The recent Kentucky Lake Bassmaster Elite Series was the first event of the season where deep patterns dominated. The majority of the top finishers spent the entire tournament working the vast system of main-lake river ledges.
It was spot-on-spot fishing that demanded exacting presentations and a knack for timing.
Here's how the winner, Morizo Shimizu, and the rest of the Top 5 caught their fish.
Winner: Morizo Shimizu
> Day 1: 5, 11-07
> Day 2: 5, 19-03
> Day 3: 5, 15-09
> Day 4: 5, 20-06
> Total = 20, 66-09
Shimizu fished shallow on day 1, shallow and deep on day 2, mostly deep on day 3, then only deep on day 4.
Through a translator, he told BassFan that his deep baits were a Texas-rigged worm and 3/4-ounce jig. He threw them on river ledges that had brush or were near brush.
When he fished shallow, he threw a spinnerbait and jig, and also flipped.
"On the first day I had a (shallow) limit by 7:30 or 8:00," he said. "On the second day I only had two (shallow) fish by 12:00, so I tried moving to deeper water."
> Jig gear: 7' medium-heavy Evergreen rod, Shimano casting reel (available in Japan only), 14-pound Sunline Shooter, local unnamed football-head jig (brown), Bait Breath Bysclaw trailer (green-pumpkin).
> The Bysclaw trailer is a crawfish-style plastic that he designed.
> His Texas-rig consisted of an unnamed 9 1/2" curlytail worm (cranapple color) with a 5/0 Gamakatsu hook and 1/2-ounce weight.
> Main factor in his success – "After I came here from Japan, this is my 4th year fishing the big tour. The 4 years gave me lots of experience. I learned a lot. That brought me this win."
Kevin Wirth credited local knowledge as the main factor in his success.
2nd: Kevin Wirth
> Day 1: 5, 16-02
> Day 2: 5, 18-04
> Day 3: 5, 16-15
> Day 4: 5, 13-09
> Total = 20, 64-14
Kevin Wirth, who carried a 3-pound lead into day 3 but ultimately fell short of Shimizu, targeted river-channel ledges and bars in 19 to 20 feet of water.
"I hit several places every day," he said.
> Worm gear: 7' medium-heavy Airrus rod, unnamed casting reel, 12-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce weight, 4/0 round-bend offset-shank Gamakatsu hook, 10" Berkley Power Worm (blue-flake).
> Jig gear: 7' heavy-action Airrus rod, same reel, 17-pound Vanish, 3/4-ounce unnamed football-head jig, generic double-tail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).
> Hair jig gear: 6'8" heavy-action Airrus rod, same reel, 12-pound Vanish, 1/2-ounce hair jig (white, no longer in production).
> Crankbait gear: 7' Airrus cranking rod, same reel, 10-pound Vanish, Rapala DT16 (white with greenish back).
> Main factor in his success – "Home water had a lot to do with it. I used my knowledge a lot – just knowing when the fish got in a pattern and what the fish were actually doing, and being able to keep up with it."
3rd: Kevin VanDam
> Day 1: 5, 18-09
> Day 2: 5, 16-11
> Day 3: 5, 12-15
> Day 4: 5, 15-05
> Total = 20, 63-08
VanDam also fished the drops and ledges, where he worked a crankbait and jig. But he mixed up his structure to include some points and creeks.
Kevin VanDam said persistence was important – he'd work an area hard until they bit.
On day 4, wind forced him into a temporary shallow move, where he caught a limit and culled a few times on a lipless crank.
"I fished a lot of different spots – some creeks, points, drops, shelves – all summer-type structure," he said. "I fished a little bit of everything."
He noted he used the crankbait as a search bait. Once he got a bite, he'd slow down and pick the area apart with slower stuff.
"Typically there'd be more than one fish there."
> Jig gear: 7'4" heavy-action Quantum PT Series rod, Quantum Energy 1160 casting reel (6.3:1), 17-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce Strike King Premier Pro Model jig (brown and Texas-craw), Strike King 3X Denny Brauer Chunk trailer (green-pumpkin).
> Crankbait gear: 7' medium-action fiberglass Quantum Tour Edition rod, Quantum Energy 750 casting reel (5:1), 12-pound XPS fluorocarbon, Strike King Series 6 crankbait (powder-blue back/chartreuse belly).
> He switched out the stock crankbait hooks for Mustads. "The best combo was a Triple Grip on the back and a round-bend on the front. Both were black-nickel."
> Main factor in his success – "Persistence. I just really worked the spots thoroughly and worked a lot of places until I hit them."
4th: Skeet Reese
> Day 1: 5, 12-08
> Day 2: 5, 16-03
> Day 3: 5, 16-08
> Day 4: 5, 16-08
> Total = 20, 61-11
Skeet Reese worked a worm out deep, but he was the only one of the Top 5 who dropshotted.
"Four of my five fish every day came on a dropshot," he said. "I was fishing a new Berkley Finesse Worm Hand Pour, in oxblood color.
"And I caught my biggest fish each day on a 10-inch Power Worm."
He said his tournament "boiled down to two spots. That was pretty much where I caught all my fish the last 3 days. If I'd known what kind of fish were there, I'd have done a heck of a lot better than I did. On day 1, I only caught 12 pounds and I was scrambling around all day."
About his spots, he said: "I was fishing outside ledges, and 12 to 20 feet of water seemed to be the best."
Skeet Reese felt the pressured fish reacted better to a downsized dropshot bait.
> Dropshot gear: 7'3" medium-action Lamiglas SR743 Dropshot Special rod, unnamed spinning reel, 8-pound Vanish, 3/16-ounce tungsten weight, 1/0 straight-shank worm hook, 6" Berkley Finesse Worm Hand Pour (oxblood, straight-tail, poured in open mold so it has a flat bottom).
> Lamiglas has had a Dropshot Special rod for a few years, but his was a new prototype. "It's 7'3", but the final version might be 7'4"," he said. "It's a longer rod with pretty moderate action. The first half of the rod is fairly soft with a lot of flex, but you've got a great feel of the bait, and when you go to set the hook, there's plenty there to drill them."
> Anglers mostly Texas-rigged their worms this week. "I guarantee more people are going to be dropshotting after what they saw this week," he noted.
> Texas-rig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Lamiglas 764 rod, unnamed casting reel, 14-pound Vanish, 5/0 hook, 3/8-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight, 10" Berkley Power Worm (green-pumpkin).
> Main factor in his success – "I think for me it was scaling down and fishing the smaller bait. These fish have been extremely heavily pressured. In the areas I fished, the smaller baits seemed to produce better than the bigger baits."
5th: John Crews
> Day 1: 5, 12-07
> Day 2: 5, 16-15
> Day 3: 5, 14-12
> Day 4: 5, 16-15
> Total = 20, 61-01
John Crews cranked and jigged the ledges.
About his spots, he said: "Everything had to be close to deep water. Everything I was fishing was within a cast of 25 to 30 feet of water.
"I caught fish in a lot of different depths, but the majority were in 12 to 20 feet."
> Jig gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Shimano Crucial rod, Shimano Chronarch MG casting reel, 14-pound Berkley Vanish Transition fluorocarbon, 5/8-ounce Spro prototype "football-head-like" jig with a peanut-butter-and-jelly skirt, twintail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).
> He said the Transition fluorocarbon was key for two reasons. One, it allowed him to feel his way along the bottom. "I could feel every little rock and pebble, and I could feel it coming up to a limb. When that happened, I knew not to pull back – I worked it over the limb." The other bonus came above the water. Transition turns to hi-vis when out of the water. "I had a couple of bites on slack line, and I saw the line jump and set the hook."
> Crankbait gear: 7'6" medium-action Shimano cranking rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (5:1), 10-pound Berkley Sensation line, Norman DD22 crankbait (shad).
> He switched out the rear crankbait hook for a No. 2 Gamakatsu EWG, and the front hook for a No. 2 Gamakatsu round-bend treble.
> He liked the Sensation for cranking because the small diameter helped get his bait down deep, and he could make long casts with it.
> Main factor in his success – "I'd say that I focused on one section of the lake and tried to find every good deep spot in that section. The section was about 15 to 20 miles. You had to bounce around from spot to spot to find feeding fish. Once you caught one, most of the time you could catch more there."
