Deep-water fish on light tackle aren't Todd Faircloth's specialty. He's from east Texas, and there are probably more people in that region who'd choose to watch figure skating over football than fish for bass with spinning gear over a baitcasting outfit.
All things being equal, he'd opt for the heavy stuff every time too. But at the recent Table Rock Bassmaster Elite Series, conditions demanded that he go out of his element.
He made a nice adjustment, indeed. He used two different colors of the same bait on a dropshot rig to catch 50-09 over 4 days. His winning margin over runner-up Edwin Evers of Oklahoma was more than 4 pounds.
The victory was the first at the tour level during his 8-year pro career. Here's how he did it.
Practice
Faircloth did a considerable amount of map study prior to the 3-day practice period and developed a plan that paid instant dividends.
"For the first morning, I'd made up my mind to fish within 5 to 10 miles of the takeoff (in Kimberling City, Mo.) and spend all my time in that radius. The first point I idled over, I saw a couple of arcs on my depthfinder, so I dropped down and caught a couple. I thought, 'Hmm, this is interesting.'''
"I went to the next point a little farther down, and it had some brush off the end. I caught three or four there, and two of them were pretty nice ones."
The bass he was finding were near the bottom in 30 to 35 feet of water, which was the preferred depth of most of the baitfish.
"I just got clued in real quick on that first morning of what to look for, and I spent the rest of my practice time idling over long, main-lake points, humps – anything I could find offshore. If there was some brush around, that made it even better."
He found nearly 20 promising areas. When he located fish, he could usually catch them on a Yamamoto Thin Senko (green-pumkin under low-light conditions and smoke/purple when the sun shined). He tied his hook 10 to 12 inches above a 1/4-ounce dropshot weight.
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 13-09
> Day 2: 5, 10-14
> Day 3: 5, 14-14
> Day 4: 5, 11-04
> Total = 20, 50-09
Faircloth was all over the place on day 1 – he never stayed put in any location for more than about 10 minutes. He had a limit, the third-best of the day, by noon.
"I fished a lot of my stuff that day and caught seven or eight keepers," he said. "Some places were productive, and some weren't as productive.
"That helped me eliminate some water and gave me a better understanding of what was going on for day 2."
The overall bite got a little tougher on day 2, and he moved into 2nd place with his 10-14 bag.
"I did the same thing I did on day 1, but I caught a lot more short fish for some reason and didn't get any of the bigger ones. It was a little bit harder, and I didn't catch a limit until about 2:00.
He made his big move on day 3. His 14-14 sack propelled him to the top of the leaderboard and gave him a 4-pound bulge over 2nd-place Evers.
"That was just one of those days that anglers dream about," he said. "On my first spot I caught two keepers, then on my next spot I caught two real nice keepers and my bonus fish (a 4-pound smallmouth). I had a limit by 8:30 and I culled probably three times the rest of the day."
The heretofore bluebird weather conditions gave way to rain and 15-mph wind for the final day. His fish changed up on him a bit, but he adjusted right with them.
Todd Faircloth is joined by wife Angie and son Hudson in his boat after the conclusion of competition on day 4.
"I'd been catching them pretty tight to the brush for the first 3 days, but they moved off of it a little bit on the last day, and the cloud cover was the reason. Some of them would be within 5 feet, but some were 30 feet away.
"It took me a little while to figure it out. But once I did, I caught them pretty good."
His 11-04 sack was more than enough to hold off Evers, who came in with 6 ounces less. Kevin Short (3rd), Bill Lowen (4th) and Jon Bondy (5th) caught bigger stringers, but not nearly enough to overcome their deficits.
Pattern Notes
Faircloth's bait presentation was primarily vertical.
"It was mostly right underneath the boat," he said. "I'd open the bail and drop the bait right under the trolling motor and let it go to the bottom.
"I worked the bait real slow and caught all of my fish off the bottom. It seemed like the less I worked it, the better. I might shake it every once in awhile, but I was pretty much just dead-sticking it."
Winning Gear Notes
> Dropshot gear: 6'8" medium-action Castaway spinning rod, Shimano spinning reel, 6-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/4-ounce unnamed dropshot weight, size 1 Gamakatsu Drop Shot hook, 5" Yamamoto Thin Senko (green-pumpkin or smoke/purple).
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "Just really being dialed into what was happening. When you're fishing that far offshore, you have to be really precise. Your electronics have to be working right and you need to pay attention to every detail."
> Performance edge – "My Lowrance X-17 with GPS. I spent 2 or 3 days at Rayburn practicing with it and I got real familiar with what I was looking at. It's an awesome unit, and when you're fishing that deep, it's your eyes underwater."
Notable
> Faircloth finished 23rd in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race this year and will compete in his fifth Bassmaster Classic next February after sitting out this year's event. Ironically, it was the 2005 Table Rock Bassmaster that kept him out of the '06 Classic – his 79th-place finish dropped him to 42nd in the points.
> He and Evers were the only anglers to catch a limit on each of the 4 days.
