TW_Staff
11-06-2008, 01:20 PM
Practice
When Butcher won the BFL, he fished the opposite end (Oklahoma side) of the lake. But that tournament was in late February, so there wasn’t a whole lot to compare. This year, he banked on the fish being up shallow, and he was right.
“I basically keyed on zero to 10 feet,” he said. “I fished some stuff out deeper in 18 feet, but I didn’t think I could win it out there.”
He threw a 4A Bomber in foxy shad to shallow rocks in the morning, and then backed off to work brushpiles with a Texas-rigged 10-inch Yum ribbontail worm in plum candy in the afternoons.
The brush was down 10 feet and he found the fish buried in the middle of the pile. “I threw a Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr. and just used a slow crawl through the brush and caught a few that way, but a lot of my better fish came on the 10-inch Yum worm,” he said.
Winning Pattern Notes
The big key to his win was finding the brushpiles that were in the same area as the rocks. “I had another boat fishing the area and I’d located the brush and he hadn’t,” he said. “That made a big difference. The fish would move up shallow in the morning and feed and then when the sun got high in the sky, they’d pull back into that brush.”
Winning Gear Notes
Cranking gear: 7’ medium-fast action American Eagle XE700 rod, unnamed casting reel (5.2:1 ratio), 10-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon line, 4A Bomber crankbait (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BMRMASD)(foxy shad). He also threw a Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr. (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=EXFFS) in chartreuse/blue sparkle, using 14-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon on a 7’ medium-fast American Eagle casting rod.
Worm gear: 7’2” medium-fast action American Eagle XETB724 Terry Butcher signature series casting rod, unnaemd casting reel (6.2:1), 17-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon, 1/4- and 3/8-ounce XCalibur tungsten bullet weights (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=XTBW), 10” Yum Ribbontail worm (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageSOFTYUM-YRT.html) (plum candy).
When Butcher won the BFL, he fished the opposite end (Oklahoma side) of the lake. But that tournament was in late February, so there wasn’t a whole lot to compare. This year, he banked on the fish being up shallow, and he was right.
“I basically keyed on zero to 10 feet,” he said. “I fished some stuff out deeper in 18 feet, but I didn’t think I could win it out there.”
He threw a 4A Bomber in foxy shad to shallow rocks in the morning, and then backed off to work brushpiles with a Texas-rigged 10-inch Yum ribbontail worm in plum candy in the afternoons.
The brush was down 10 feet and he found the fish buried in the middle of the pile. “I threw a Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr. and just used a slow crawl through the brush and caught a few that way, but a lot of my better fish came on the 10-inch Yum worm,” he said.
Winning Pattern Notes
The big key to his win was finding the brushpiles that were in the same area as the rocks. “I had another boat fishing the area and I’d located the brush and he hadn’t,” he said. “That made a big difference. The fish would move up shallow in the morning and feed and then when the sun got high in the sky, they’d pull back into that brush.”
Winning Gear Notes
Cranking gear: 7’ medium-fast action American Eagle XE700 rod, unnamed casting reel (5.2:1 ratio), 10-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon line, 4A Bomber crankbait (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BMRMASD)(foxy shad). He also threw a Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr. (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=EXFFS) in chartreuse/blue sparkle, using 14-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon on a 7’ medium-fast American Eagle casting rod.
Worm gear: 7’2” medium-fast action American Eagle XETB724 Terry Butcher signature series casting rod, unnaemd casting reel (6.2:1), 17-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon, 1/4- and 3/8-ounce XCalibur tungsten bullet weights (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=XTBW), 10” Yum Ribbontail worm (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageSOFTYUM-YRT.html) (plum candy).