Clark Reehm called it a classic case of zigging when he should’ve zagged.
On day 1 of the Forrest Wood Cup, he wasn't comfortable focusing on the topwater fish everyone was talking about because he simply wasn’t able to build enough confidence with that pattern in practice.
“There were two primary patterns that were going to be the deal and I chose poorly on day 1, but you have to fish your pre-fish,” Reehm said. “All everyone was talking about were the schooling fish, but they weren’t busting in too many places. I never saw any schoolers in 4 days of practice. If you’re not getting that to work in practice, it’s not going to work for you in the tournament.”
He said he got just enough bites flipping shallow brush and docks and throwing a buzzbait shallow that he committed to that on Friday. It was the wrong zig when everyone else zagged on bass related to cane piles or pushing herring to the surface as he managed just two fish for 4-14 and was in 44th place.
“I started on a couple herring deals from practice and it didn’t happen,” he said. “I went to a buzzbait and ended up falling short. I tried to do too much where you’d fish a juice dock or brush piles and go down some bank, but there’s so much randomness there. I got enough bites to where I tried to formulate something and it didn’t work out.”
On day 2, he knew a top-10 berth was a longshot so his goal was to try to move inside the top 20 as the paychecks were bigger compared to 21st through 53rd.
“I knew I was out of it at that point, but if 15 to 17 (pounds) had been leading, I might’ve tried to stay in the hunt, but with it being a three-day tournament, now you’re fishing for the top 20 to get more money.”
He stowed his buzzbait gear and put only a topwater rod and fluke rod on his deck for Saturday.
“I figured we’ll be coming back to Murray so I might as well get used to summer time herring stuff,” he added. “I ran humps and points and cane piles and lost the fish to have a 20-plus pound bag.”
He wound up with 15-11 (four fish) and moved all the way up to 23rd, a 21-spot improvement. He fell just 9 ounces short of the top 20, but he still saw some positives in the outcome.
“I lost three or four before I caught my first fish,” he said, “I learned something and salvaged and recovered from it. It was a bittersweet day because I thought I’d have enough to make the Top 20. I had 16 for 4 fish. If I get a 5- or 6-pounder, I might’ve been in the hunt.”
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses on the angler who makes a significant upward move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
