Preston Clark won the recent Santee Cooper Bassmaster Elite Series with a bed-fishing pattern. And that's what just about everyone else did. Here's how the 2nd- through 5-place finishers caught their fish.
2nd: Aaron Martens
> Day 1: 5, 22-13
> Day 2: 5, 27-06
> Day 3: 5, 25-07
> Day 4: 5, 32-10
> Total = 20, 108-04
Up until the final afternoon, Aaron Martens worked the same general area as winner Clark. But he felt he should have moved sooner.
He'd found a new mother lode that last afternoon, but it was too little, too late. "I stayed there for 3 1/2 days. I was afraid to leave. But from what I saw (on day 4), I should have left the first day.
"I had 2 hours left and 22 pounds. I was like, 'I've got to go check some other stuff out.' I went to a practice spot and the same big fish I saw 4 days before in practice were still there. I caught one of those in 20 minutes, then another in three casts.
"That lets me know I really screwed up."
He focused on a single Texas-rigged bait – the Basstrix Bait Fry. It's a West Coast airbrushed bait that's a baby bass and baby perch imitation.
"It's a little swimbait-looking thing and I was hoping to win with it. At the (2004 Bassmaster) Classic, I let everybody know about the Horsey Head. All my secrets are getting out."
> Bed-fishing gear: 7'2" Megabass Aaron Martens Pitching Stick, Daiwa Tournament-Z reel, 30-pound unnamed braid (no leader), 6/0 Gamakatsu Shiner Hook with 3/16-ounce red Tru-Tungsten weight or 5/0 Shiner Hook with 1/8-ounce red Tru-Tungsten weight, Basstrix Bait Fry (baby bass and perch).
> He fished the "smaller and larger" size Bait Frys. He fished the larger version on the 6/0 hook, and the smaller on the 5/0.
> Main factor in his success – "Just probably my eyes. It was a big challenge to see these fish. If you could see the fish's eyes, you were too close. You had to be a long distance away."
Skeet Reese had a ton of rods out and wasn't locked into anything in particular.
3rd: Skeet Reese
> Day 1: 5, 29-12
> Day 2: 5, 30-03
> Day 3: 5, 23-02
> Day 4: 5, 24-15
> Total = 20, 108-00
Reese also bed-fished, but he threw just about everything at 'em.
About his approach, he said, "I was just picking pockets. The first day, I was fishing the backwaters. Then I kind of noticed that the new fish were moving up further out. So you didn't have to be way back."
He fished both shallow and deeper beds. "I fished anything and everything I could find. If it was clear enough, I looked for deeper beds. If it was dirtier, I tried to find them up shallow.
"I wasn't biased to any terrain or pattern. I fished everything. I caught them on cypress, laydowns, lily pads, stumps – you name it."
> He had "12 to 13 rods out every day" and cycled through a number of baits. He did note that a few of his key baits were all Berkley products: Power Hawgs, Gulp! Sinking Minnows, Finesse Worms and Power Craws. He also caught one swimbait fish on the final day.
> Main factor in his success – "I don't know. Probably being a sight-fisherman for so many years and doing it out West for as long as I've done it. I'm able to read some of these females and catch them. You have to read the demeanor of the fish."
Steve Kennedy said he knew his area so well, he didn't need sun to find his beds.
4th: Steve Kennedy
> Day 1: 5, 23-06
> Day 2: 5, 31-13
> Day 3: 5, 27-13
> Day 4: 5, 21-02
> Total = 20, 104-02
Steve Kennedy said there was "nothing special" about his pattern, but he "was in a little bit dirtier water than in some other pockets. The beds were harder to see. Guys were missing them, and locals were missing them more than anything."
He did note that because he stayed with his area so long, he was still able to fish it when the wind and rain came. "I could hit those beds every cast even without going over and looking to see if a fish was there. I caught five keepers off the same bed. And on another bed I caught a 7 and 8 on back-to-back days.
"That was out in the center of the pocket, and I never saw another boat make a cast at those fish."
> He had four or five rods out. One key bait was a watermelon Kinami Flash, which he threw on spinning tackle and 10-pound line. He also threw a Spanish-fly color Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver with 12-pound line.
> Main factor in his success – "There were a lot of places you could go to catch fish. I had a good area, but think I could have done the same thing in several other areas. It was probably the area though."
Kelly Jordon passed up mid-size fish and only focused on quality.
5th: Kelly Jordon
> Day 1: 5, 31-15
> Day 2: 5, 31-10
> Day 3: 5, 14-13
> Day 4: 5, 24-13
> Total = 20, 103-03
Kelly Jordon won here in 2004, and relied on prior experience for his high finish this time.
"There's historic areas where they come up, and other areas where they don't," he said. "I was just fishing areas that I thought had the most big fish. I wasn't looking for numbers at all.
"I didn't fish for fish less than 4 pounds. Except for (day 3), when I had to go catch a stinking male to fill out my limit."
And he wasn't locked into a single type of cover or shoreline. "Some (fish) were on wood, a lot were in pads, and a lot were on stumps in deeper water. That's where most of the big ones were (deep), but there were big ones shallow too.
"My key was being able to see the deeper fish better"
> Bed-fishing gear: 7' medium-heavy Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Torno reel, 65-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid, 3/16- and 1/4-ounce Lake Fork Tackle Mega-Weights (tungsten), 7/0 Owner Wide Gap Plus hook, Lake Fork Tackle Baby Fork Craw (he used several colors, but all were of a green or watermelon base).
> He also caught a fish on day 1 using a 3:16 Lures Mission Fish swimbait.
> Main factor in his success – "Not fishing for smaller fish. When the sun got higher, I might have seen some fresh ones real shallow, but I had the patience to just hold out for bigger ones. You can't waste time on 3-pounders. That'll just get you a cup of jack squat."
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