TW_Staff
09-22-2009, 01:26 PM
From the moment Tom Mann Jr. discovered that the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup would be held in his backyard on Lake Lanier, he has been a man on a mission, or perhaps a Mann on a mission, to secure his Forrest Wood Cup ticket early through the 2009 Walmart FLW Series.
The 56-year-old has been fishing professionally for more than a quarter-century and said this season might've been his best ever, seeing as how it was topped off with a tournament victory that resulted in a 1-point triumph over Dave Lefebre in the Eastern Series Angler of the Year (AOY) race.
“Man, this feels awesome,” Mann said after his win. “I don’t know what to say. Everything just fell into place this week. I knew what I was looking for when I came here because of my experience with blue-backs at Lanier. I just had a flawless week. I landed every fish that bit except for one. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
“During my five days of prepractice and four days of practice, I isolated about 20 different places where a point or shoal broke off into the deepest water available. And all of these fish were sitting out in about 15 to 25 feet of water, right on the tips of those breaks. My casts had to perfect to come across that strike zone where these wolf packs of bass were waiting to ambush blue-backs. It’s a scenario that’s very similar to the way I fish back home on Lanier, so I had a lot of confidence in what I was doing.”
When he returned for the 4-day official practice, water temperatures had dropped about 6 degrees (to the high 70s) and the bass were much more cooperative.
"The first day I got four bites and caught two pretty decent fish. Then the next day I got on the pattern and the bait that I ended up catching most of my (tournament) fish on."
He discovered that humps in 13 to 20 feet of water with a defined point on one end or the other, which also had scattered hydrilla or large rocks, were holding bass that were stalking the bluebacks. There might be just one or two, or there might be a small "wolfpack" of six or seven fish.
"By 10:00 on the second day of practice I'd created that pattern, and I spent the next 3 days hunting those kinds of places with my Raymarine electronics. It wasn't easy to find that whole scenario that didn't have 10 other boats running it. When they set up like that on those spots, the first boat that goes through will bust up that school and it'll be 2 hours before they're set up again.
"I found enough out-of-the-way spots that really weren't on the GPS chip and the five or six locals weren't running. I ended up with 15 to 20 and I'd run them three times a day during the tournament. I might fish five of them and catch nothing, and then get a 3-pounder off the sixth one. Then the next two wouldn't produce anything, but I'd catch one off the place after that."
Competition:
Mann opened the first day on a spot where he'd found eight or 10 fish in the 2- to 4-pound range. It took him just 15 minutes to boat a trio of 3-pounders courtesy of a Rapala Skitter Walk, but then he encountered a long lull.
When he could not longer bring fish to the surface, he resorted to a double-Zoom Fluke rig that he fished extremely fast with intermittent jerks to imitate a school of bluebacks. Four times over the next 3 1/2 days he caught two bass on a single cast.
“The main reason I went to the double-Fluke rig was because I could not work a single-Fluke rig fast enough under the water without it coming out of the water and skipping on top,” he revealed. “A double-Fluke rig was much heavier and provided a lot more resistance to hold the baits in the water and allowing me to really rip and jerk those Flukes just under the surface much faster.”
Tom Mann, Jr., shows off the double-fluke rig.“I’m telling you the biggest thing about blue-back herring is they are lightning fast,” he continued. “If a bait just kind of lumbers along, bass are not going to touch it. But the faster a bait moves, the more it looks like a fleeing blue-back and the more likely a bass is to bite it.”
"Once I figured that out, I don't want to say it was easy, but my confidence level went up tremendously," he said. "But you still had to hit those spots when there were enough of them set up, and sometimes that could take awhile.
He was in a three-way tie for 7th place after day 1, and then moved up to 3rd with a slightly larger sack on day 2. He caught a couple of key fish that day on a Yamamoto Kut Tail worm attached to a 1/4-ounce jighead after they'd chased the fluke rig but wouldn't eat it.
On day 3 he didn't have a keeper at noon before loading up during the last few hours of the day to take over the lead, and on day 4 he had a limit that essentially sealed the victory by 9:20. He had double hookups on back-to-back casts that day.
"Somebody asked me that morning who was going to win, and I said all I could tell them was the Good Lord already knew who was going to win and I was just going to go out and fish hard and hope that it was me. To get a limit that early and catch those two doubles and land them, I was just blessed is all I can say."
Winning Gear:
Double-Fluke gear: 6'10" medium heavy All Star rod (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ASPSCR), Pflueger Patriarch casting reel (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PPTCR) (6.4:1 ratio), 17-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC) line, two size 10 barrel swivels, 5/0 VMC worm hooks, Zoom Flukes (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) (white pearl).
His rig consisted of a 12-inch leader and hook tied to one end of a barrel swivel. The main line was then passed through the other end, and another swivel attached. A 14-inch leader and another hook was tied to the other end of the second swivel. "The bottom leader should always be a little longer than the top," he said.
Topwater gear: Same rod and reel, 14-pound Berkley Trilene XT line, Rapala Skitter Walk (hot steel).
Worm gear: 6'8" All Star rod (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ASPSSR), Pflueger Supreme spinning reel (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PSMS), 10-pound Spiderwire Ultracast braided line (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SWUC) (main line), 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC) (6-foot leader), 1/4-ounce Buckey Lures Spot Remover (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BSR) jighead, 5" Yamamoto Kut Tail Worm (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=YA4CTW) (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "Figuring out where the fish were set up and figuring out the technique to catch them."
Performance edge – The Trilene 100% fluorocarbon for its castability, low stretch and low visibility in that clear water. That was the No. 1 key."
The Field:
Chris Martinkovic:
Martinkovic essentially spent the entire week working a shoal in the Little Georgia River with a Zoom Super-Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) in glimmer-blue.
The shoal was home to a school of bass, and Martinkovic patrolled the area, patiently waiting for the fish to come up over 10 to 30 feet of water.
“They just did not school today like I hoped they would,” Martinkovic said of his three-fish catch today. “I broke one off and then had another completely jump out of the water to get the bait, and I missed it.”
Ken Williamson:
Williamson used a Zoom Super Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) in blue-glimmer, white-ice and blue-holograph colors to catch schooling fish in the Little River area.
Craig Johnson:
Johnson also targeted schooling fish during the week in water 20 to 50 feet deep.
His main lures included a ¼-ounce Buckeye spinnerbait in fire-cracker, a Lucky Craft Gunfish (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=LCGUN95) and Zoom Super Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) in white-ice.
“I lost a couple of good ones today,” Johnson said. “But what really hurt me was that my timing and position was just a tick off everywhere I went. And timing is everything with this kind of fishing – you have to be in casting range when they come up. And they came up several times when I was not quite in the right position to take advantage of it.”
Keith Hutto:
Like others in the top five, Hutto also relied on a Zoom Super Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) (glimmer-blue) to catch schooling fish this week.
“Four of us in the top five were all rotating around roughly on the same 15 or 20 places,” Hutto said. “They’re all key places where the bass set up to ambush those blue-backs.”
TW Staff
The 56-year-old has been fishing professionally for more than a quarter-century and said this season might've been his best ever, seeing as how it was topped off with a tournament victory that resulted in a 1-point triumph over Dave Lefebre in the Eastern Series Angler of the Year (AOY) race.
“Man, this feels awesome,” Mann said after his win. “I don’t know what to say. Everything just fell into place this week. I knew what I was looking for when I came here because of my experience with blue-backs at Lanier. I just had a flawless week. I landed every fish that bit except for one. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
“During my five days of prepractice and four days of practice, I isolated about 20 different places where a point or shoal broke off into the deepest water available. And all of these fish were sitting out in about 15 to 25 feet of water, right on the tips of those breaks. My casts had to perfect to come across that strike zone where these wolf packs of bass were waiting to ambush blue-backs. It’s a scenario that’s very similar to the way I fish back home on Lanier, so I had a lot of confidence in what I was doing.”
When he returned for the 4-day official practice, water temperatures had dropped about 6 degrees (to the high 70s) and the bass were much more cooperative.
"The first day I got four bites and caught two pretty decent fish. Then the next day I got on the pattern and the bait that I ended up catching most of my (tournament) fish on."
He discovered that humps in 13 to 20 feet of water with a defined point on one end or the other, which also had scattered hydrilla or large rocks, were holding bass that were stalking the bluebacks. There might be just one or two, or there might be a small "wolfpack" of six or seven fish.
"By 10:00 on the second day of practice I'd created that pattern, and I spent the next 3 days hunting those kinds of places with my Raymarine electronics. It wasn't easy to find that whole scenario that didn't have 10 other boats running it. When they set up like that on those spots, the first boat that goes through will bust up that school and it'll be 2 hours before they're set up again.
"I found enough out-of-the-way spots that really weren't on the GPS chip and the five or six locals weren't running. I ended up with 15 to 20 and I'd run them three times a day during the tournament. I might fish five of them and catch nothing, and then get a 3-pounder off the sixth one. Then the next two wouldn't produce anything, but I'd catch one off the place after that."
Competition:
Mann opened the first day on a spot where he'd found eight or 10 fish in the 2- to 4-pound range. It took him just 15 minutes to boat a trio of 3-pounders courtesy of a Rapala Skitter Walk, but then he encountered a long lull.
When he could not longer bring fish to the surface, he resorted to a double-Zoom Fluke rig that he fished extremely fast with intermittent jerks to imitate a school of bluebacks. Four times over the next 3 1/2 days he caught two bass on a single cast.
“The main reason I went to the double-Fluke rig was because I could not work a single-Fluke rig fast enough under the water without it coming out of the water and skipping on top,” he revealed. “A double-Fluke rig was much heavier and provided a lot more resistance to hold the baits in the water and allowing me to really rip and jerk those Flukes just under the surface much faster.”
Tom Mann, Jr., shows off the double-fluke rig.“I’m telling you the biggest thing about blue-back herring is they are lightning fast,” he continued. “If a bait just kind of lumbers along, bass are not going to touch it. But the faster a bait moves, the more it looks like a fleeing blue-back and the more likely a bass is to bite it.”
"Once I figured that out, I don't want to say it was easy, but my confidence level went up tremendously," he said. "But you still had to hit those spots when there were enough of them set up, and sometimes that could take awhile.
He was in a three-way tie for 7th place after day 1, and then moved up to 3rd with a slightly larger sack on day 2. He caught a couple of key fish that day on a Yamamoto Kut Tail worm attached to a 1/4-ounce jighead after they'd chased the fluke rig but wouldn't eat it.
On day 3 he didn't have a keeper at noon before loading up during the last few hours of the day to take over the lead, and on day 4 he had a limit that essentially sealed the victory by 9:20. He had double hookups on back-to-back casts that day.
"Somebody asked me that morning who was going to win, and I said all I could tell them was the Good Lord already knew who was going to win and I was just going to go out and fish hard and hope that it was me. To get a limit that early and catch those two doubles and land them, I was just blessed is all I can say."
Winning Gear:
Double-Fluke gear: 6'10" medium heavy All Star rod (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ASPSCR), Pflueger Patriarch casting reel (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PPTCR) (6.4:1 ratio), 17-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC) line, two size 10 barrel swivels, 5/0 VMC worm hooks, Zoom Flukes (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) (white pearl).
His rig consisted of a 12-inch leader and hook tied to one end of a barrel swivel. The main line was then passed through the other end, and another swivel attached. A 14-inch leader and another hook was tied to the other end of the second swivel. "The bottom leader should always be a little longer than the top," he said.
Topwater gear: Same rod and reel, 14-pound Berkley Trilene XT line, Rapala Skitter Walk (hot steel).
Worm gear: 6'8" All Star rod (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ASPSSR), Pflueger Supreme spinning reel (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PSMS), 10-pound Spiderwire Ultracast braided line (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=SWUC) (main line), 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BTFCC) (6-foot leader), 1/4-ounce Buckey Lures Spot Remover (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BSR) jighead, 5" Yamamoto Kut Tail Worm (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=YA4CTW) (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "Figuring out where the fish were set up and figuring out the technique to catch them."
Performance edge – The Trilene 100% fluorocarbon for its castability, low stretch and low visibility in that clear water. That was the No. 1 key."
The Field:
Chris Martinkovic:
Martinkovic essentially spent the entire week working a shoal in the Little Georgia River with a Zoom Super-Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) in glimmer-blue.
The shoal was home to a school of bass, and Martinkovic patrolled the area, patiently waiting for the fish to come up over 10 to 30 feet of water.
“They just did not school today like I hoped they would,” Martinkovic said of his three-fish catch today. “I broke one off and then had another completely jump out of the water to get the bait, and I missed it.”
Ken Williamson:
Williamson used a Zoom Super Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) in blue-glimmer, white-ice and blue-holograph colors to catch schooling fish in the Little River area.
Craig Johnson:
Johnson also targeted schooling fish during the week in water 20 to 50 feet deep.
His main lures included a ¼-ounce Buckeye spinnerbait in fire-cracker, a Lucky Craft Gunfish (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=LCGUN95) and Zoom Super Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) in white-ice.
“I lost a couple of good ones today,” Johnson said. “But what really hurt me was that my timing and position was just a tick off everywhere I went. And timing is everything with this kind of fishing – you have to be in casting range when they come up. And they came up several times when I was not quite in the right position to take advantage of it.”
Keith Hutto:
Like others in the top five, Hutto also relied on a Zoom Super Fluke (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=ZSF) (glimmer-blue) to catch schooling fish this week.
“Four of us in the top five were all rotating around roughly on the same 15 or 20 places,” Hutto said. “They’re all key places where the bass set up to ambush those blue-backs.”
TW Staff