The 2005 Bassmaster Classic was a competition decided by lost fish.
Whoever lost the fewest fish won. The winner, of course, was Kevin VanDam – 2005 Classic champion. But what about the rest?
Aaron Martens lost to VanDam by a slim 6 ounces – it was that tight. And Martens had the bites to win, but couldn't keep them buttoned up. Neither could Gerald Swindle. George Cochran, who finished 4th, couldn't get his five on day 3 either. And Mike Iaconelli, who finished 5th, came up short on day 3 as well.
Another deciding factor the final day was current. It was there in limited quantities the first 2 days, then disappeared sometime overnight. Anglers woke to face a slick river and it hurt the bite bad.
Here's how the rest of the Top 5 caught their fish.
2nd: Aaron Martens
> Day 1: 5 5-01
> Day 2: 4 4-00
> Day 3: 3, 3-08
= Total: 12, 12-09
This was Martens' third 2nd-place Classic finish in four years. But of all those heartbreaks, he said this one was the toughest. He led day 2, but lost key fish on day 3 and couldn't scrape up one more keeper, which would have been all he needed.
He also tossed back a fish on day 2 that might have measured. He worked it and got it to tape 12 inches, but in the end, decided not to gamble and threw it back.
His pattern involved points and bridges in the Pittsburgh pool. No surprise there. He fished a single bridge last year at Lake Wylie and finished 2nd. And just about everybody at this Classic fished points and bridges.
Most assumed he was dropshotting, and he was, but not in a traditional manner. He worked suspended fish with the dropshot. The choice of a 1/16-ounce weight created a slow fall-rate, and he often thumbed the spool to slow it even more. He noted only one of his bites came from bottom. The rest were from suspended fish chasing bait around the bridge pilings and points.
"(On day 2) I got a lot more bites," he said. "The current flowed more and concentrated the fish. They were usually on points – right outside the eddy pockets in current.
"(Day 3) was quite different. I got way less bites – less than 20 – but I had bigger bites. The two keepers I lost were pound-and-a-halfers."
One fish broke him off on 5-pound line. He noted he perhaps should have fished 7-pound, but 5-pound worked just fine in practice."
> Dropshot gear notes: 6'10" light-action Megabass spinning rod, Daiwa spinning reel, 5- and 6-pound Sunline, 1/16-ounce weight, 10" to 12" leader, size 1 and 2 Gamakatsu hooks, 3" Roboworm Live Shad (hologram shad) and Berkley Gulp Minnow (black shad and smelt).
> He used the 6-pound and size 2 hook with the Gulp Minnow. For the Live Shad, he used the 5-pound and size 1 hook.
Gerald Swindle caught most of his fish from a single rock.
3rd: Gerald Swindle
> Day 1: 3 3-08
> Day 2: 4 4-04
> Day 3: 4, 4-01
= Total: 11, 11-13
Gerald Swindle is known as the man who fishes by the seat of his pants – the man who often doesn't have a plan. The interesting thing about his pattern is it pretty much involved a single rock.
"(Day 2) was kind of a turning point for me," he said. "On the first day, I ran too much. I wasn't patient enough. I started in the Mon(ongahela), and my whole gameplan was to start in the no-wake zone to catch topwater fish."
He waited until the other boats were through, then fished the no-wake zone. "The first day, I caught two off a rock real quick." He had six keeper bites on that same rock.
On day 2, he caught 41 fish but only four keepers. "A lot of guys fished the outside river side of the (bridge) pilings," he said. "I noticed that anywhere the current was strongest, I could throw a crankbait out in front (of a current break). I cranked the top ends of any bridge pilings (I could find), then went back to my lucky rock. I had 14 keeper bites off this one rock in the tournament."
On day 3, the current changed. "The current on (day 2) was amplified more. The wind was blowing downriver, and that influenced it. (On day 3) the wind blew against the current. So it was a double-whammy."
He got his day 3 keeper bites when a barge moved upriver. "That made the current on the rock stronger. I caught two keepers back-to-back, and lost two nice ones."
After that, he ran downriver, but returned to the rock when he saw another barge. "I threw and missed a big one, then jumped off two keepers. It sucked on that rock the rest of the day."
> Gear notes: He threw two baits – a Lucky Craft Bevy Shad crankbait (translucent shad and white), and a Lucky Craft G-splash topwater.
George Cochran worked grass up the Mon.
4th: George Cochran
> Day 1: 2, 3-03
> Day 2: 4, 4-03
> Day 3: 5, 4-04
= Total: 11, 11-10
George Cochran was cranking milfoil in the Mon, concentrating on clumps that created shade pockets. He fished two shallow-running crankbaits: a Strike King Series 1
and a "Lucky Craft." Both were white with a touch of gold. He fished them on a 7' Daiwa Light and Tough rod and Millionaire reel spooled with 15-pound P-Line.
"I was trying to find little alleys in the grass," he said. "A lot of people wouldn't throw it where I was throwing. I'd let the bait wobble along on the top and then pull it into the little dark holes."
He said a critical mistake occurred on the first day when he lost a 2 1/2-pounder. "It would have given me 5 pounds and I'd have been within striking distance."
Mike Iaconelli fished plastics in the morning, then cranks later in the day.
5th: Mike Iaconelli
> Day 1: 4, 4-07
> Day 2: 4, 3-12
> Day 3: 3, 3-02
=Total: 11, 11-05
Mike Iaconelli said he fished "two baits and one pattern" all week.
"The pattern revolved around fishing areas with current. I was fishing where the current hit an object, and I concentrated on the eddies of the seam created by the current. Most objects were barges, bridge pilings, industrial outflows – anything that was a current area. That's what I concentrated on."
One bait was a "prototype Berkley Gulp plastic." He fished the plastic on 8-pound line and an 1/8-ounce Tru-Tungsten jighead.
"Later in the day, when more fish would suspend, I threw a crankbait."
> On the crankbait, he noted: "The crank was Japanese. A Japanese angler gave it to me at an FLW tournament. It was in a shad pattern, but more translucent. I was trying to mimic the river minnows that were out there."
He fished the Mon, but said he should have concentrated on the Pittsburgh pool.
