Ankrum, Brauer Both Stayed In 30-Foot Range

By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Ray Hanselman ran a somewhat complicated program en route to winning last week's Lake Amistad Texas Rayovac. Runner-up Brian Ankrum and 3rd-place finisher Denny Brauer kept their approaches real simple.

Ankrum, a transplant to Texas from Colorado, and Brauer, who called Missouri his home for most of his Hall of Fame career but now resides on the shore of Amistad, both keyed on staging fish that were set up in the 30-foot range while preparing to move shallow for the annual spawning ritual. Everything Ankrum boated was enticed by a dropshot rig, while Brauer alternated between two different types of jigs and a Carolina rig.

Here are some of the details.

2nd: Brian Ankrum

> Day 1: 5, 14-06
> Day 2: 5, 19-13
> Day 3: 2, 11-03
> Total = 12, 45-06

Ankrum's home in Natalia, Texas is only about a 2 1/2-hour drive from Amistad, but he hadn't been there since last year's Bassmaster Central Open, which took place a full calendar year ago. The lake has been off its peak form for quite some time now and isn't the angler magnet it was a few years back.

He put in 5 practice days, but didn't really fish on the last one – he just checked on a couple of places and headed in at noon.

"The whole deal was I was keying on bass moving from deep water up into the spawning grounds that were on staging stuff," he said. "My best spot was about 35 feet deep, then there was a sheer vertical drop to about 100 feet of water. It was pretty rocky on the face, but it was really just a had bottom. As it got shallower there was some grass and the fish wanted to get in that grass.

"I really kind of dialed that place in on the first day of the tournament and I think I ended up catching every keeper there but three, including two of my biggest fish."

Between 10 a.m. and noon were the magical hours on days 1 and 2.

"That's when they'd come up to the top of the ledge where I could really get at them," he said. "They were kind of stacked up on there. The first day I finished off my limit and culled once on four straight casts. The second day I went there early and caught a 3 1/2-pounder on my second cast, then I lost another pretty good one, and then they quit biting.

"I came back at about 10 and it was lights out. I caught a 6 1/2 right away and filled my limit within 20 minutes and culled once. I was out of there by 11."

He'd have won the event if he could've boxed a limit on day 3. The two bites he got were beauties – a 6 and a 5, but he had nothing to go with them.

"I pretty much ran out of fish is what it boils down to. I tried waiting them out in a couple area and coming back and checking, hoping another wave had moved up, but it just didn't happen."

> Dropshot gear: 7'1" medium-action iRod Genesis II rod, Shimano Stradic spinning reel, 20-pound PowerPro Super 8 Slick braided line braid (main line), 8-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon leader (10 to 12 feet), 3/8-ounce round lead dropshot weight, No. 2 Gamakatsu Splitshot/Dropshot hook, 5" Zoom Finesse Worm (watermelon red).

> He used chartreuse Spike-It Dip-N-Glo dye to color the bottom quarter-inch of his worms.

Main factor in his success – "I'd say the way I practiced. I spent probably 80 percent of my time just graphing – I wanted to find fish before I fished. They weren't just everywhere in the lake."

Performance edge – "My Lowrance electronics with DownScan and Side Imaging. About 50 percent of the fish I caught I actually saw on the graph and just dropped down to them."

3rd: Denny Brauer

> Day 1: 5, 17-01
> Day 2: 5, 14-12
> Day 3: 4, 11-03
> Total = 14, 43-00

Brauer, who moved to Del Rio, Texas after retiring from the Bassmaster Elite Series at the conclusion of the 2014 campaign, is out on the lake pretty much whenever the weather is suitable.

"Whether it's official (practice) or unofficial, I spend a lot of time on the water," he said. "I didn't really know what I could catch in this tournament because it'd been such a crapshoot from day to day. I knew a 30-pound day was possible, but the next day I might get two bites all day.

"I felt that somebody could catch 60 pounds (over three days), but if they didn't bite good then 40 might win. I was really focused on just getting five good keeper bites a day."

He employed the same basic strategy as Ankrum (fishing in 30 feet of water with a drop-off to 100 feet very close by), but bounced around to more places.

"It was all real steep structure on the main lake. I felt like those fish had been living deep and they'd come up and make contact with something before moving to the bays and creek channels to start spawning. I fished some sharp ledges and channel swings and those type of spots."

His final-day bag was one fish short of a limit, but not because he farmed any bites.

"I fished a very efficient tournament," he said. "I had 16 keeper bites and the only one I missed was on day 1 – I had a big one pull of on a Carolina rig. I assume it was a bass, but I didn't see it."

> Jig gear: 7'4" Ardent Denny Brauer Signature Series jig rod, Ardent Apex Elite casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce Strike King Football Jig or 3/4-ounce Strike King Denny Brauer Structure Jig (green-pumpkin/chartreuse), Strike King Rage Chunk trailer (candy craw).

> Carolina rig gear: Same rod and reel, 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, 1-ounce tungsten Strike King Carolina rig weight, 4/0 Mustad Grip Pin Max hook, Strike King Rage Lizard (double header).

Main factor in his success – "Buckling down and staying on what I call big-fish water. I knew I wasn't going to get a lot of bites, but when I got one it would probably be a keeper."

Performance edge – "Probably my Humminbird 1199s with Lakemaster mapping. The water level fluctuates so much in a lake like this, but they allow you to highlight depth contours. I spent my whole career fishing shallow, but living here electronics are much more important and I'd have been a lost duck without them."

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