By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor


Takahiro Omori blew the two major pre-tournament theories regarding the Wheeler Lake Bassmaster Elite Series right out of the water.

One of the preconceived notions leading up to the derby was that the winner wouldn't catch much more than 60 pounds over 4 days – if he reached that total at all. Environmental conditions were out of whack and the fish seemed confused as to what they were supposed to be doing, and they were difficult to catch and even tougher to pattern. And there seemed to be a lot fewer of them than there used to be.

The other misconception was that the lake's traditional hot spot, the Decatur Flats, wouldn't be much of a factor. The massive area near the Ingalls Harbor launch ramp in Decatur, Ala. has been devoid of the vegetation that once made it so great for several years now, and all the best bags would come from places much farther down the lake.

Uh ... no. On both counts.

After a sub-par day 1 that saw him weigh just 10 1/2 pounds of down-lake fish, the former Classic champion mined the Flats over the final 3 days to the tune of 71 pounds. He caught the tournament's three largest stringers on his climb from 72nd to 1st on the standings sheet, notching his first victory in 11 years.

The win carried special significance for him because it came 2 weeks after the Kumamoto earthquakes in his native Japan. About four dozen people were killed, several thousand were injured and many thousands were displaced from their homes. He displayed a small Japanese flag throughout competition and during the weigh-in on the final day.

"I went back to Japan in the off-season (last winter) to see my mom, my brother, my sister and my friends, and I'm just so sad about it," he said. "My heart goes out to the people in Japan.

"I thoroughly enjoy living in the U.S. and being a professional angler, but I'm still a Japanese citizen. I don't ever want to forget where I came from, and that's why I carried the flag."

Here are some of the specifics of his long-awaited triumph at Wheeler.

Practice

Omori estimated that he's competed in about 10 tournaments at Wheeler over the past two decades. He's enjoyed a lot of success there, too, including finishes of 17th or better in his three previous tour-level visits. He finished 3rd in the last April Elite Series event there in 2009.

"I have a lot of experience there," he said. "It's almost like my home lake, I've spent so much time there. I'd say 100 days, easy. I was very happy when I saw it on the schedule."

He got a 5-pound bite with a crankbait from a shell bed on the Flats during the first morning of practice, then ran a bunch of other offshore waypoints in search of other big post-spawners. He shook off a couple of much smaller bites.

He next tried some of the shallower bays down the lake for bedding fish, but that was unproductive.

"Usually at Wheeler it's no problem catching 14-inchers, but I fished there a little and didn't get many bites," he said. "About noon, I went back to where I caught the 5-pounder and shook off a 6, and it had a 4 following it."

He regarded the spot as a place where he might be able to pick up a kicker – he still had no inkling that that shell bed and three others like it would carry him to victory. With seemingly nobody else paying any attention to the Flats, he was convinced that the winning bags would come from places much closer to the dam.

"I was sure somebody would win down there, so I spent the next 2 days there. I caught four keepers the second day and two on the last day.

"After practice, I knew I had to start where I got those bites, but it was just one spot. It wasn't far from take-off and it was obvious stuff. I still wasn't sure what I had."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 10-07
> Day 2: 5, 23-03
> Day 3: 5, 22-09
> Day 4: 5, 25-03
> Total = 20, 81-06

Omori's main shell bed didn't produce a single bite in the first hour on day 1 and another one gave up just one small keeper, so he took off down the lake and caught five 2-pounders off of laydowns in the pockets.

"I still wasn't sure what stage most of the fish were in," he said. "The water temperature (well into the 70s in some places) was higher than normal for that time of year, but the water was too low to fish in the bushes. I was very confused in my mind."

The picture got a lot clearer on day 2. Sitting 22 places below 50th (the final money position) but just a couple of pounds off that pace, he went back to his best shell bed to start the morning hoping to get just one quality bite to erase that deficit before he returned to the laydowns.

Instead, he got three in short order that combined to weigh nearly 15 pounds. He relocated to another mussel conglomeration and picked up a couple of 4-pounders. His bag, which was compiled via a combination of a topwater, a Carolina rig and a square-bill crankbait and that would catapult him all the way up to 4th place before the day was over, was complete by 10 o'clock.

"I spent the next 6 hours practicing, but I never found one spot. I was just thinking it was my best day ever on Wheeler and I'd never have another one like it."

The size of the fish he caught on day 2 and the knowledge that they were feasting on shad prompted to add a swimbait to his bait rotation on day 3. He boxed 22 pounds by 9 o'clock and went looking again, eventually finding one more locale where he enticed a pair of 4-pounders. He'd have four places to exploit on the final day.

He had more than 20 pounds by 8 o'clock on day 4. He made his lone cull at 9:30, replacing a 3 with a 6 1/2. He still had one 3 left in his well and missed two opportunities to eject it shortly thereafter as two 4-pounders came unbuttoned.



B.A.S.S./Gary Tramontina
Photo: B.A.S.S./Gary Tramontina

Omori caught the tournament's three biggest stringers over the final 3 days.

"I'd overestimated my weight the last 2 days and I was thinking that if I could get rid of that 3 for a 4, I'd have 25 pounds," he said. "That would mean (leader Dave) Lefebre would have to catch 21.

"The next 5 hours I only caught one more keeper. The whole time I was thinking I needed another 4-pounder, but it turned out that I didn't."

Pattern Notes

Omori said his bait rotation was totally random – he'd throw one for a few minutes and then pick up one of the others.

The fish came from 3 to 5 feet of water.

"They'd come up (onto the shell bed), but they wouldn't always be on the highest spot," he said. "Sometimes they were in a dip. The spots they were in weren't bigger than two boats."

The bite was entirely a morning deal and he could tell whether they were there within the first few minutes of the day.

"I'd look at my waypoint on the Lowrance and put my trolling motor down, and it was almost like the first cast I'd get bit. Within five casts, I'd know."

Winning Gear Notes

> Topwater gear: 6'6" medium-heavy Daiwa Black Label rod (marketed in Australia), Daiwa Zillion casting reel (9:1 ratio), 46-pound Sunline Super P.E. braided line (marketed in Japan), unnamed 6" walking-style topwater bait (chrome).

> Swimbait gear: 7' medium-heavy Daiwa cranking rod (out of production), same reel, 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, 6" Bass Pro Shops XPS swimbait (shad, out of production).

> Carolina rig gear: 7'3" heavy-action Daiwa Black Label flipping/pitching rod, same reel and line as swimbait, unnamed 1-ounce weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, unnamed creature bait (green-pumpkin).

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "I didn't see but one or two boats on the Flats, and usually if it's good there, there will be 50 or 100. I didn't go with what everybody was saying about them – I went with my gut feeling and did my thing and stuck with it."

> Performance edge – "All the stuff was important, but especially the Lowrance HDS Gen3 and, of course, the Power-Poles."

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