Undercover Practice, 'Breaking Holes' Fueled Suggs' Sacks

It's not accurate to say that Scott Suggs dominated the recent Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, Ark. He won by a 4-pound margin (after weights were zeroed on day 2), and was the only competitor to weigh a limit on day 3, but the event was closer than the final weights showed.

Suggs boxed just two fish the final day and nearly let the win slip away.

But he didn't, and with a final 2-day weight of 17-01 he clinched his first tour-level win and banked $1 million.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Well before the Cup began, Suggs was marked as the man to beat. He lives in nearby Bryant, Ark. Although his overall experience on the lake doesn't match the 4,000 days Mark Davis can claim, he did have the heaviest recent experience on the lake.

So his strategy in practice was to fish as little as possible. He wanted to quietly drive around and graph his spots.

But long before he began on-the-water practice, he was laying out a strategy in his head.

He noted: "I was really worried before the tournament started. We had a cold snap. It'd been cool for a good while and the water temp was in the low-80s. Every morning I got up, felt the cold air, and I could hear people in the campgrounds saying how nice it was out (in the) morning. And I'm cringing the whole time. I was a nervous wreck."

He was nervous because he planned to target suspended schooling fish. They reside in the same general area all summer – what he calls "breaking holes" – and are difficult to pin down when they stay down, but easy to spot when they feed on the surface.

"I didn't want it to get cool enough for the fish to show themselves, and have (David) Dudley and everyone find them," he said. "Luckily it stayed hot, and they stayed down. I was able to keep it secret all week."

To help keep that secret, he borrowed a buddy's boat and ran incognito – no boat wrap, no uniform, no logos.

"That was one of the main deals right there," he said. "I borrowed a friend of mine's boat, William Hope, and I'd get up at daylight. The first week I rode and did all of my looking out of it. I also ran a lot of my breaking holes and looked for shad movement – one (shad) ball, or anything to tip me off that those fish were there. If they were there, I could throw in and catch one pretty quick. Then I was gone.

"I also had (checked) offshore structure places where I caught fish during the tournament," he added.

He used Hope's boat 2 weeks before the event. The week immediately before competition, he used his own boat but never went near the stuff he planned to fish.

His primary "breaking holes" were along lines of underwater timber in depths from 30 to 80 feet where the fish were suspended 20 to 30 feet down.

Days 1 & 2

> Day 1: 5, 14-14
> Day 2: 5, 11-10
> Total = 10, 26-08 (2nd)

Suggs said he spent three-quarters of day 1 fishing his timber. He started on the grass, but soon backed out because "the fish were suspended around 22 feet in the timber."

He noted that he felt he made a mistake that day – he started on the grass, instead of his best timber spot. When he did reach his best spot in the timber, his first cast yielded a 5-pound walleye. In the middle of his next cast, the bass boiled. He reeled into them and whacked a good keeper.

"My mistake was I hit them so late in the morning," he said. "It was about over (when I got there)."

He ended the day with 14-14 and sat in 2nd.

He caught 11-10 on day 2 and easily made the cut in 2nd. By the end of that day, he and his two co-anglers had caught 30 keepers off that single timber school.

He wasn't worried about running out of fish, but two things concerned him. One was movement. His fish were on shad, and if they relocated significantly, he could burn most of his day just trying to relocate them. Weekend traffic was also an issue. He noted the bite can change considerably on weekends when recreational boats begin to run in water that had been relatively boat-free for 5 days.

Days 3 & 4

> Day 3: 5, 11-00
> Day 4: 2, 6-01 (7, 17-01)

The bite did change considerably on day 3. Suggs weighed the only limit, and it was his lightest bag so far (11-00). But it was enough to give him a 4-pound lead.

He fished the same way he did on days 1 and 2 and caught suspended timber fish. He caught two fish on his first three casts – by now he'd learned to start on his best area – but after that it was a grind.

And he lost a fish that bit his last cast of the day. "When the bait was nearly all the way back to the boat, I got a bite, set up on her, and a big fish takes it and swims in a circle around the front of the boat and pulls off," he said. "I knew I'd watched a million bucks go down the drain. The hook had gone through the worm three different times. It looked like a big cobweb.

"It was a good fish, and luckily she didn't cost me."

Day 4 was even more of a grind. His suspended bite was all but shut down, and it wasn't until 9:00 that he landed his first keeper – a small one.

But that one fish was a big boost. "It helped me regain my focus," he said. "My mind went to clicking like it was supposed to – having all these spots in the back of my head. I was trying to think of where (the fish) hadn't seen a bait all week.

"It got to me," he said of not catching any early fish. "It bothered me until about 9:00."

After that fish, he moved to a spot he'd fished in the past, but not during the tournament. He stuck a 4 1/2-pounder there – the winning fish.

"I pulled a spot out of my bag of tricks," he noted. "I caught my biggest fish from a spot I'd never touched in practice. I pulled up there and caught the big one that won it for me."

Winning Pattern Notes

About his pattern, Suggs said: "Now that the cat's out of the bag, the fish live this time of year on breaking holes. Wherever you see them break in the fall is where these fish were located. They weren't breaking because the water's so hot, but they still live there."

He threw two different big worms, but noted the spinnerbait was a bigger factor.

"Throwing a firecracker War Eagle spinnerbait was probably the key to me winning this deal," he said. "I could fish it so well in those trees.

"I was fishing in anywhere from 30 to 80 feet of water and the fish were around 20 to 30 feet down, suspended."

&returnPagNotable too was spectator traffic. He had at least 50 boats with him the last 2 days, but a friend helped keep the boats a safe distance back. "Of all the people who rode with me all week long, Larry Ford policed it," Suggs said. "He kept them off me."

Winning Gear Notes

> Worm gear: 7' heavy-action Shimano Crucial rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound unnamed fluorocarbon, 5/0 Mustad offset-shank hook, 3/8-ounce Tru-Tungsten Worm weight (black), 10-inch Berkley Power worm (cherry) and Zoom Ole Monster (plum).

> Spinnerbait gear: 6'6" medium-heavy Shimano Crucial rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (2008 model), 15-pound unnamed fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce War Eagle spinnerbait (firecracker).

Notable

> Main factor in his success – "Experience on the water. This is the hardest time of the year to fish Ouachita. Everybody who lives here will tell you that. I just did it off past experience."

> He noted that this year's Norman FLW Tour also helped him win the event. "I was 2nd going into the last day," he said of Norman. "I had a great opportunity to win the event – I was on a lot of fish. I let nerves get to me. I lost my first seven bites, broke two off, and flat-out lost five more. It was all due to nerves. I beat myself up on the long ride home. But I promise you, it was a great learning experience. (This week) I was able to keep my composure. I felt like I fished an absolutely unbelievable tournament up until the last cast."

> At a press conference shortly after the weigh-in, he was asked if he felt he'd broke through a mental barrier – one that prevented him from winning in the past. "I think so," he answered. "It seems like every time somebody breaks out after a win, they have more down the road. Luke (Clausen) is a great example. I'm hoping there's more to come after this. If there's not, who cares? This one's worth a lifetime."

> He also took a moment to note the major role his motor played this year, and throughout the Cup. "I never had to so much as turn a screw in my Yamaha motor all season," he said. "When you take off and know you can come back, that means a whole lot."

> After the event, he autographed a spinnerbait – perhaps the one he threw in the event – and gave it to "policeman" Ford.

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