TW_Staff
05-21-2009, 11:12 AM
California's Lake Oroville is home to a huge population of spotted bass, and they're relatively easy to catch at this time of year. Size is a big issue, though – it can seem as if every fish that breaks the surface with a hook in its mouth were churned out from the same 13-inch mold.
Tournaments can be a pure numbers game as anglers go through one clone keeper after another in an attempt to cull up an ounce or 2 at a time, all the while praying for one lucky bite from a 4-pounder that can mean the difference between victory and a mediocre finish. Occasionally such bites come from a Florida-strain largemouth, but the blacks are badly outnumbered by the spots.
Dave Rush lives just 15 minutes from the lake in Palermo and fishes it an average of 30 to 40 times a year. He prepared for last week's Oroville Western Stren with the thought that it might take as much as 13 pounds a day to win, but by the time practice was over he knew the number would be considerably lower than that.
“This lake is No. 1 for me because I can sleep in my own bed when I fish a tournament here,” he said.
“When that sun came out today and the lake flattened out, I thought I was in trouble,” he said. “I fished deeper, didn’t sight-fish like I normally do and was just grinding it out. I tried to stay away from everybody and fish a little different, a little deeper.”
"You could go down any bank and catch a million fish, and that clued me in that the spots had already done their (spawning) thing. I had to turn around and look outward to try to figure out where the 'posties' were wanting to hang out. I figured they'd be in deeper water or on vertical structure, and that's how I approached the tournament."
Winning Pattern:
Most of his bites came from depths between 15 and 30 feet. He focused on points that were between the spawning areas and the main body of the lake.
He fished the dropshot rig in areas with vegetation (to keep the bait above the weeds) and the tube in places that were devoid of plant life.
"I knew some guys would go for sight-fish no matter what because a 4- or 5-pounder could win them the tournament," he said. "I really wasn't on the spawners that good, so I played a conservative game and took my chances.
"With everything in flux the way it was and being on the backside of a full moon, I knew there wouldn't be waves of largemouths coming to the bank, and I took some solace that my plan could possibly work. If the weights continually dropped off, then maybe I could do it without getting a big bite."
"I really had to grind to catch that bag on the last day. I spent an hour and a half to 2 hours looking for sight-fish in the middle of the day, but it wasn't really happening and I went back to the post-spawners.
"It slicked off and got flat, and that's what made me go look for a little bit. If I hadn't burned that time, I probably could have culled another fish and brought in 10 pounds. I really felt bad for my co-angler (Ken Whalen) because I took him out of the game for all that time, and he ended up finishing 2nd by less than a pound."
Winning Gear:
Dropshot gear: 7'1" medium-light Powell 701 rod, Shimano Chronarch (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SCHD) casting reel (7:1), 6-pound P-Line fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PLPFC) line, 3/16-ounce Bite-Me Jigs lead dropshot weight, size 1 Gamakatsu dropshot hook (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=GSS), 4" or 6" Roboworm Straight Tail (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=RW45ST) worm (krawler, prizm krawler or prizm perch).
Tube gear: 7'3" medium-action Powell 732 rod (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PMS), Shimano Stradic (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SSMGFB) spinning reel, same line, 3/16-ounce unnamed jighead, 4" Yum Garrett Mega Tube (natural shad or green-pumpkin).
Performance edge – "My Humminbird 788 (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=HB70). I could literally mark those fish on the bottom, and then fall back and catch them. I'd swing out wide on a point, maybe 50 to 100 yards off the bank, and I could see just blankets of fish. Then it was just a waiting game until they'd go toward the bank to feed."
TW Staff
Tournaments can be a pure numbers game as anglers go through one clone keeper after another in an attempt to cull up an ounce or 2 at a time, all the while praying for one lucky bite from a 4-pounder that can mean the difference between victory and a mediocre finish. Occasionally such bites come from a Florida-strain largemouth, but the blacks are badly outnumbered by the spots.
Dave Rush lives just 15 minutes from the lake in Palermo and fishes it an average of 30 to 40 times a year. He prepared for last week's Oroville Western Stren with the thought that it might take as much as 13 pounds a day to win, but by the time practice was over he knew the number would be considerably lower than that.
“This lake is No. 1 for me because I can sleep in my own bed when I fish a tournament here,” he said.
“When that sun came out today and the lake flattened out, I thought I was in trouble,” he said. “I fished deeper, didn’t sight-fish like I normally do and was just grinding it out. I tried to stay away from everybody and fish a little different, a little deeper.”
"You could go down any bank and catch a million fish, and that clued me in that the spots had already done their (spawning) thing. I had to turn around and look outward to try to figure out where the 'posties' were wanting to hang out. I figured they'd be in deeper water or on vertical structure, and that's how I approached the tournament."
Winning Pattern:
Most of his bites came from depths between 15 and 30 feet. He focused on points that were between the spawning areas and the main body of the lake.
He fished the dropshot rig in areas with vegetation (to keep the bait above the weeds) and the tube in places that were devoid of plant life.
"I knew some guys would go for sight-fish no matter what because a 4- or 5-pounder could win them the tournament," he said. "I really wasn't on the spawners that good, so I played a conservative game and took my chances.
"With everything in flux the way it was and being on the backside of a full moon, I knew there wouldn't be waves of largemouths coming to the bank, and I took some solace that my plan could possibly work. If the weights continually dropped off, then maybe I could do it without getting a big bite."
"I really had to grind to catch that bag on the last day. I spent an hour and a half to 2 hours looking for sight-fish in the middle of the day, but it wasn't really happening and I went back to the post-spawners.
"It slicked off and got flat, and that's what made me go look for a little bit. If I hadn't burned that time, I probably could have culled another fish and brought in 10 pounds. I really felt bad for my co-angler (Ken Whalen) because I took him out of the game for all that time, and he ended up finishing 2nd by less than a pound."
Winning Gear:
Dropshot gear: 7'1" medium-light Powell 701 rod, Shimano Chronarch (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SCHD) casting reel (7:1), 6-pound P-Line fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PLPFC) line, 3/16-ounce Bite-Me Jigs lead dropshot weight, size 1 Gamakatsu dropshot hook (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=GSS), 4" or 6" Roboworm Straight Tail (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=RW45ST) worm (krawler, prizm krawler or prizm perch).
Tube gear: 7'3" medium-action Powell 732 rod (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PMS), Shimano Stradic (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SSMGFB) spinning reel, same line, 3/16-ounce unnamed jighead, 4" Yum Garrett Mega Tube (natural shad or green-pumpkin).
Performance edge – "My Humminbird 788 (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=HB70). I could literally mark those fish on the bottom, and then fall back and catch them. I'd swing out wide on a point, maybe 50 to 100 yards off the bank, and I could see just blankets of fish. Then it was just a waiting game until they'd go toward the bank to feed."
TW Staff