Photo: FLWOutdoors.com Eddie Waits felt his old Big O gave fish a different look at highly-pressured Cross Lake.

Waits Breaks Out Old Big Os For Win

Saturday, June 15, 2002

Pine Bluff, Ark.'s Eddie Waits had an ace up his sleeve at the BFL All-American held over June 6-8 at Louisiana's Cross Lake. An old ace. And he waited to play it until the second day of competition.

Here's how Waits approached and fished the tournament that made him the 20th All-American winner and earned him a cool $100,000.

Pre-Practice: Two Sessions

"The first time I practiced 4 days, April 22-26," he said. "That was (mostly) post-spawn. Some of the fish had spawned, some were moving up and some were moving out. All I was doing was getting a feel for the lake." He said he was "catching quality fish," but spent most of his time looking.

Waits went back and fished May 6-18 (the off-limits began May 20). "When I came home after the first practice my outboard blew up, so I had to go back in a flat-bottom," he said. "The fishing was tough. That lake gets a lot of pressure. It's a public lake, it's not that big a lake (about 8,800 acres) and (locals) fish it for all the species that are in there.

"I already knew it was going to be tough. I was only catching a lot of small fish," Waits said.

He used a variety of baits, but said his best was a Creek King crankbait (Redfield, Ark.). "It's a little crankbait with a metal bill, pearl back and yellow sides, and runs from a foot to 5 feet depending on how you adjust the bill." He said he caught a few big bass on that bait and then put it away. He tested other baits because he doesn't like depending on just one bait.

Just Graphed in Practice

The one practice day was Wednesday, June 5. Waits said he "didn't need to practice" because he "already knew (how) they were biting." Instead, because his last pre-practice was in a jon-boat without electronics, he used the Ranger- supplied competition boat to graph the areas he'd found and a few more.

Day 1: Ouch

To say that the fishing at Cross Lake was brutal is putting it mildly. On day 1, 16 of the 50 anglers (or 32 percent of the field) zeroed, and only 6 fishermen caught more than 5 pounds. The fishing was tough in part because of the weather getting steadily hotter, but adding to the tough day was the lake's 14-17 inch slot limit. That's a killer.

Waits ran about 400 yards from the blast-off area to an area of cypress trees and caught one bass over the slot, two in the slot and two shorts. He weighed in one bass, a 4-05 that was the second biggest that day, and ended up in 11th.

He caught it on the Creek King, but "they'd gotten off the Creek King because the bream had quit spawning," he said.

Day 2: Last-Minute Big O

Day 2 was no better. Fourteen anglers zeroed and this time only 5 fishermen caught more than 5 pounds.

Waits started at the same place, throwing the Creek King. "Fish were reacting to it," he said, but they weren't biting it. He caught two short fish in a spinnerbait and a crankbait, but that's all he had by 2:00 and he had to be in by 3:00.

"I was running out of time and needed some fish," he said. He opened his tackle box and looked at an old Big O. "It was my dad's Big O," he said. "Mr. (Cotton) Cordell told me that bait was 30-35 years old." He had several, but "had them put up for years. But I swore that if I ever made it to a national championship, I'd bring them out and use them. And that 's what I did."

Waits made a few casts and caught a 2-pound white bass. "Then I knew they were biting it, and figured I'd just stick with it," he said. "I moved to my secondary area, about a quarter-mile from where I'd been fishing." He was fishing shady spots out away from the cypress trees because he felt the fishing pressure had moved the bass off the trees. But by 2:30 he still didn't have a fish in the boat.

"I had a co-angler from Oklahoma, a young man 18 years old named Jeff Waits (no relation)." Waits said. "He was wondering how I was handling the pressure, and I was explaining to him how you have to believe in yourself, keep your bait in the water and have faith -- and then I caught one about 3 pounds." On the next cast Waits boated one that was a little over a pound. Those fish weighed 4-07, giving him 8-12 total, good enough for 7th place.

"I felt like I had a chance," he said.

Day 3: Big O, Big Day

Day 3 was the only day the competitors launched before the sun was out, so Waits decided to go to his primary spot and throw a topwaters. "It didn't work," he said.

Immediately he ran to where he'd caught his bass the day before, and started throwing the Big O. "That's all I threw, and I caught fish all day," he said. Unfortunately, most were in or under the slot. But he ended up catching three bass weighing 5-13, with a 3-07 being his biggest.

Since weights were zeroed for day 3's Top 10 final round, his 5-13 was good enough for the win by 7 ounces over Greg Gutierrez of Red Bluff, Calif.

Waits added that he could have caught more bass that day, but that he fishes "strictly big fish. I don't fish for limits."

Big O or Bust

Waits thinks the Big O worked at Cross because the fish "hadn't seen it. It was a different color (green back, pearl belly, silver metalflake) had different vibration and a different rattle." The bait ran 4-5 feet deep. "It's a big-bass bait for me," he said. "It always has been."

Big Os are still made and are still effective, but naturally are manufactured differently now than they were 30-35 years ago. Regarding whether he's scared of losing an heirloom bait, he said: "I'm always scared of losing it, but you just fish. That's all you can do." He said that although he has other old Big Os, that's the only one he has in that particular color.

Is that bait retired now? "She's put up," Waits said. "She won't come out until next year." That's when Waits plans to be fishing the FLW Tour, for which he became eligible by winning the All-American.

(Note: Cotton Cordell is an Arkansan who designed his baits for Arkansas waters. Though they naturally work elsewhere, native Arkansans are more familiar with his baits than people from other states. The Big O is Cordell's best-known bait.)

Fishing Philosophy

Here's how Waits summed-up his approach to tournament fishing. "When I go to a lake I've never been on before, I try to get all the information I can -- from locals, bait stores, the whole 9 yards. Then I come up with a gameplan and that's what I go with.

"I try not to do what everyone else is doing. If they're biting something, I'll throw it. But if the bite is tough, I'll try to do something different."

What About the Money?

Waits has a disability retirement from the government, and said he will use the $100,000 to pay-off some bills and to start a fish and game camp in Stuttgart, Ark.