By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Strong finishes on the Bassmaster Elite Series have been nonexistent for Texas veteran Keith Combs for the past several months. Winning a Toyota Series event in his home state provided confirmation that he's still capable of making good decisions in regard to tournament strategy.

Combs completely dominated the Southwestern Division derby at Sam Rayburn Reservoir earlier this month, compiling more than 52 pounds over the first two days to build a 17-pound advantage. The final round was cut approximately in half due to severe weather and the small limit he boxed gave him the win by more than 8 1/2 pounds over runner-up Josh Bensema.

"It always helps when you win something because you know you made a good decision," Combs said. "I'm hoping I can carry that over (for the remainder of the Elite Series campaign).

"I'll say one thing: It was really nice to go into a tournament where the water level stayed the same the whole time."

Had Little Company

Much of Combs' career has been built upon excelling in Texas events, but this win was his first at Rayburn at the triple-A level or higher. He achieved it by doing what he does best – cranking offshore.

"It was a fun week," he said. "It was kind of one of those things – there were still a lot of fish on beds, but just enough had trickled out of those areas, and that helped me. There wasn't very many, but hardly anybody else was fishing for them. I had some community stuff pretty much to myself."

He was able to put in two-plus days of practice in the wake of the Elite Series event at Lake Fork.

"I knew it was going to be pretty tough," he said. "They'd just had the big Outlaw Outdoors team tournament, with all the best locals, and the weights were very poor. There was only one bag over 20 pounds.

"The fish were very scattered, but the first day I got out there I caught three that were over 6 pounds. They definitely weren't in schools – I had to run around a bunch to find them."

He started the first competition day on a place where he'd connected with one of the big ones and caught a quick limit, but there was no size to it. He eventually got rid of all of those fish on his way to a 22-09 stringer.

He took command of the event on day 2 when he weighed a tournament-best 29-11.

"I just decided that day that I didn't need to fish for a limit – I could catch five off the bank," he said. "I think I only caught seven bass, but the smallest one was a 4-pounder. I had one little flurry in the middle of the day when I caught three on three casts.

"I had 25 pounds and I pulled up on a place and caught two 4s and an 8, and that gave me my bag. "

He didn't even attempt to return to his offshore locales, which required a significant run up the lake, on the ultra-windy final day that was shortened to about four hours of fishing time. He ducked into a nearby place and caught a pedestrian limit using a crankbait and a jerkbait.

"The (Humminbird MEGA 360 electronics) helped a lot," he said. "I really fished two big main-lake points where two guys can go out in a local tournament and fish a Carolina rig for hours and come up with a good bag, but there wasn't may fish. I'd see two or three in a group and that would be the little wolfpack of big ones."

Winning Gear Notes

> Cranking gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Shimano Zodias glass cranking rod, Shimano Curado DC casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Strike King 4.0 or 6XD (Tennessee shad).

> He caught a few early-morning fish on a 1-ounce Strike King Bottom Dweller spinnerbait and a few others on a swimbait.