When Not Looking, Hallman And Lebrun Went Froggin’

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Lake Texoma had risen two feet in advance of last week’s Texas Rayovac Series season finale, but that did nothing to slow down the Ray Hanselman Express.

The typically tough reservoir that straddles the Oklahoma-Texas border lived up to its reputation as some competitors noted how small the 89,000-acre lake ultimately fished.

The higher water brought more brush into play and caused some areas to muddy up. With the fish in the midst of the spawn and post-spawn, targeting areas with stained and clearing water along with places with a mix of brush and off-colored water was one way to get bit. Sight-fishing was a factor early on, but as the event wore on, topwater frogs emerged as another go-to option.

Here's a recap how runner-up Bradley Hallman and 3rd-place finisher Nick Lebrun caught their fish:

2nd Bradley Hallman

> Day 1: 5, 14-08
> Day 2: 5, 12-00
> Day 3: 5, 20-05
> Total = 15, 46-13

Bradley Hallman is no stranger to Lake Texoma. He’s fished it plenty in the past and has a couple Top-10s in B.A.S.S. Opens from the 2000s to his credit there.

It’s consistently a challenging lake because of how it can fool anglers into thinking there are fish everywhere they turn.

“Texoma always fishes small for how big it is,” he said. “For whatever reason, the fish live in a small percentage of the lake.”

Before he started practice, the water had come up and he thought clarity issues would prevent sight-fishing from being a dominant strategy.

“I thought we wouldn’t be able to see all that well, but I was amazed to see how much it cleared up in 12 hours,” he said. “It was the tail end of the spawn and a lot of fish were post-spawn sitting on beds. It was the beginning of the fry guarders. I was all in on sight-fishing. I don’t think I tried to make a cast in practice.”

He said the sight-fishing opportunities weren’t as widespread as they were at Grand Lake where he won looking at them last month, but there were still enough fish up to win with.

“I fished for my life the first 2 days,” Hallman said. “I wasn’t on much, but that’s typical Texoma. The last day I just felt like lake was open and I was allowed to go fishing. Everybody was off the community holes so I took a frog and went fishing in areas where a million boats had been the 2 days before.”

On the final day, he had a limit by 9 a.m. and later culled four of them with fish he looked at on beds, including a 7-pounder. He was convinced he could’ve caught as big or bigger had he had a little more time.

“I had two 4-pounders on a bed with about 90 minutes to go,” he said. “Then I saw another one that was about three times the size of the 4s. I thought it was a carp, but as it got to swimming around the bed, I saw it was a bass. I told my co-angler we weren’t leaving until I caught it. If I would’ve had 15 minutes, I would’ve had her. She blew on my hook once and I knew if I caught her it would’ve meant Ray had to catch ‘em. It was just an incredible afternoon.”

> Sight Fishing gear: 7’3” medium-heavy unnamed casting rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 gear ratio), 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Mustad Big Bite worm hook, Zoom Speed Craw (green-pumpkin).

> Frog gear: Same rod, same reel, 50-pound unnamed braided line, various hollow-body frogs.

5 that I caught they had it choked it… changed colors 2 or 3 … different in spawners and fry guarders were choking it.

> Main factor in his success – "Being from Oklahoma. I have two 2nds at Texoma now.”

> Performance edge – "My Phoenix 920 boat is bad to the bone. I got into an area at one point and I had to put my jack plate all the way up and I was still able to get on plane in 18 inches of water.”

Notable

> Hallman has competed against Hanselman many times over the years, but he was quick to laud the Texan’s accomplishment of sweeping the Texas Division.

“I give him props,” Hallman said. “What he did – to win all three in our division – in incredible. I’m glad to finish 2nd (in points) to the man. I’ll remember it the rest of my life. The weights the guys in 2nd, 3rd and 4th had were winning weights and he was so far above us. At Texoma, you’re always going to have a bad day, even the guys that win. He just didn’t have one.”

3rd: Nick Lebrun

> Day 1: 5, 10-15
> Day 2: 5, 13-10
> Day 3: 4, 21-13
> Total = 14, 46-06

Lebrun was the only finalist whose weight increased each day of the event, which is a pretty stout accomplishment for someone who’d never fished a tournament at Texoma. The 3rd-place result is his best showing in an FLW event.

“It’s definitely toward the top as far as my accomplishments,” he said. “Even on stage on day 3, I thanked all of my competitors. They’re a tough crowd. To do well against them, you feel like you’ve done something.”

He said Texoma is one of the toughest lakes he’s fished and it wasn’t because he knew so little about it coming in.

“It was the toughest because there were so many areas that looked good in general or looked like other stuff I patterned, but they were ghost towns,” he said. “There was no shad or activity or I didn’t get any bites. When I’d get bit it’d be a 10-incher. It’s a huge lake, but it felt like only about 10 percent had active fish in it. When you were around them, you got bit, but the key was finding the right areas.”

He identified a couple creeks in practice that had some activity in them, but the problem was so did several other competitors.

“Half the field found the same creeks and coves,” he said. “Everywhere you went you were fishing behind somebody.”

He caught a 10-15 bag sight-fishing on day 1, but knew he had to make a change if he wanted to see that number increase.

“I was boat 42 and figured that’d be early enough to get on a spot,” he said. “I got into Grandpappy Point Marina and caught a limit that got me in the game at least.”

He opted to “fish blind” on day 2 since he figured what bedders were left would be picked off pretty quick. He casted a Texas-rigged soft-plastic craw in the same two creeks he found in practice.

“I made a decision to run to a pocket close to the ramp and caught three bonus fish and that clued me in to what was happening,” he said.

He finished his day-2 limit with a smallmouth and wound up with 13-10, which put him in 7th place entering the final day.

“As each day went on, I learned more and figured them out each day,” he added.

A 30-minute flurry with a topwater frog early on Saturday netted him four bruisers for 21-13, but he couldn’t trigger another bite the rest of the day. He found a couple bigger fish on beds, but neither was ready to bite. He also spent about 90 minutes on the area that produced the smallmouth on day 2, but came up empty there as well.

“I ran to a small creek about a mile from the ramp that had muddier water in the back,” he said. “To unlock the frog bite, you had to be around stained to muddy water. It had the perfect mix of brush and stained water. That was the key to that area.”

He was pretty certain the spawning fish were pulling up into the flooded brush.

“If you could find a hole in the brush the size of the hood of your truck, a lot of times a big female would be in there,” he said.

He also caught fish out from under debris piles in the creeks.

“The lake was high and the water had some grunge in it,” he added. “A lot of times, the fish would hang around that when they were extremely shallow.”

> Frog gear: 7’6” extra-heavy Bass Pro Shops Carbon Lite casting rod, Quantum Smoke Speed Freak PT casting reel (8:1 gear ratio), 50-pound Sufix 832 Advanced Superline, SPRO Bronzeye Pop 60 (nasty shad).

> Sight-fish/Texas-rig gear: 7’6” heavy-action Quantum Exo casting rod, same reel, 20-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Elite Tungsten worm weight, 3/0 Gamakatsu flipping hook, V&M Baits Cliff’s Craw (Bama bug).

> He also fished a white craw when targeting bedding fish. “I’d rotate between the white and Bama bug,” he said. “Sometimes, they preferred the natural color.”

> Main factor in his success – "Confidence and decision making. This tournament was all about decisions. I’d never fished an event where every hour you’re evaluating what to do next and where to go. When the fishing is that tough, you have to believe in what you’re doing. When I working the frog, I’d visualize a 5-pounder staring at it every single cast.”

> Performance edge – "The key was that Speed Freak reel. When you’re fishing that type of power-fishing, it’s important to have a reliable reel that has a strong drag for a strong hooket and has the speed to get fish out and get them to the boat quickly.”

Notable

> Lebrun finished 11th in points in the Texas Division, one slot out of receiving an invitation to next year’s FLW Tour. He’d have liked to have qualified, but doesn’t think he’s quite ready to make the jump yet. “I’m happy with 11th,” he said. “I really don’t think I’m set up family wise and financially to set out and fish the tour. I recently started a new business and I want to get that going a little more. I probably need another year or two to be confident in family life and be financially stable. My ultimate goal is to qualify, but I don’t think it’s possible in 2016.”