Brian Travis finished 21st at the recent Pickwick FLW Tour Major – 1st out of the Top-20 cut. He primarily targeted smallmouths, so he was fishing deep, right? Wrong. Travis flipped for bruiser smallmouths.
When asked to look back and identify something he might have done differently to make the cut, Travis said: "I had a fish die on me the last day that cost me 8 ounces, and I missed the cut by 5 ounces. The only thing I might have done was, I had a chance to get a Kool Well livewell system in my boat about a month ago. I didn't do it and I'm kind of regretting it.
"I was catching smallmouths and that water was in the upper-80s," he added. "I went through six bags of ice on the second day trying hard to keep the things alive. One just went belly-up on me. It was the biggest one and that's what cost me the cut."
When asked about pattern specifics, Travis noted: "Everybody was fishing on deep ledges, but I was fishing shallow. I caught all those smallmouths flipping in 5 feet to a foot of water. I was catching largemouths in practice doing it, then in the tournament they all turned into smallies, which was exciting. The first day I had a 5-03 smallie from under a dock. I was just fishing my strengths and how I like to fish."
Interestingly, he also caught shallow smallmouths at the Table Rock PAA, where he finished 3rd. He threw the same Pig Sticker jig at each event.
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