By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor


While his competitors labored throughout practice and during the 3 days of competition to find areas with consistent populations of smallmouth at Sturgeon Bay, Chris Zaldain managed to locate a spot that had fish steadily coming to it and leaving it at the same time – a sizable feat on a substantial piece of water that was on the cusp of going through its seasonal transition.

What’s more is when that key spot went cold on the final day, he modified his strategy and was able to catch a good enough stringer elsewhere to pull out the win. The performance punctuated his best season yet on the Elite Series and gave him something to build on heading into the offseason and next year.

“It felt so good to be the best of the Top 50 this week,” he said.

The win allowed Zaldain to move up to 6th place in the final AOY points standings – he was 10th entering the tournament. His previous best finish in AOY points was 8th in 2013.

Here’s a rundown of how he tamed Sturgeon Bay.

Practice

Zaldain didn’t seem to encounter the struggles in practice that many others in the field did. His first day at Sturgeon Bay yielded more than a dozen bites.

“I felt good about it,” he said. “On day 2, I did something totally different and it didn’t go as well.”

The final day of practice was when he found what proved to be his best area by Monument Point.

“I only caught two there and dropped two waypoints, but I felt like it would be consistent in that 14- to 16-foot depth zone,” he added.

With this being his 4th season on the Elite Series, Zaldain said he’s learned to maximize his practice time and not sit on areas he thinks might be productive come tournament time. He’d rather come back during competition and dissect it more rather than learn all there is to know about an area in practice.

“It’s really cool,” he said. “I’ve learned after 4 years of doing this that being efficient in practice is key. I find it really exciting on game day to expand on what I’d found because you can’t get intimate with a place during practice. It’s a waste of time, especially with so much water to cover.”

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 18-02
> Day 2: 5, 20-03
> Day 3: 5, 14-15
> Total = 15, 53-04

Zaldain arrived at the Monument Point spot around 9 on the morning of day 1 and proceeded to catch a limit pretty quick. Then, the learning process began. He started dissecting the area and learning where the sweet spots were and understanding why the fish were concentrated there.

“There were scattered high spots on a couple shoals,” he said. “The two shoals that stuck out the most were the one that was closest to the bank and the other was the furthest from the bank. Those seemed to get the most traffic as far as fish being on them.

“I just think these fish were in that transition and the fish coming from deeper water were stopping on that shoal that was farther out, and the fish that had been on the flat were moving to the shoal closer to shore before they headed in to feed.”

He said the whole area was about 100 yards by 60 yards and his main focus was targeting the scattered boulders that were about 1 to 2 feet high off the bottom. Most of his fish over the first 2 days were caught as he pulled a small plastic swimbait by the big rocks.

“The boulders were the size of a table top and I had to be really cognizant of wind and current directions,” he noted. “I was always positioned down current.”

He opted for the 3-inch version of the Megabass Spark Shad since it seemed to best match the minnow forage that was prevalent in the area. He also mixed in a dropshot on occasion.

“There were beach ball-sized schools of bait around there and it was a perfect ambush scenario for those smallmouth,” he said. “Every time I’d see that bait on my electronics, I knew the next three casts would be crucial because those fish would be keying on it. When the bait moved around it was hard to stay on top of them.

“After 2 days, I knew where the boulders were and I knew to cast to the boulder closest to the ball of bait.”

He followed up his 18-02 stringer from day 1 with a 20-03 bag on day 2 to climb into 2nd place behind Greg Hackney, who led after days 1 and 2.

Zaldain went back out Sunday convinced he could overtake Hackney for the win. He noted that Hackney’s weight had dipped a little and that he wasn’t catching a lot of fish.

“I saw his bags were dwindling and I was gaining momentum,” he added. “I couldn’t sleep Saturday night. I was fired up to get back out there.”

He thought another 20 pounds was a reasonable expectation, but it didn’t take long to recognize something had changed – the fish just weren’t there anymore.

“We had a little bit of post-frontal weather today so maybe that’s why it was tougher there,” he said.

He hung around until 9:30 before opting to check another area where he’d gotten bites with a jerkbait in practice.

He caught a keeper on a jerkbait right away, then decided to try the swimbait. On his third cast, he caught a 4-13 kicker and added two other keepers. He ran back to his starting spot, but still couldn’t finish his limit there.

He moved back to where he caught the 4-13 and finished his limit – he only got five bites on the final day – and it proved to be more than enough to overtake David Walker, who’d caught 20-10 to finish 2nd, and Hackney, who blanked.

Winning Pattern Notes

> Zaldain said casting up wind and swimming his bait down the side of the boulders triggered the most strikes. “The bite was real light,” he said. “They’d swim next to it or behind it and just mouth it.”

Winning Gear Notes

> Swimbait gear: 7’ medium-action Megabass Orochi XX shakey-head spinning rod, Shimano Stradic Ci4+ 2500 spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line (main), 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line (leader), 1/4-oz. unnamed round-ball jig head, 3” Megabass Spark Shad (hiuo).

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – “My decision to go to that jerkbait spot and expand on it with the swimbait was key. I was not going to go down being stubborn and sticking with my key area. I had to expand and cover water in places I had confidence in.”

> Performance edge – “That Raymarine CHIRP DownVision was so key in helping me be able to see those fish tucked tight up against those boulders.”

Notable

> Zaldain said he was going to hang around Sturgeon Bay on Monday and fish with a couple friends who were flying in from California. He planned to check some areas that he never got to fish during the tournament because the areas he did fish were so productive. “I’m going to take the same exact approach – get into a high-percentage area and take clues from there,” he added.

Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here.