TW_Staff
08-20-2009, 10:54 AM
Nate Wellman:
Wellman worked the Spadra Creek area over with a pair of jigs and a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 crankbait.
His jigs were All-Terrain heads tied with black-and-blue skirts and trimmed with Baby Paca craws (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=NBPC) and chunks (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=NBPCH). One jig was a 3/8-ounce tied to 20-pound-test Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC), and the other was a ¼-ounce tied to 15-pound-test 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC).
“The biggest key back in that creek was lay-downs and shade pockets formed by overhanging trees,” Wellman said. “Sometimes I could actually see the fish suspended under a lay-down or in the dark shade, and I would simply pitch to it and it would eat.”
As for his zero the first day, Wellman noted that he had to learn the correct timing of when to set the hook with the jig. The first day he was setting too early and lost every fish that bit. After that he began “feeding them the jig longer and letting them swim with it,” sometimes counting to as long as 7 or 8 seconds before setting the hook.
“Letting them swim with the jig and counting down before setting made all the difference in the world,” he said. “After that, I did not lose near as many fish.”
Chad: Prough:
Prough was working the same section of Spadra Creek that Wellman was, but fished a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 most of the time.
“There were a lot of boats fishing in there,” Prough said. “The second day we had as many as eight boats in that little creek. Everyone was pitching jigs to stumps in there, so I decided to give the fish a little different look. Once I figured out that those fish would bite a crankbait on those same stumps that everyone was pitching a jig to, that became my primary game. It did not bother me a bit that those guys were in there fishing, because I really felt like I was on a different program than they were.”
Prough noted that repetitive casts to the stumps were key.
“I’d bang each stump eight or nine times with that crankbait, and sometimes they would not bite until the 10th cast,” he added.
Dave Lefebre:
Lefebre spent the first three days of the event fishing close to the takeoff in Illinois Bayou, flipping grass with a 1-ounce jig and a Kinami Nories Bug.
“The Nories Bug has always been a go-to bait for me when things get tough in hot weather,” Lefebre said. “I was using a new version of the Nories Bug; it’s been redesigned a little bit to make it better, and the new ones will be out soon.”
Today, Lefebre abandoned his grass-flipping plan and went to a schooling spot that was loaded with tons of small fish.
“I caught 85 bass today,” Lefebre said. “A lot of them were nonkeepers, of course, but I did get my limit by going through a bunch of fish.”
Lefebre’s schooly spot was a rock hump that came up to 6 feet of water. Even though there was a wad of fish on the place, he said they never actually came up schooling on the surface, so he had to resort to a Zoom Superfluke Jr. (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF), rigged on a #1 Sugoi hook (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=YSH) and tied to 8-pound-test Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC) line.
Tommy Martin:
Martin stuck with an offshore game plan all week, fishing ledges, drops and humps in 8 to 14 feet of water.
“With the water fluctuating so much here recently, I really thought fishing offshore was going to be the way to win this thing,” Martin said. “So I dedicated my time to idling around for hours, studying my Lowrance graph, finding as much submerged cover on those drops as I could. In all I had something like 40 or 50 spots on my GPS. Fishing like that would not be possible without GPS.
What Lowrance makes in terms of graphing and GPS in unbelievable. It makes it possible to fish 40 spots in a day offshore without having to fool with landmarks and all that – you just pull up to your waypoint and cast – it makes it so much more efficient.”
Martin targeted his offshore quarry with Zoom Brush Hogs (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZBBH) in watermelon color topped with 3/8-ounce weights.
TW Staff
Wellman worked the Spadra Creek area over with a pair of jigs and a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 crankbait.
His jigs were All-Terrain heads tied with black-and-blue skirts and trimmed with Baby Paca craws (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=NBPC) and chunks (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=NBPCH). One jig was a 3/8-ounce tied to 20-pound-test Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC), and the other was a ¼-ounce tied to 15-pound-test 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC).
“The biggest key back in that creek was lay-downs and shade pockets formed by overhanging trees,” Wellman said. “Sometimes I could actually see the fish suspended under a lay-down or in the dark shade, and I would simply pitch to it and it would eat.”
As for his zero the first day, Wellman noted that he had to learn the correct timing of when to set the hook with the jig. The first day he was setting too early and lost every fish that bit. After that he began “feeding them the jig longer and letting them swim with it,” sometimes counting to as long as 7 or 8 seconds before setting the hook.
“Letting them swim with the jig and counting down before setting made all the difference in the world,” he said. “After that, I did not lose near as many fish.”
Chad: Prough:
Prough was working the same section of Spadra Creek that Wellman was, but fished a Lucky Craft RC 1.5 most of the time.
“There were a lot of boats fishing in there,” Prough said. “The second day we had as many as eight boats in that little creek. Everyone was pitching jigs to stumps in there, so I decided to give the fish a little different look. Once I figured out that those fish would bite a crankbait on those same stumps that everyone was pitching a jig to, that became my primary game. It did not bother me a bit that those guys were in there fishing, because I really felt like I was on a different program than they were.”
Prough noted that repetitive casts to the stumps were key.
“I’d bang each stump eight or nine times with that crankbait, and sometimes they would not bite until the 10th cast,” he added.
Dave Lefebre:
Lefebre spent the first three days of the event fishing close to the takeoff in Illinois Bayou, flipping grass with a 1-ounce jig and a Kinami Nories Bug.
“The Nories Bug has always been a go-to bait for me when things get tough in hot weather,” Lefebre said. “I was using a new version of the Nories Bug; it’s been redesigned a little bit to make it better, and the new ones will be out soon.”
Today, Lefebre abandoned his grass-flipping plan and went to a schooling spot that was loaded with tons of small fish.
“I caught 85 bass today,” Lefebre said. “A lot of them were nonkeepers, of course, but I did get my limit by going through a bunch of fish.”
Lefebre’s schooly spot was a rock hump that came up to 6 feet of water. Even though there was a wad of fish on the place, he said they never actually came up schooling on the surface, so he had to resort to a Zoom Superfluke Jr. (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF), rigged on a #1 Sugoi hook (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=YSH) and tied to 8-pound-test Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC) line.
Tommy Martin:
Martin stuck with an offshore game plan all week, fishing ledges, drops and humps in 8 to 14 feet of water.
“With the water fluctuating so much here recently, I really thought fishing offshore was going to be the way to win this thing,” Martin said. “So I dedicated my time to idling around for hours, studying my Lowrance graph, finding as much submerged cover on those drops as I could. In all I had something like 40 or 50 spots on my GPS. Fishing like that would not be possible without GPS.
What Lowrance makes in terms of graphing and GPS in unbelievable. It makes it possible to fish 40 spots in a day offshore without having to fool with landmarks and all that – you just pull up to your waypoint and cast – it makes it so much more efficient.”
Martin targeted his offshore quarry with Zoom Brush Hogs (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZBBH) in watermelon color topped with 3/8-ounce weights.
TW Staff