Five fish that averaged 9 pounds a pop, and then another 2 ounces thrown in for good measure. Dean Rojas caught that back-breaking sack 5 years ago at Lake Toho, and many think it's a record that will never be surpassed.



Rojas isn't one of them. "I'm the one who did it, so I know what's out there," he said. "It could happen."

Many of the best anglers in the world are at Toho this week for the Bassmaster Classic, and the recent pattern of warm weather in the Kissimmee, Fla. area suggests that sight-fishing – the pattern Rojas used in 2001 – could play a major role in the outcome.

Conditions aren't identical to when he caught that 45-02 stringer and went on to claim his first Bassmaster Tour win with a mind-numbing 108-12 total over 4 days (also a record). But he said they're close enough to at least address the possibility.

"These are lakes that house those types of bass," he said. "Somebody could put a dreamlike day together and beat it. I think there's always the possibility of that, simply because records are made to be broken."

Kevin VanDam set the standard for the lowest Classic-winning weight with slightly more than 12 pounds at the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh just 7 months ago. This week, Rick Clunn's mark for highest winning weight (75-09 at the Arkansas River in 1984) could be in big trouble, as could Ricky Green's record for largest fish caught in a Classic (8-09, Lake Guntersville, 1976).

What's Different Now?

The 2001 Toho Bassmaster took place during the second week of January. The area was coming out of a record-setting cold snap that had seen nighttime temperatures dip into the 30s.

"About 2 days before practice started, (the daytime temperature) warmed up to 70 and those fish just moved up to spawn," Rojas said. "The thing about the fish here is they're just so temperamental to cold weather that they'd been completely shut down.

"That was the biggest difference – the fact that none of them had spawned yet and that was the very first wave of fish moving up. Now some of them have already spawned and we're right in the middle of everything, if not towards the end.

"We never had that cold, cold weather to get them all hemmed up. Overall, it's been nice here for 2 or 3 months and there's a lot of fry swimming around, so that tells you that some of them have already spawned."

Oh, What a Day!

Rojas found the spot that yielded his monstrous limit a couple of days before the tournament started.

"It was a place that had a lot of clearings and I didn't know if they were beds, but they sure looked like them," he said. "It wasn't until the last (practice) day when the fish actually moved in. I knew the area they wanted to go into, and I saw four 9-pounders and the big 10-pounder that I caught.

He's understandably hesitant to divulge a lot of technical information about that day – if it proves relevant again this week, he'd like to use it to his advantage. But he recalls how he felt after the fifth monster had gone into the livewell.

"I remember it vividly," he said. "I caught the last fish at 1:30, and then I just sat at the bottom of the boat for 20 or 30 minutes and gathered my thoughts. I knew my life would change once I hit those scales. I knew everybody was going to go nuts, and I'm glad I did that because I was prepared for it."

In the back of his mind was the notion that a couple of other anglers might have whacked similar sacks.

"I knew Aaron Martens was going to catch them because I'd seen him on the last practice day and he was doing the same thing I was," he said. "Either him or Shaw Grigsby had the potential to do it. Shaw's the granddaddy of sight-fishing, it's his home lake and he'd won here doing it the year before."

Other heavyweight bags were brought in that day, but none that approached his.

Win was Top Priority

His initial Bassmaster Tour victory was more important to Rojas at the time than the record. He knew things would be different from then on, but he didn't know how many doors the big bag would eventually open.

"For one, it really solidified my career as a pro bass fisherman," he said. "That had always been my goal, to make a living at something I really loved. And then just having the whole industry know who I was, a lot of great companies wanted to be a part of it. It was a good thing all the way around.

"One of the really neat things about it is everywhere I go and every seminar I do, I'm always introduced as the BASS world-record holder, and myself and Mark Tyler are the only ones who can say that right now (Tyler holds the mark for the largest fish caught in a BASS event, a 14-09 at the California Delta in 1999).

"There's a new Bassmaster Classic champion every year, but those records aren't broken very often."

Notable

> Rojas said his huge limit might have been even bigger had he not had to share his spot. "Rick Lillegard was in there too, and he caught 27 pounds," he said. "But that's just the way it goes."

> He said sight-fishing could play a major role in this Classic, but it won't necessarily be the predominant pattern. "A lot of (the fish) aren't going to be spawning – some have already done it and some others that are going to spawn in March or April are still in the pre-spawn mode. There's probably half a dozen patterns that could work just as well. A guy can go out and catch them just about any way he wants."

> BassFan News is brought to you by Rapala.