Table Rock Patterns 2-5
Quite A Mix Within Top 5 Patterns
Friday, March 20, 2009
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Photo: FLW Outdoors/Brett Carlson
Scott Suggs struck out with his grub, then switched to a Berkley Hollow Belly swimbait and it was game-on.
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Anthony Gagliardi won the recent Table Rock FLW Tour FLW Tour in Missouri by fishing a jerkbait all 4 days. He largely covered water from 15 to 20 feet deep and targeted structure like points and sloping banks.
Jerkbaits figured heavily in other top finishes, along with jigs and crankbaits. Some of the Top 5 used the one-two punch of a fast-moving reaction bait backed by a slower technique that targeted bigger fish.
Here's how the 2nd- through 5th-place finishers filled their livewells.
2nd: Scott Suggs
> Day 1: 5, 17-10
> Day 2: 5, 17-12 (10, 35-06)
> Day 3: 5, 15-13
> Day 4: 5, 12-07 (10, 28-04)
Scott Suggs benefited from past experience to locate his fish in practice. "I knew about these fish suspending in the deep trees up here, from fishing in BASS and other tournaments," he said. "Back in 2004 I finished high doing it. In pre-practice I came here and found the groups and got my lineups."
When competition began, however, he found the fish had changed.
"They got off the grub I normally catch them on," he noted. "But I was fortunate to get on the swimbait bite and get them to go again. They're still on the tail end of a winter pattern and have seen a lot of grubs, so I showed them something they'd never seen before and it worked."
He lined up his boat by his landmarks (not his GPS), then threw to where he knew the bait would swim back over the trees. He'd count it down to about 20 feet, over trees that topped out 50 to 90 feet deep. Then he'd slowly swim it back to the boat and goad the fish to charge up and get the bait.
He could box a decent limit early every day with that technique, then head to the bank with a jig to try to upgrade. The jig worked the first 3 days, and he was able to replace at least three of his tree-fish. On the final day, the jig bite let him down. He caught fish, but wasn't able to upgrade his catch, and that heartbreaking turn of events left him 10 ounces shy of the win.
> Swimbait gear: 6'8" heavy-action Team All Star rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (6.4:1), 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 7/16-ounce homemade weedless jighead, 4" Berkley Hollow Belly swimbait (gizzard shad).
> Jig gear: 7'2" heavy-action All Star ASR rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (6.4:1), 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce Frank Divis jig (green-pumpkin), unnamed twin-tail grub (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "The Hollow Belly swimbait. The grub I normally use to fish over the submerged trees wasn't working for some reason. I tried it on the first three spots without success. I had a Hollow Belly rigged up and I decided to throw it. I caught a 3-pounder on the first cast, and then caught three over 3 pounds in three casts."
Performance edge – "The whole combination of the bait, rod, reel, line and presentation. It was important being able to keep the bait in their face and make it run at a certain depth continuously, and the 12-pound 100% fluorocarbon allowed me to do that."
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Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell
Scott Canterbury said his decision to focus on the White River was key.
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3rd: Scott Canterbury
> Day 1: 5, 18-06
> Day 2: 5, 14-08 (10, 32-14)
> Day 3: 5, 16-00
> Day 4: 3, 10-03 (8, 26-03)
Scott Canterbury led day 3, but slipped on the final day and limped in two fish shy of a limit. He finished a mere 2-11 off the win – just one solid keeper.
"I practiced 4 days, three up the White River and one up the James," he said. "That day in the James was the best. I caught 60 bass and quit at 4 p.m. and took a nap. I'd caught only seven keepers, and there were a lot of other boats. But up the White, if I caught 15 bass, five would be keepers. So I figured I had a better chance at five keepers a day and less pressure if I concentrated in the White River. Then, in the Top-10 rounds, I had it to myself."
He caught almost all of his fish on a Storm Wiggle Wart way up the river, starting about 35 miles up from the launch and working up to 50 miles from the launch.
"I worked a 15-mile stretch of river targeting transition spots like points leading into spawning areas, or transition banks that went from shelf rock to pea gravel," he noted. "They were staging areas and I caught fish as they moved in. I fished in 4 to 10 feet of water."
He used a Humminbird Side Imaging unit to find isolated rocks in the transition areas. With his electronics, he could cast to the rocks without running the boat over the tops and spooking the fish.
He caught mostly largemouths, but also weighed three spots during the event, plus one 3 1/2-pound smallmouth on the final day.
His key area was one particular pocket. "I found that pocket during practice – that's what got me in the Top 10," he said.
He caught fish on both a jig and the crankbait fishing visible laydowns and submerged wood, as well as cranking points leading into the pockets.
As happened for all of the Top 10, the bite slowed during the last 2 days. "I was blessed to get what I got," he said. "With the Wiggle Wart digging down around the rocks, I guess they couldn't get it good, and many had just one hook in them. Several were hooked on the nose and outside of the mouth, like they were just slapping at it. I just covered a lot of water and kept the troller on the whole time.
"The last day I had only one fish by noon, and I ran up to a new pocket and caught a 4-pounder," he added. "I just never could get those last two keepers. But I feel like it was the best tournament I ever fished – one where I made all the right decisions."
> Jig gear: Fenwick Elite Tech Flippin' Stik, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce Berkley Gripper Ike's Finesse jig (green-pumpkin), 3" Berkley Chigger Chunk (green-pumpkin).
> Crankbait gear: 6'10" Fenwick Elite Tech Target rod, Abu Garcia Revo Winch casting reel, 8- to 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon (varied by depth), Storm Wiggle Wart (crawfish when cloudy, phantom brown when sunny).
Main factor in his success – "Deciding to fish the White River for a better ratio of quality fish and less pressure from other competitors."
Performance edge – "The Humminbird Side Imaging unit I used to see the rock transitions was amazing," he said. "I was catching fish 15 to 30 feet off the bank, while other guys were up close, but I could see the stuff from out off the bank and cast to it without spooking the fish. I could see the isolated rocks around pea gravel from a distance."
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Photo: FLW Outdoors/Brett Carlson
Dan Morehead threw both a jig and crank.
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4th: Dan Morehead
> Day 1: 5, 14-05
> Day 2: 5, 19-03 (10, 33-08)
> Day 3: 5, 12-09
> Day 4: 5, 11-09 (10, 24-02)
Dan Morehead also had some prior BASS experience at Table Rock. "I fished a bunch of BASS Invitationals here in March in years past, so I knew what I wanted to fish," he said. "The key was cedar trees. Years ago, you could see the trees, but this year the lake's at full pool and you couldn't see them. So I felt like I had an advantage knowing where they were."
He fished mainly underwater trees on channel swings near where the lake split into the two main feeder rivers. He used a Megabass jerkbait on light line and a Wiggle Wart at times. He'd cast toward the bank and work the bait past and through the trees back to the boat.
He said he caught 25 keepers the first day and lost two big fish. The second day was tougher, but he caught a humongous spotted bass that weighed 6-12, which anchored his best bag of the tournament. That got him into the Top-10 cut.
Things fell off from there as the weather got nicer, the water slicked off, and his bite deteriorated. "Wind's everything here," he noted.
> Jerkbait gear: 6'6" medium-fast American Rodsmiths Topwater Series rod, Shimano Calais casting reel (6.2:1). 8-pound P-Line mono (green), Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait (pro-blue with some chartreuse on the belly).
> Crankbait gear: 7' medium-action American Rodsmiths Titanium H3 trout rod ("It was built for offshore speckled trout and is a very limber rod. You can throw that Wiggle Wart clear out of sight with it."), Shimano Calais casting reel (5:1), same line, Storm Wiggle Wart (natural green crawfish for cloudy days, and phantom green craw when sunny).
Main factor in his success – "The key was targeting fish suspended in trees where they were staging before going to spawn. When the wind blew, they'd come up and get the jerkbait."
Performance edge – "Both the Megabass Jerkbait and the Wiggle Wart worked best to draw strikes. But in that clear-water environment, the farther you can cast, the better, and my rod, reel, and line combination worked together. I could throw the bait so far the fish never saw me."
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Photo: FLW Outdoors/Brett Carlson
David Walker whacked 'em on day 1, but once the wind quit, his bite disappeared.
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5th: David Walker
> Day 1: 5, 26-11
> Day 2: 5, 13-12 (40-07)
> Day 3: 5, 11-08
> Day 4: 4, 11-09 (9, 23-01)
David Walker caught by far the heaviest limit of the tournament on the first day while fishing a winter pattern. "I fished a late-winter, pre-spawn pattern," he said. "I targeted bluffs that ended in a creek or pocket, where fish were or would be moving from winter bluffs and back to shallow pockets. I ran up the James River – a long run that used almost all the gas in the boat each day."
Another BASS veteran, he knew what to look for before he arrived. "I fished here before in BASS, and that's my type of stuff (up in the James River)," he noted. "The water's a little dirtier, and I'm more comfortable in stained water that's not so deep. I'm not so much an offshore dropshot fisherman, and I worked to my strengths.
"In practice, I didn't really try much of anything other than crankbaits and jigs," he added. "With the water in the upper-40s to low-50s, I knew what I had to look for and hoped that worked. From day one it was pretty easy to catch fish."
The size of the fish he caught on day 1 surprised him (six keepers over 4 pounds each, and 12 total keepers), and he felt the cold, nasty weather helped his bite, which was slow but steady all day. The next day he caught just half that weight, but still led the Top-10 cut.
On day 3 he went fishless for a long time, then finally moved out "much deeper, to about 20 feet" to salvage a limit and try to stay in the game. He caught those fish on a jig.
The last day he managed just four keepers and caught a lot more short fish all day than he'd been catching. Those four weighed the same as his limit the previous day, and he ended the tournament 5-13 off the win, but his Top-5 finish put him on top of the FLW Tour Angler of the Year points.
"This lake is exactly set up like the lakes in Kentucky where I started fishing," he noted. "We're away from the shakey-head events and I'm trying to take advantage of that. This to me is the best FLW Tour schedule and I think this is my time to stand out and really do well. We're going to the right lakes at the right time for me and if I was ever going to catch any, this would be the year. I'm in my element."
> Crankbait gear: 7'6" 3-power G. Loomis CBR cranking rod, Shimano Calais 201 left-handed reel (he's right-handed), 10-pound Sunline mono, Storm Wiggle Wart (10-year-old model crawfish. He replaced the hooks with No. 4 Daiichi trebles).
> Jig gear: 7'5" G. Loomis flipping stick, same reel, 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce homemade Arkie-style jig (black/brown and black/chartreuse), Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "Coming off Guntersville with a lot of confidence really helped me. That and the last two tournaments were probably the best I can remember in that everything that bit, I caught. I'm doing my part to get them in."
Performance edge – "The whole combination of equipment I was using. The Sunline really impresses me. It's perfect for long-casting wiggling baits, and with the Daiichi hooks, they hook themselves. I never lost a fish that would have helped me."
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