By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor


Dave Lefebre said there were some competitors at the Smith Lake FLW Tour last week, including some finalists, who were unaware that blueback herring had established themselves as part of the forage base in the lake.

He wasn’t one of them.

In fact, he made a key discovery about the herring on the first day of the event that ultimately played a role in his winning game plan. Once he identified a few pockets where the bait fish were spawning, it helped him get dialed in on where some bigger largemouths hung out in the afternoon and created the back end of a solid 1-2 punch that started with him targeting schools of spotted bass in the mornings.

His 65-05 winning weight, fueled by an impressive 19-05 haul on the final day, exceeded the expectations of many, but it was representative of how good the fishing has gotten at the deep mountain reservoir.

Lefebre, who finished 16th at the 2013 Tour event at Smith, lost a bunch of fish earlier in the event that he presumed were going to cost him a shot at winning. He persevered and overcame an 8 1/2-pound deficit on Sunday to post his first win since 2012.

“Every single time I win a tournament, I lose a ton of fish,” he said. “They say you need a perfect day to win one of these. I’ll never win like that. I was weighing in less than half of what I should’ve every day. This should’ve been easy.”

Here’s how Lefebre captured this third career Tour win.

Practice

Lefebre called his practice “pretty good,” but was quick to point out he made the same assessment about his practice at Lake Toho and he wound up 87th there.

“It’s like I told my wife, ‘I feel pretty good about this one, but you know how that goes,’” he joked.

He had a good vibe after catching around 24 pounds of largemouth flipping bushes on the first day when it rained non-stop. He backed that up with 17 to 18 pounds each of the next two days.

“I started seeing some big fish move up the last two days,” he said.

He also located a couple schools of spots, one over 80 to 120 feet of water and the other in around 40.

“I found those while running to the back of a creek looking for bushes to flip,” he said. “I just saw a dimple on the water and put down and idled around and sat for a few minutes and then one blew up. I thought it was a striper so I kept waiting and another one blew up. I figured, ‘What the heck? It’s practice. Let’s catch a striper.’ I made a couple throws and caught a 5-pound spot.”

He came out of practice prepared to have a jig rod in his hand most of the time.

“I figured two things could happen – either I’d catch a giant limit of spots or flip bushes and catch them that way, “ he said. “Every rod on my deck for day 1 was a jig and I wound up never getting a bite on a jig.”

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 14-08
> Day 2: 5, 15-14
> Day 3: 5, 15-10
> Day 4: 5, 19-05
> Total = 20, 65-05

Lefebre started off the event with a 14 1/2-pound bag, which put him in 23rd place. However, it was the discovery he made about the herring that turned the tide for him to open the event.

“I didn’t know it until the first day, but there were certain pockets where the herring would spawn real close to shore in the mornings,” he said. “They were rare, but I eventually found five pockets that had them. I was still expanding on the final day, but they were around buck brush and bushes and there had to be some big, round rocks or boulders under water.

“It was so cool because nobody seems to know on what or where they spawn.”

He didn’t have a bite until 11 and, “it wasn’t like I had to flip for two hours to figure out they weren’t going to bite,” he said. “I got there, looked at the water and instantly knew I had to figure out a way to catch fish. I went from four rods on the deck to 17 within an hour. I just kept pulling stuff out.”

He eventually went after the schools of spots with a Fish Head Spin in the early morning, then spent a couple hours trying to locate new areas where the herring were spawning. He focused most of his time in Rock Creek.

“As the days went on, especially on Saturday, I was spending that dead time looking for spawning herring,” he added. “They didn’t spawn until 8 or 8:30 every day. It never happened early so that gave me enough time to catch some spots and run those pockets looking for spawners.”

He said he couldn’t get a bite while fishing where the herring were spawning like someone might if shad were in the midst of a spawn.

“By Saturday, I would go back later in the day to where those herring were spawning and that’s where the big largemouth were,” he added.

He had a good day Friday with 15-14 to make the Top-20 cut in 12th place, but had numerous big fish get off, including one he figured was over 7 pounds. His co-angler that day was Hoyt Tidwell, who usually practices with Andy Morgan and won the co-angler title at Smith in 2013. Lefebre said Tidwell told him he’d never seen so many big fish in one area in his life.

“There were countless fish from 5 1/2 to 7 pounds in there,” Lefebre said.

He nearly caught a double on a Rapala wakebait as moments after a 4-pounder hit the bait, he noticed a bigger fish following along. Lefebre slowed his retrieve in hopes the other fish would grab one of the treble hooks, but he eventually just landed the 4-pounder.

He moved into 7th on Saturday with a 15-10 stringer following the same game plan of fishing for spots early on, then biding his time before going after the largemouth.

“On Saturday, I really capitalized on it,” he said.

He had some bedding fish pinpointed that he could’ve fished for Sunday, but with his confidence growing in what he’d been doing he opted to stay with his plan. Facing an 8 1/2-pound deficit, he figured he’d need in excess of 20 pounds to put a scare into the leaders.



Rapala
Photo: Rapala

Rapala's BX Waking Minnow was one of Lefebre's go-to baits for afternoon shallow-water largemouth at Smith Lake.

He worked over the shallower school of spots in the morning and by 2 o’clock he had between 15 and 16 pounds in the boat. That’s when he encountered another pair of fish that both wanted his bait. It was the same scenario that he experienced Friday, only this time Lefebre managed to get the second (bigger) fish to eat his bait.

The 10 pounds of fish he netted equaled a 4-plus pound upgrade and took him over the 19-pound mark. His final-day stringer was the largest of the day by nearly 5 pounds.

Winning Pattern Notes

> When targeting the spots with the Fish Head Spin, he was making long casts, but wasn’t letting it fall very far.

“I’d let it get down maybe 5 feet at the most,” he said. “I was fishing it with the rod tip up. It wasn’t really a steady retrieve. It was more of a reel, reel and snap. I thought it was a little late for them to be eating a Fish Head with the water temperature being what it was.”

> He fished out of a borrowed boat for the second straight event, but the one he used at Smith was actually one of his old tournament boats. The gentleman he sold it to was kind enough to allow Lefebre to use it for the week. As the tournament got under way, Lefebre wasn’t sure which direction he was going in as far as what tackle to bring.

“I don’t usually like to take a lot of stuff, but I had 20 Plano boxes in the boat on day 1,” he said. “One of the keys was I really had to adjust and mess around in that clear water. Instead of just staying alive with spotted bass, I wanted to see if I could get some of those bigger largemouths to bite.”

> Prior to settling on the Rapala wakebait, he went through numerous types of baits in an attempt to trigger the largemouths to commit.

“I tried a walking bait, a popper, a Texas-rigged fluke, a shaky-head and a Senko,” he said. “The wakebait is subtle. I tied it on at the right time. It was one of those deals where I couldn’t get a bit on anything else. I even tried a Horny Toad and then went to the wakebait. I had one follow it on my third or fourth cast and then I caught one on it.”

Winning Gear Notes

> Wakebait gear: 7’1” medium-heavy 13 Fishing Envy Black casting rod, 13 Fishing Concept E casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 30-pound Sufix 832 Advanced Superline, Rapala BX Waking Minnow (blueback herring).

> He also mixed in a Bomber Long A to give the fish a different look as the water cleared up.

> To mimic the blueback herring around the largemouth, Lefebre wanted a big bait since the herring he was seeing weren’t small by any means. “Some of those suckers were 10 inches long,” he said. “They’re big and they’d spawn in a ball. There’d be thousands of them in a circle doing their thing.”

He opted for the 5 1/4-inch BX Waking Minnow because he could make long casts with it and working it was simple. “It was a no-brainer,” he said. “You don’t need the perfect line or rod or reel or have to know the perfect cadence for it to work. And you can throw it a mile.”

> Underspin jig gear: 7’6” medium-heavy 13 Fishing Omen Black casting rod, same reel, 12-pound Sufix Castable Invisiline 100% Fluorocarbon line, 1/2 oz. Sworming Hornet Fish Head Spin (albino), Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits D Shad (blue pearl, white).

> He had better success with the blue pearl D Shad when it was sunny. When it was cloudy and windy, he switched to the white.

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "It was having a totally open mind and attitude and not panicking. I think I did panic, but adjusted to my panic on day 1 when the water cleared up and I realized I couldn’t flip. Being able to figure them out was a big key.”

> Performance edge – "Ever since Power-Pole came out with their 10-foot models, I’ve had them on the my boat. The boat I used this week had 10-footers on it and when I’d get to where I was fishing, I’d put them down in 15 feet of water and when they touched, that’s where I would start catching them. I could sit in one spot and being able to be still and quiet was really important. Another big edge I had was the mossback lenses in my Solar Bat sunglasses. It was critical to see those big fish from very far away so I could make the perfect cast and trigger the bites.”

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