Tactics Varied Widely For Other Top Finishers

By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Takahiro Omori and Dave Lefebre seemingly staged their own tournament last week at the Wheeler Lake Bassmaster Elite Series in Alabama, trying to see which would be first to reach an 80-pound total. Omori won that race by a little more than 4 pounds, and everyone else ate at least 11 pounds of dust behind the runner-up.

Nonetheless, all of the Top 5 surpassed 60 pounds, which was regarded as an extremely difficult feat in the days leading up to the event. It was one of the most perplexing pro derbies held in recent years, as there was a great deal of confusion after the 3-day practice period as to which stage of the spawn the bulk of the fish were in.

It turned out there was a solid mix of all three phases. Omori exploited both largemoths and smallmouths that had recently completed the reproduction process, while Lefebre targeted green fish that had yet to participate in that ritual. Other high finishers caught some of each.

Here are some details on how the 2nd- through 5th-place finishers approached Wheeler.

2nd: Dave Lefebre

> Day 1: 5, 18-12
> Day 2: 5, 21-03
> Day 3: 5, 20-10
> Day 4: 5, 16-10
> Total = 20, 77-03

Lefebre, the former FLW stalwart who's in his initial campaign on the Elite Series, had visited Wheeler just one other time when it contained pre-spawn fish. He'd had some success with a bladed jig on that occasion, and the first thing he did when practice opened was to run to some creeks near the Ingalls Harbor launch ramp to see if they contained lily pads.

He didn't find any pads where they'd been before at his first stop, but they were plentiful in the farther reaches of the pockets. One such place produced a 7-pound bite on a buzzbait, but a journey to the end of the creek was unproductive.

He returned to the place where he'd gotten the big bite and connected with a pair of 4 1/2-pounders. Try as he might through the rest of practice, he was unable to locate any place that was better – or even comparable.

He caught strong bags on each of the first 3 days and topped the standings on the middle 2, but his weight fell off a bit on the final day and the steamrolling Omori rumbled past him.

The buzzbait and a frog produced on day 1. He primarily flipped a jig on days 2 and 3 and threw a swimjig on the final day.

He ended up regretting that he backed off his fish with several hours remaining in day 3 in order to conserve them for the final day. He had no way of knowing that Omori was clobbering them for a second straight day.

"I quit when my two smallest were just over 3 pounds (each)," he said. "I should've stayed in the area and tried to catch a couple more 5s.

"It'd be nice to know what's going on and to be able to adjust based on what other guys are doing. You always hear people say that we're competing against the fish, but we're really not. At the end of the day, we're competing against the other competitors."

> Swimjig gear: 7'3" medium-heavy 13 Fishing Omen rod, 13 Fishing Concept casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 65-pound Sufix 832 Advanced Superline braided line, 1/4-ounce Yamamoto with a 4/0 hook, unnamed craw-type trailer (black/blue).

> Flipping gear: 7'11" medium-heavy 13 Fishing Muse Black rod, 13 Fishing Concept A casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Sufix Castable Invisiline 100% Fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Terminator flipping jig (black/blue), unnamed chunk-type trailer (black/blue).

> His buzzbait was a 1/2-ounce Terminator model (black with a copper blade).

> The black and red frog, another Terminator product, was a prototype that will be introduced this summer at ICAST. "It's really good," he said.

Main factor in his success – "I liked the fact that I didn't find anything else and I had to put all my marbles in that one basket."

Performance edge – "That flipping rod, which I helped to develop, was perfect for what I was doing. I don't think I lost a single fish while I was flipping."

3rd: John Crews

> Day 1: 5, 20-07
> Day 2: 5, 12-00
> Day 3: 5, 19-01
> Day 4: 5, 14-12
> Total = 20, 66-04

John Crews set the early standard with the lone 20-pound bag on day 1, then fell off the pace with a much-slower day 2 before rallying back into the Top 5. He junk-fished in two areas throughout the derby.

"I covered a lot of water in practice and kind of stumbled onto one of the areas," he said. "The other place was one I fish every time I come here – it always has something, either chips or decent fish.

"The two areas were way different. One was way off the (Tennessee River) channel and the other was on the main channel."

He said an abundance of shad was the only common denominator between the locales.

"Some of the fish came off bank grass, some from bushes, some on points or cut banks – just all kinds of different stuff."

His arsenal included large and smaller topwater baits, a creature bait that he flipped and a Fluke.

> Topwater gear: 7' medium-heavy Cashion rod, Lew's Tournament Pro casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 30-pound Sunline SX1 braided line, unnamed 3 3/4- and 4 1/2-inch topwater walking baits (shad).

> Flipping gear: 7'6" Cashion flipping stick, Shimano Chronarch Ci4+ casting reel, 25-pound Sunline Flipping FC fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce River2Sea weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover Worm hook, Missile Baits D Bomb (green-pumpkin/red).

> Fluke gear: 7' heavy-action Cashion rod, same reel and line as flipping, 5/0 Gamakatsu offset round-bend hook, Zoom Fluke (white).

> He caught one key fish on day 2 on a Spro Bronzeye 65 frog. He also picked up a couple of keepers by dropshotting a Missile Baby D Bomb.

Main factor in his success – "I'd say I maximized the key areas I found that had quality fish in them."

Performance edge – "I like to keep the HydroWave on the 'schooling blitz' sound whenever the fish are active on shad – I think it keeps everything more active. Then I'd also say the SX1 braid because I could get a ton of casting distance with the topwaters. That line is very supple and it casts really well."

4th: Steve Kennedy

> Day 1: 5, 14-06
> Day 2: 5, 17-06
> Day 3: 5, 11-08
> Day 4: 5, 20-12
> Total = 20, 64-00

Steve Kennedy fished from one end of the lake to the other and at depths ranging from just a few inches of water to 20 feet. The shad spawn was the foundation of his program.

Unlike many in the field, he had no trouble catching quality in practice. And that was despite having limited time due to fishing the final day the previous week at Bull Shoals/Norfork, where he finished 7th.

"I went out Monday at about 4 o'clock and could've had 17 or 18 pounds," he said. "Then on Tuesday I went down to the lower end and caught somewhere in the mid-20s.

"I didn't even go out on Wednesday – I just stayed in and worked on tackle and all that."

He went all the way up to the Lake Guntersville tailrace on the first day of competition, but found that Edwin Evers had beaten him to the hot spot, so he plied other places in the vicinity and boxed three 4-pounders along with a couple of fish that barely met the minimum-length requirement.

He spent most of the next 3 days on the lower end, fishing creek arms from the mouth all the way back. He swam a jig through and around all kinds of cover.

"I wasn't keyed on anything – I was just looking for big structure. It didn't have to be on the bank. There was really no rhyme or reason two it."

He endured what he described as a "painful" day 3, when he missed more than 20 bites. He said the fish were extremely finicky that day.

"I was swimming the jig along a dock and they were just biting the tails on the trailer. I could see them doing it, and I had to sit there and shake the rod to try to get them to get it all the way in their mouths."

> Jig gear: 7'6" extra-heavy Kistler flipping stick, Shimano Curado casting reel (older green version, 6.3:1 ratio), 65-pound PowerPro braided line, unnamed 25-pound fluorocarbon leader, 3/4-ounce D&L Advantage jig (white), Zoom Super Chunk trailer (white).

> He caught one or two weigh-in fish on a swimbait during the course of the event and one on a football jig on day 1.

Performance edge – "We had back-to-back events and that gets under the skin of a lot of guys – they don't want to do that. Going straight into the next one with no breaks works well for me."

Performance edge – "I really like the setup with the braid and the fluorocarbon leader. It's so much easier and when I set the hook I don't end up out of position with the rod back behind my head."

Bobby Lane

> Day 1: 5, 15-05
> Day 2: 5, 17-01
> Day 3: 5, 15-01
> Day 4: 5, 13-00
> Total = 20, 60-07

Bobby Lane needed a good finish to reverse the momentum of what had been a lackluster campaign through the first three events. He was one of the steadiest competitors throughout the derby, with just a 4-pound variance between his largest and smallest bags.

He fished from the mid-lake region to the Lake Wilson dam and burned at least 40 gallons of gas each day.

"One of the keys was my Humminbird electronics with the Lakemaster mapping. I'd set it to show less than 3 feet of water, and that would show up as red. Some of the channels had just a tiny bit of red in them, but I'd try to find ones that were loaded with red all the way to the back. If it had laydowns, all I had to do was mark it because I knew where the fish were."

He had close to 10 such places marked across a 25-mile stretch.

"The fish were in about a foot of water. A laydown would look like it was halfway out of the water, up on the bank, and you'd swear you could see anything that was swimming around it. But I'd flip up there and a puffball would show up when they hit the bait."

His primary weapon was a homemade jig, but he caught a few on various frog imitations and a key specimen on a Yo Zuri Hardcore Shad Two Plus crankbait.

> Jig gear: 7' or 7'3" medium-heavy Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 15-pound Spiderwire UltraCast 100% Fluorocarbon fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce homemade ball-head jig (blue/orange), 5" Berkley Havoc Craw Fatty (green-pumpkin).

> He dyed the tips of the Craw Fatty's claws with orange JJ's Magic.

Main factor in his success – "Just staying confident in my areas."

Performance edge – "The Minn Kota 112 (trolling motor) plowed through a lot of wood and my Gillz jersey, with the vents on the arms and the sides, came in handy when we had cooler mornings and warm afternoons."

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