Combs Was Prepared To Grind All The Way

By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Judging strictly by the final Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year standings, Keith Combs didn't have a great deal of success on the water this year. There were some good things that occurred, though – particularly the way the campaign wrapped up.

The veteran Texas ace posted another victory in his home state last weekend as his consistency across three days of competition gave him the win at the Sam Rayburn Reservoir Bassmaster Central Open. The triumph garnered him a berth in next year's Bassmaster Classic – an event he's competed in eight times, but not since 2020.

"Rayburn has always been pretty good to me," said Combs, who lives just a half-hour from the lake in Huntington. "I was able to put in some extra practice time for this one and I thought I had a chance to do really good. Of course, you can have a great tournament and still finish 2nd, 3rd, 5th or whatever, but it worked out."

His bags weighed 14-04, 15-06 and 16-11 for a 46-05 total. Contrast that with runner-up Logan Latuso, who scaled, 5-13, 31-04 and 7-07 for 44-08.

"The way the lake is fishing right now, it felt like you could have one of those days when you catch 30 pounds and then 8 or 10 the next day," Combs said. "The bite is in that real funky stage before the water cools down.

"You couldn't just go out and say you were going to fish this way or fish that way. You had to adjust every day, have a balance between shallow and deep water and be in the right places at the right times. By the third day I felt like I had my timing down and I made some good decisions."

He was 64th on the final Elite Series points list – far below the cutoff for next year's Classic on the Tennessee River. However, he was 3rd in the 3rd in the season finale on the Mississippi River and said on stage on the final day of that derby the he planned to win one of the two remaining opens and get into the field for Knoxville.

"It certainly helps my confidence," he said. "It shows that even though I may have had a few bad seasons, I can still go out and win these things."

Couldn't Just Target Giants

Combs has won some big-weight events at Rayburn in the past. His extensive practice efforts told him this wouldn't be that type of derby.

"I understood that I wasn't going to be able to just fish for five big ones every day with a crankbait or a jig," he said. "I couldn't just go all-in and try to catch a hero bag. I had to have a numbers hole and I focused on that.

"Day 1 taught me something, too. Late in the day I had a 4 3/4-pounder and a 3 in the livewell, and then three really small fish. I stayed (offshore) trying to catch a big one the rest of the day when I knew I could go and catch three 2 1/2-pounders on a (Strike King) Thunder Cricket. If I'd done that I would've had 3 more pounds."

His 15 weigh-in fish came from depths that ranged from 6 to 15 feet. He caught five on a Texas-rigged, 9 1/2-inch Strike King Zeus Worm, four on the Thunder Cricket vibrating jig, three on Strike King XD crankbaits and three on a 1-ounce Strike King Structure Jig.

"Some of my best stuff was just bare spots – hard bottom that didn't have any cover," he said. "Several fish came off of isolated stumps and I only caught one off a man-made brushpile.

"The bare spots were a morning thing. Those fish were in creeks and they'd move up to those areas for a very brief period, and after that they were done. Most of them were one-cast deals."

He said his electronics weren't a huge factor during the event, but they played a big role in his preparation.

"Humminbird has the best side-imaging out there right now," he said. "Those hard-bottom areas aren't easy to see because they're just composition changes. I spent quite a bit of time idling to find them every day.

"With the lake being 6 feet low, a lot of the history I had there was out the window. I had to find new areas and that helped me do it fast."

All of the reels he employed were Shimano Curado DCs. He used Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line (15- or 20-pound) for all of his techniques and relied heavily on the Shimano Zodias 172 medium-heavy glass composite rod.