Monroe Overcame Sluggish Day 3 To Prevail By Plenty

By John Johnson
Senior Editor

Ish Monroe's ultra-hectic two-tour schedule has seen him compete twice already this year at Florida's Lake Okeechobee. The first stop turned out well, but the second was much, much better.

The Californian dominated the first 2 days of last week's Okeechobee Bassmaster Elite Series, then watched his big lead nearly evaporate completely via a combo of his own lackluster day 3 and a giant bag weighed by reigning Bassmaster Classic champion Chris Lane. He turned things back around on the final day, however, and boxed 31 pounds to win by a margin that was nearly as big as his record-setting lead at the midway point.

The victory was the second of his Elite Series career and first since the initial event in 2006 at Texas' Lake Amistad. His 4-day total of 108-05 was a career-best, topping the 104-08 he caught in that '06 derby.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Monroe finished 25th at the Okeechobee FLW Tour Open last month and opted to focus the first part of his practice for the Elite tournament on areas he didn't visit during that event.

"I wanted to use those places as backups because I already knew them very well," he said. "I knew what was there and I wanted to have more stuff. But I never found anything better than what I had before, so on the second day of practice I decided to go and check those areas."

He fished his way from the Clewiston area south to Pelican Bay and ended up with a bunch of waypoints that were nearly identical to the ones he'd entered for the FLW event. He made his most promising discovery at Pelican.

"It had every type of water scenario I wanted – offshore reeds, reeds in the middle and mats in the back. The fish were going to be in there somewhere. There wasn't anywhere for them to pack up and go to.

"I caught a couple of 5-pounders and I shook off a lot of fish that I thought were good ones. I hooked a couple of big ones without even trying to – they'd jump, and all of a sudden they were stuck."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 34-05
> Day 2: 5, 24-15
> Day 3: 5, 18-02
> Day 4: 5, 30-15

Monroe took much of the drama out of the day-1 weigh-in by slapping his tournament-best 34-07 sack from Pelican on the scale to open that ceremony. The stringer was topped by a 7-11 bruiser and the four others all weighed at least 6.

It was the second-best bag he'd ever weighed, trailing only a 35 1/2-pound haul from Falcon in 2007, and it gave him a lead of nearly 9 pounds over 2nd-place Davy Hite.

His day-2 sack was 9 1/2 pounds lighter, but was still the best of the day and stretched his advantage to nearly 14 pounds – the biggest lead at the midway point in the history of the circuit. The violent wind settled down considerably that day and he made a slight presentation change, finding it was more effective to offer his Missile Baits D Bomb as the trailer on a Medlock Double Guard jig rather than rigged below a River2Sea Trash Bomb weight.

His march toward victory hit a speed bump on day 3 as his weight fell off another 6 pounds and Lane wiped out 13 pounds of his cushion with a 31-03 stringer. He was sharing his Pelican Bay area with locals and it was getting beaten up pretty soundly, and it looked for all the world as if Lane would add another trophy to his rapidly expanding collection.

Day 4 was a different story entirely, though. A series of thunderstorms in the area brought about a dramatic change in wind direction and about a foot of water was pushed out of Lane's area on the West Wall. Meanwhile, instead of running straight to Pelican, Monroe decided to hit a few spots in the Clewiston vicinity prior to heading south.

At his third stop, he went on a 45-minute frenzy that that would make him all but uncatchable. He caught a 3-pounder, two 4s, a 6 and a 7 during that timespan.

He later popped an 8 at a locale where he'd stopped earlier that morning but failed to register a bite. That proved to be overkill, though, as even the 24 pounds he'd caught earlier was far more than Lane would manage all day.

Pattern Notes

At Pelican Bay, Monroe fished the vegetation in a series of ditches where the bottom was 6 inches to a foot deeper than the adjacent area.

"There was some matted pennywort and alligator grass and reeds – the reeds were everywhere," he said. "When you have a 5-mile stretch of reeds, you can either fish the whole thing or try to find the irregularities where the fish are going to be.

"My Lowrance/Navionics combo showed me where those ditches ran through there like runways. Some were 2 feet wide going through the Kissimmee grass, some were 8 feet wide – about as wide as a boat lane – and the biggest one I found was about 30 feet wide."

The place near Clewiston where he loaded up quickly on day 4 was an oval-shaped collection of reeds, also in a ditch, about 40 feet long and 30 feet across. The water in the inner portion of the oval was maybe half a foot deeper than the rest of the ditch.

Throughout the week he covered water quickly, but fished the places that produced bites thoroughly and methodically.

"I was moving very quietly, too. I'd put my HDS-10 on standby mode to cut the ping speed, and then I'd use the mapping to see the ditches and waypoints."

He said the D Bomb, produced by fellow Elite angler John Crews' new company, played a big role despite being similar in appearance to other creature-type baits.

"Kenyon Hill and Rick Morris were right in there with me on day 1, and Morris was close enough for awhile that I could've flipped into his boat. You saw what they caught (7-07 and 6-05 bags, respectively) and you saw what I caught."

Winning Gear Notes

> Flipping gear: 8' medium-heavy Daiwa Steez flipping stick, Daiwa Zillion Type R casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 70-pound Daiwa Samurai braided line, 1- or 1 1/2-ounce River2Sea Trash Bomb weight, Paycheck Baits punch skirt (black/blue), punch stop (to hold weight in place), 5/0 Paycheck Baits Punch Hook, Missile Baits D Bomb (bruiser flash).

> The Medlock Double Guard jig he switched to on day 2 was a 1-ounce model in black/blue.

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "Covering water fast, but then fishing slow."

> Performance edge – "It'd be the Lowrance HDS-10 with Navionics for showing me the ditches. Instead of fishing along randomly at the same speed, I could Power-Pole down and fish where the fish were."

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