By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
The tournament regarded as the toughest in competitive bass fishing seems to have become nothing more than a money-grab for Clifford Pirch.
With three victories and a pair of runner-up finishers over the past 8 years, Pirch has established dominance of the WON Bass U.S. Open, held annually at Nevada's Lake Mead. This week he joined Mike Folkestad and Aaron Martens as the only three-time winners of the event.
His grasp of the big, stingy impoundment in the desert just outside of Las Vegas makes him a real good bet to add his fourth trophy before the current decade runs out.
"It's been a good event for me and you always like coming to the venues where you've had success," said the soft-spoken Arizonan. "This is a tournament I always look forward to and no matter where I'm at, I always try to figure out a way to get there.
"I'd like to be the (first to win No. 4), but I feel fortunate just to have caught up with Aaron and Folkestad."
His 31.26 total over 3 days bested the 166-angler field by about 2 1/2 pounds and earned him a prize package that included a new Nitro/Mercury rig and $50,000 in cash. It also gave him some momentum to carry into next week's Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year (AOY) Championship in Michigan, where he'll attempt to nail down his second straight Classic berth.
Here's how he did it.
Practice
Pirch spent 3 days on the water prior to the start of competition. He attempted to find "healthy" areas – a state that's primarily determined by the condition of the grass.
"Every year the areas change so much," he said. "A lot of the places I fished last year looked like a moonscape this time and other places that were pretty much devoid of any vegetation were full of life."
He found several areas in the lower basin and the Vegas Wash that were to his liking and another that was a considerable distance up the Overton arm. Because bites can be so difficult to come by at Mead, he stuck very few fish in practice, but was able to determine that much of the quality was oriented to the grass or nearby rock.
Junk-fishing is almost always the order of the day at the U.S. Open as numerous environmental factors (some of which are indiscernible) keep the setup in constant flux.
"I did the same seven or eight things I always do, but it's always in different locations and it changes every day. It's always a little bit different mix."
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 15.49
> Day 2: 5, 7.80
> Day 3: 5, 8.19
> Total = 15, 31.26
Pirch began the event with a whopping 15 1/2-pound bag that gave him a lead of nearly 4 pounds. It was the second straight stringer of that caliber he'd caught in U.S. Open competition – he had one on the final day in 2013 when he nearly snatched the title away from Rusty Brown.
The day featured a major thunderstorm that kept light conditions low and rendered the competitors extremely wet.
"The weather was a huge factor that day," he said. "In fact, I thought there were going to be more bags like that because I thought everybody was going to catch them that good."
His sack included a 6 1/2-pounder – the biggest fish of the event – that bit a crankbait and a 4 that was enticed by a worm on a dropshot rig.
"Those big ones I caught, you normally wouldn't catch that class of fish in those places. It takes some crazy factors to make them bite."
His day-2 haul was just a little more than half of what he caught the previous day, but it kept him more than 2 pounds clear of everyone else. The weather was still rough that morning and he opted to remain in the vicinity of the launch at Callville Bay.
"I basically dropshotted for that 7 1/2 pounds," he said. "I caught a few on a topwater and maybe one cranking. Then at about 11 or 12 (o'clock) it really slicked off and the fishing got pretty tough after that. It was really all about the first half of the day."
Conditions were mild on day 3, which allowed him to make the long run to the Overton Arm with no logistical issues. He didn't find the same scenario he'd discovered during practice, though, as the rain had changed things considerably.
"With the really nice weather I knew I could get up there and still have time to move to plan B or plan C if I needed to. When I got to my area, it was all blown out by the flash flood – the water was (the color of) chocolate and debris mats were covering all my stuff. I couldn't even get to it."
He kept moving around and eventually pinned down some fish at mid-day.
"The morning was a little stressful, but I finally found them at about 10:30 or 11. I found some scattered debris that wasn't as vast and the fish were setting up under or around that and I just started flipping wood, tumbleweeds, sawdust and whatever else was in there."
The area, which was about a mile from where he'd planned to start, eventually surrendered more than two dozen keepers to him and his co-angler.
"For awhile it was one after another and I was culling a half-ounce at a time almost non-stop."
Winning Gear Notes
> Dropshot gear: 7' medium-action Phenix M1 Drop Shot rod, unnamed spinning reel, unnamed 6-pound fluorocarbon line, 1/4-ounce cylindrical dropshot weight, 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb light-wire hook, 4 1/2" Roboworm (oxblood light or Pirch's purple).
> Cranking gear: 7'6" medium-action Phenix X13 rod, unnamed casting reel, unnamed 10-pound fluorocarbon line, unnamed medium- and deep-diving crankbaits (shad colors).
> Flipping gear: 7'11" heavy-action Phenix flipping stick, unnamed casting reel, unnamed 65-pound braided line, 1/2-ounce Clifford Pirch Outdoors jig (black/blue, brown or clay bank orange), unnamed craw trailer (to match jig).
> He tied his jigs directly to the braid in muddy water, but employed a fluorocarbon leader in clear water.
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "I'd probably say just experience on desert lakes and knowing what to do under those types of conditions."
> Performance edge – "Getting around in that rough water is a whole lot more pleasant when you're running a Skeeter."
Notable
> For complete final standings, For complete final standings, click here.
> It didn't even cost Pirch anything to enter this year – the $1,600 fee was part of the 2013 booty he captured for catching the tournament's biggest fish (a 5 1/2-pounder). The sponsor of that award, the Adoption Awareness Foundation, has since become part of his full-time portfolio.
> He thinks the bruiser he caught on day 1 this year might've been the same fish that came unbuttoned on him on the afternoon of day 3 in 2012, when he finished 2nd to Sean Stafford by about a pound. "It was only about 50 yards away, and I just know how few and far between the really big ones are at Mead."
