By Casey O'Donnell
Special to BassFan

When Northern Kentucky University's Brandon Houston and Brandon Knapmeyer ignited a school of fish that yielded 23-plus pounds in less than an hour on day 1 of the BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship, they knew their spot had serious potential. They were the only due out of the 162-team field at Alabama's Lake Pickwick who fished the school, and they needed every ounce they caught from it to pull off the win.

The suspense was heavy as the final-day weigh-in came down to the smallest margin of victory in the event's 9-year history. NKU and North Alabama weighed two of the four 20-pound bags witnessed on a stingy final day. When the scales settled, Houston and Knapmeyer had prevailed by a mere 2 ounces with a total of 43.84 pounds.

Houston and Knapmeyer are Ohio River rats, but they proved their offshore capabilities on the Tennessee River impoundment.

“I’m a shallow water fisherman," said Houston. "I’ve been to Pickwick before and Kentucky Lake, but this was really the first time I was able key in to the offshore bite. It was new to me, but I’ve done it (before) and learned the electronics, so I have it narrowed down to the point where I had some confidence to catch fish doing it.”

Following are some of the specifics of how they achieved their victory.

Practice

Pickwick doesn't lack for good shallow-water fishing in May, but historically the winning fish come away from the bank. With that in mind, Houston and Knapmeyer chose to spend the majority of their 3 practice days graphing offshore structure with their electronics.

“We graphed the majority of the time – we probably fished a total of 6 hours and most of that was just going up shallow, messing around to get a few bites,” said Knapmeyer.

Typically, the depth and position of the fish setting up on Tennessee River structure allow expert anglers to recognize fish as bass and further, whether the bass is catchable just by the way the picture reads on their electronics. Therefore, to save time in practice they fished less and spent the bulk of their hours idling and reading their graphs.

They struggled to find anything near the main river channel, so they back-tracked their way closer to spawning flats.
“We started graphing the main river channel and creek channels coming in (from the main channel)," Knapmeyer said. "We found very few schools on the main channel, so we thought they might not be out that far. So we started graphing more inside the big creeks."

Competition

> Day 1; 5, 23.40
> Day 2: 5, 20.44
> Total = 10, 43.84

By 11:30 on day 1, Houston and Knapmeyer had run a few of their spots and caught a small limit weighing 8 pounds. Since they opted not to fish their schools in practice, they were unsure of their potential. Seconds away from leaving for their next spot, Houston fired his last cast on a school they were having trouble getting to activate.

“I told my partner I was going to pick up a crankbait for a little before we got out of there," Houston said. "I looked at my partner and said. ‘Last cast, we got to get moving.’ It was to the point where my partner had his life jacket on and I catch a 2 3/4, we stayed for (awhile)."

The school activated in a big way. On the next cast Houston hooked up with two over 5 pounds on his crankbait – one came off and they netted the other one. While Houston was getting that fish out of the net, Knapmeyer was hooked up with one over 6.
“By 12:10 we had 23 pounds,” said Houston.

They caught all of their 20-plus pounds on day 1 off that spot. In order to conserve fish for day 2, they pulled off and left their fish biting.

They found their fish in a biting mood when they arrived on day 2.

“When we got in there the second day, before the camera boat even showed up, we had three fish within 20 minutes – two 4s and another solid keeper," Houston said. "By the time the camera boat got there we filled our limit, maybe 17 pounds, pulled off and jumped around spots."

Several times throughout the day they left their magical spot to let it rest. They visited other spots that they located during the practice period, but to no avail. Even though they made several culls off their spot at different times in the day, the bite was much slower than day 1.

“We culled up probably five times. We would leave the spot for about 20 or 30 minutes, letting it rest. That helped our school group back up so we could pull back in and get them to start feeding,” said Knapmeyer.

Winning Gear Notes

> Cranking gear: 7’6” medium-heavy Lew's David Fritts Palmer Crank Speed Stick, Lew's BB1 casting reel (5.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar Red Label fluorocarbon line, Strike King 8XD (sexy shad) or Rapala DT20 (parrot).

> Magnum cranking gear: 7’11” heavy Quantum Tour KVD Cranking rod, same reel, 17-pound Seaguar Red Label, Strike King 10XD (sexy shad).

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in their success – Ledge-fishing tournaments tend to draw boats together in close proximity, which often hinders productivity due to the sharing of fish and added pressure. Northern Kentucky was the only team that fished what proved to be the winning school. With no other pressure on those fish, they could leave frequently and allow it reload.

> Performance edge – Because Houston and Knapmeyer are used to slow days and tough tournaments on the Ohio River, they stayed patient during Pickwick’s slower hours.