12 pounds and I was scrambling around all day.” About his spots, he said: “I was fishing outside ledges, and 12 to 20 feet of water seemed to be the best.”

> Dropshot gear: 7’3″ medium-action Lamiglas SR743 Dropshot Special rod, unnamed spinning reel, 8-pound Vanish, 3/16-ounce tungsten weight, 1/0 straight-shank worm hook, Berkley Drop Shot Power Worm (oxblood)
> Lamiglas has had a Dropshot Special rod for a few years, but his was a new prototype. “It’s 7’3″, but the final version might be 7’4″,” he said. “It’s a longer rod with pretty moderate action. The first half of the rod is fairly soft with a lot of flex, but you’ve got a great feel of the bait, and when you go to set the hook, there’s plenty there to drill them.”
> Anglers mostly Texas-rigged their worms this week. “I guarantee more people are going to be dropshotting after what they saw this week,” he noted.
> Texas-rig gear: 7’6″ medium-heavy Lamiglas 764 rod, unnamed casting reel, 14-pound Vanish, 5/0 hook, 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten weight, 10″ Power Worm (green-pumpkin).
> Main factor in his success – “I think for me it was scaling down and fishing the smaller bait. These fish have been extremely heavily pressured. In the areas I fished, the smaller baits seemed to produce better than the bigger baits.”

5th: John Crews cranked and jigged the ledges. About his spots, he said: “Everything had to be close to deep water. Everything I was fishing was within a cast of 25 to 30 feet of water. “I caught fish in a lot of different depths, but the majority were in 12 to 20 feet.”

> Jig gear: 6’10” medium-heavy Shimano Crucial Casting Rods, Shimano Chronarch Super Free 100MG Reel, 14-pound Berkley Vanish Transition Fluorocarbon Line, 5/8oz Spro prototype “football-head-like” jig with a peanut-butter-and-jelly skirt, twintail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).
> He said the Transition Fluorocarbon Line was key for two reasons. One, it allowed him to feel his way along the bottom. “I could feel every little rock and pebble, and I could feel it coming up to a limb. When that happened, I knew not to pull back – I worked it over the limb.” The other bonus came above the water. Transition turns to hi-vis when out of the water. “I had a couple of bites on slack line, and I saw the line jump and set the hook.”
> Crankbait gear: 7’6″ medium-action Shimano cranking rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (5:1), 10-pound Berkley Sensation line, Norman DD22 crankbait (shad).
> Main factor in his success – “I’d say that I focused on one section of the lake and tried to find every good deep spot in that section. The section was about 15 to 20 miles. You had to bounce around from spot to spot to find feeding fish. Once you caught one, most of the time you could catch more there.”

Somehow Rojas and his Bronzeye Frog did not make the Top 12 this week, but he did finish 27th and gained on IKE for AOY Race.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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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
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basstournament.blogspot.com

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Find out what the Top 5 anglers did to prosper at the first ever BASS Major event.  This unique tournament held the event on two different lakes, so often the days 1-2 (Eagle Mountain Lake)  patterns are different then days 3-4 (Lake Benbrook)

1st – Peter Thliveros “stroked” a Team Supreme Rascal Ultimate Jig along RipRap near the dam to qualify in 7th place.  “It was more of a reaction bite than a feeding bite. I was stroking the jig hard getting them to react to it.” Other anglers were in the area – notably Mike Wurm, Denny Brauer and Kevin VanDam – but he was the only one there who made the cut.   On day 3 Peter T. duplicated this pattern at Benbrook for two holes, on day 4 he had to rely on a Team Supreme Rascal jig around targets and rocks flats.  He used a Zoom Salty Pro Chunks and Critter Craws (pumpkin/chart) on his jigs.  Peter T. attributes his success to sticking with his pattern and adapting on Day 4.

2nd – Mike Iaconelli had 3 patterns at Eagle Mt., but as the tournament progressed, he chose to focus on one. That’s what led to his stunning day 2 bag, and his rise from 19th to 1st on cut day. The one he settled in on was the same one he fished at Benbrook. He said. “Basically, I was fishing rock banks. What that means is it could have been riprap, or a bridge piling, or chunk rock, or what I call sandstone rock. “Anytime you found rock that had some depth – like on a 45-degree-angle break – that really held the fish for me on both lakes.” He threw two baits – a new Berkley Power Shakey worm (green pumpkin) on a 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten Ikey Head Ball Buster Jigs . The other was a prototype Berkley finesse jig.  Ike credits confidence in finesse techniques along with forcing himself to slow down.

3rd – Edwin Evers, like much of the field, focused on boat docks to make the cut.  The key difference, was he was targeting suspended fish around and under docks.  He mostly threw a spinnerbait, but also a Lambert’s Chatter (a custom bait). He also swam a jig. At Benbrook, he caught a fish the first day on a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 – it was guarding fry. He also caught one on the spinnerbait and another dragging a lizard. On day 4 he caught four on a centipede and one a 1/2-ounce Bass Pro Shops football-head jig.   Most of this gear was Bass Pro Shops branded gear.  Edwin credits versatility to success at the inaugural major.

4th – Mark Menendez primarily fished Strike King 3/4oz Spinnerbait and a 3 ½-inch Strike King Pro Model Jig , not sure on the types of cover or structure.

5th – Skeet Reese fished a 3/8oz Terminator Football jig & 5/8oz Terminator Pro Top Secret Jig to make the cut.  In the mornings he fished rock points with the football and after 9am he fished the back corners of docks with the other Jig .  He highlighted downsized jigs as a key factor to success.

You can see this event on ESPN2 Saturday Morning this weekend!

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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