Transition Phase Made Pickwick Challenging

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

The Pickwick Lake FLW Tour was a Clayton Kershaw curveball nobody saw coming.

After three days of cloudy conditions in practice, the wind picked up out of the west/northwest and didn’t relent. That made it hard for anglers to fish effectively offshore for the scattered (and small) schools of post-spawners that had started their pre-summer migration. On day 1, nearly 30 anglers chose to lock through to Wilson Lake. Several of them caught good stringers, but they were wiped out as 24 of the 28 anglers who went to Wilson didn’t make it back to check-in due to a lengthy delay at the lock in the afternoon.

One saving grace was a shad spawn that peaked during practice, then tailed off during the tournament. It was still a productive method, but the window was small and only in certain parts of the lake. There were some fish shallow, but mostly fry-guarders. There were some fish around the grass, evidenced by how winner Buddy Gross went about his business. It just wasn’t the Pickwick everyone expected.

Smallmouth were also a key factor for some of the competitors, whose strategies are summarized below:

2nd: Michael Neal

> Day 1: 5, 23-00
> Day 2: 5, 14-14
> Day 3: 5, 16-14
> Day 4: 5, 16-08
> Total = 20, 71-14

Michael Neal was the only Top-5 finisher to bag a limit each day of the tournament, but it wasn’t enough to cash in his first career FLW Tour win. Losing more than a quarter of his day to a mechanical breakdown on Friday hurt his chances, for sure.

“Nothing against (Buddy), but the way he won was off the wall, throwing a hair jig in grass,” he said. “Nobody’s ever heard of that. That and breaking down on the second day. Three hours of fishing time is a lot of time on this pond. Just like (Sunday), in the last 10 minutes, I caught my two biggest fish, so who knows.”

After finishing 2nd to Greg Hackney at Pickwick in 2014, Neal said the lake set up much differently this time around. The wind was a big factor and so was the lack of current generation.

“It fished a lot different from two years ago,” he said. “The place I caught the big one was a place I caught them two years ago. They weren’t there the first day. A few showed up Friday and a few more Saturday and a few more Sunday. They are coming, but they kind of threw me a curveball. I don’t really know what happened.”

He checked several areas that had grass during practice because he knew it could be a player.

“I knew it was early, but I knew I had to keep it in mind,” he said. “I caught some good fish out of it. I started there day 1 and weighed one in, but it was only bite I had. After day 1, I wrote the grass off.”

He fished plenty of history, but it was difficult to formulate much of a pattern or strategy based on the transition phase the fish were in. Most of his fish came out of 10 to 12 feet.

“I ran every waypoint that had fish on them the last time,” he said. “They were on just a couple and after I did that, I went back and looked and said, ‘Wel,l this one’s at this ditch and it goes this way toward the bank and there’s a shallow spot with a high spot over here.’ I looked at where I thought they were going to be on their way out to where I know they go.

“It wasn’t a pattern because they’re not all going to be on a point or a channel swing or whatever. It was that in-between depth range that makes it hard to graph, but you can still find them in that depth range.”

> Swimbait gear: 7’6” medium-heavy Cashion Rods CRT casting rod, Ardent Apex Elite casting reel (6.5:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 1-oz. True South Custom Lures swimbait jig, 5 1/2” Big Bite Baits BB Kicker Shad (blue gizzard)

> Hair Jig gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 1 oz. homemade bucktail jig (Tennessee shad),

> Main factor in his success – “The background I have in offshore fishing and having been here before. I knew what areas of the lake layed out better for me so I knew which ones I wanted to concentrate on more. I also knew where the fish were going so it was up to me to find where they were now.”

> Performance edge –“My Cashion rods. I’ve gotten comfortable with them and in the wind the first day, they were not biting very hard. Most of the time on these offshore deals with swimbaits they really thump it, but these would barely load up. I never lost a fish this week that would’ve hurt me."

3rd: Scott Suggs

> Day 1: 5, 21-05
> Day 2: 4, 15-02
> Day 3: 5, 10-10
> Day 4: 5, 18-00
> Total = 19, 65-01

Scott Suggs was thrilled with how his tournament went. He was on quality fish and had multiple bait options. The only drawback was the conditions didn’t let him truly realize the potential his best areas held.

“We had three days of practice under clouds and then we had fronts and changing winds, which forced me to fish backwards,” he said. “I’m totally pleased with where I wound up.”

On day 1 when he caught 21-05, he took advantage of calmer conditions.

“I got to start on a spot when it was dead slick and I fished it properly and caught three big ones before the wind got up,” he said. “On day 2, by the time I got there, the wind was already pounding it. I fished backward because of how the current was and caught a 6-pounder, but that was my only fish there.”

Day 3 was his lightest stringer of the week and again it was a product of the wind – “Nothing was right about my spot,” he noted.

He targeted shell beds in 10 to 12 feet of water with bottom-hugging baits. When he’d fish around grass, he threw a spinnerbait and swimbait.

“I think calm conditions or some current would’ve helped me,” he said.

> Swing-head jig gear: 7’6” heavy-action Abu Garcia Veracity casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line, 7/16-, 5/8-, 3/4-oz. unnamed swing-head jigs, Zoom Z Craw (green-pumpkin), Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (green-pumpkin), Gene Larew Biffle Craw (green-pumpkin).

> Cranking gear: 7’ medium-action Abu Garcia Venerate casting rod, same reel, same line (10-pound), Berkley Dredger crankbait.

> The Dredger is a new addition to Berkley’s hardbait series and will be introduced at ICAST. Suggs likes it because it has a small profile, but can still achieve depths down to 20 feet. “It might be the most unbelievable crankbait I’ve ever thrown,” he said. “For something with that small of a profile to get it down to 20 feet, it’s virtually effortless reeling it.”

> Main factor in his success – “A lot of people tried to fish offshore in practice. I did a whole lot of idling and looking. I did the same thing, but once I found what I was looking for I’d leave it and go back to it and thoroughly fish it to see if I could get bit. I know Mark (Rose) and some other guys found schools out deep, but there just weren’t enough of those places. Even better, I had places to myself.”

> Performance edge – “I really relied on my Lowrance electronics. The way that wind blew and the fine lines you had to follow to make sure you weren’t moving off your stuff, that was the biggest key – being able to stay on a place.”

4th: Jamie Horton

> Day 1: 5, 18-03
> Day 2: 5, 15-15
> Day 3: 5, 17-03
> Day 4: 4, 13-09
> Total = 19, 64-14

Jamie Horton couldn’t have scripted a better first year on the FLW Tour so far. He’s collected two top-5 finishes and is a legitimate contender for Angler of the Year with two tournaments to go. His confidence is growing, thanks to averaging more than 16 pounds a day at Pickwick.

“It’s been a good year,” he said. “I like the (Tour) format and I like having the day off on Wednesday for the fish to see where they’re going to be on Thursdays. Every day makes it different when you’re hitting lakes when the fish are moving toward the spawn or off the spawn. Every tournament we have, the Tuesday after we leave the fish are where we wanted them to be when we got there.

“This Tuesday, the ledges are going to be way better than they were this week. Just having that extra day, if you don’t have a good practice, having Wednesday off allows for things to change which means Thursday could be a different deal. I’m just fishing with a lot of confidence this year.”

Practice was a struggle for the Centerville, Ala., native until he stuck a 5-pounder last Tuesday morning with a spinnerbait. He’d been idling out deep looking for schools of post-spawners, but he shifted his focus to shady banks and that’s when he caught that fish.

“That fish made my tournament,” he said.

His deeper spots did produce some crankbait fish, but the windy conditions kept the fish from truly being ledge-oriented.

“When I side-scanned, most of the fish were in 14 to 16 feet,” he said. “The ones I caught were in 19 to 20. I think with the wind blowing like it did and cancelling out the current, it kept them from moving up. I never did catch one of those flurries.”

> Spinnerbait gear: 7’2” medium-heavy Phenix casting rod, Daiwa Tatula Type R casting reel (6.3 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. Nichols Lures double willow spinnerbait (shad), Reaction Innovations Little Dipper trailer (white trash).

> Horton would position his boat off the bank in about 13 feet of water, then throw his spinnerbait toward the bank. He said most of the fish he caught with it came in 7 to 8 feet about halfway back to the boat. They were feeding on spawning shad. “I could feel the blades hitting the shaded on my retrieve,” he said. “Then I’d twitch it and get hit.”

> Cranking gear: 7’11” extra-heavy Phenix and 8’ extra-heavy Phenix casting rods, same reel (5.1:1 ratio), same line (10- and 15-pound), Strike King 6XD (green gizzard shad), Strike King 10XD (citrus shad).

> Main factor in his success – “I found a couple schools deep, but I didn’t know if I’d get to start on them early. They don’t always bit early. Around 11 a.m. Tuesday, I caught a 5-pounder on a bluff wall where the shad were still spawning. What that let me do was to start on a deep place to see if they were biting with a chance to get a big stringer. When I didn’t, I knew I had time to go catch a couple off the shad spawn. I started deep every day but Sunday and I really felt like I put together a good stringer on that shad spawn. I caught a 5 every day and Saturday I caught two 4s. The whole tournament centered around that one 5-pounder I caught Tuesday. It let me gamble. It’s just a miracle that I started on three different deep holes this week and didn’t catch them. A week from now, if we were here, I’d catch them out there.”

> Performance edge – “Those Daiwa reels helped me a bunch along w my Phenix rods. It means a lot when you have great gear. You just fish a lot better.”

5th: Mike Surman

> Day 1: 5, 15-13
> Day 2: 5, 14-01
> Day 3: 4, 13-13
> Day 4: 5, 20-00
> Total = 19, 63-11

Whenever Mike Surman arrives at a tournament venue, one of the first features he seeks out is vegetation. As a Florida native, it’s what he knows and does best. He was in luck at Pickwick, where the grass was as lush and healthy as it’s been this early in the year in several years.

“Once I found fish in the grass, I just stuck with it,” he said. “I didn’t think the fish would be all the way out. When I got a few bites in the grass, I knew I could bare down and fish my strength.”

The fishing was hardly fast and furious in practice, but he handled enough good fish that he felt confident if could catch a limit each day, he’d be in good shape. He had a couple 5-mile long stretches where he’d focus on small indentations or subtleties in the grass.

“The grass was great,” he said. “It was green and fresh and growing. When you got in the mid lake and out in 3 to 8 feet of water, there was a lot of good grass. The key was finding little variations in those 5-mile stretches – little points or anything that was different.”

He believes the fish were using the grass as a rest stop after spawning, before heading out to their summer haunts.

“What I think was happening was these fish spawn and then move out and those big females are slow and tired,” he said. “The grass was full of shad so they had no reason to go out deep. They can sit there and be lethargic and they have everything they need – cover and food. My plan was to fish slow and grind those fish out.”

> Spinnerbait gear: 7’2” medium-heavy Witch Doctor Tackle casting rod, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. Gambler double willow spinnerbait.

> The spinnerbait was his morning bait because of the shad spawn. “As long as there was wind, I could catch them, he said. “Once it died, I went to the crankbait.”

> Cranking gear: 6’10” medium-heavy Witch Doctor Tackle casting rod, same reel, same line (15-pound), Yo-Zuri 3DB Square Lip crankbait (chartreuse black).

> The Yo-Zuri plug is designed to run 4 feet and Surman would crank the grass edges and rip it and pop it when he felt it grab the grass. His two biggest of the week – a 7-14 on day 1 and a 5-pounder on the final day – came on the crankbait.

> Main factor in his success – “Getting those quality bites in practice and knowing the big ones were in the grass and staying with it and fishing slow. Any time I ran around I never improved. I knew the right thing to do was to stay and fish thoroughly. It didn’t work two of the days, but it did on day 1 and 4.”

> Performance edge – “I spent my whole week looking at my Lowrance. The key was finding those tiny indentations in the grass or where it would stop. Plus, I can’t get there and back without my Ranger and Evinrude.”

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