Bassmaster Elite Series pros launched last week onto a weed-choked Potomac River, so it's no wonder grass played a prominent role in nearly everyone's pattern set. That was especially true at the top.
Winner Skeet Reese started on wood in the mornings, but he then upgraded by punching mats.
Here's how the rest of the Top 5 finishers caught their fish.
2nd: Kelly Jordon
> Day 1: 5, 18-00
> Day 2: 5, 14-14
> Day 3: 4, 7-07
> Day 4: 5, 17-02
> Total = 19, 57-07
Kelly Jordon loves nothing more than flipping mats, and that's what he did all week at the Potomac. In fact, he used the same gear he won the Potomac with last year.
"I went to thick, non-descript mats," he said. "I just went through it all and picked my flips. There was lots of stuff going on – sometimes it was floating stuff, some mats had slime, some didn't.
"But the key areas were mats with clumpy grass that hung all the way to bottom."
His bite was intensely sporadic, as evidenced by his four-fish day 3. He noted that, "When they decide they're not going to bite on a tidal river, you can't catch them. But when that light-switch goes on, they go nuts. It's the craziest thing you've ever seen."
> Mat gear: 7'9" heavy-action Fenwick Techna AV flipping stick, Abu Garcia Revo casting reel (7.1:1), 65-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid.
> He flipped two different baits, each with a 1-ounce Lake Fork Tackle tungsten Mega-Weight. His primary weapon was a Lake Fork Tackle Craw Tube (junebug) paired with a 5/0 Owner Wide Gap Plus hook and Lake Fork Tackle rattle. For heavier mats where he needed a more compact bait to penetrate, he flipped a Kicker Fish Bait Co. Kicker Kraw (sapphire-blue and black/blue-flake) paired with a 5/0 Owner Extra Wide Gap XXX-strong hook.
> He noted that he caught his bigger fish on the Craw Tube.
> Main factor in his success – "Just fishing the grass – it's my favorite thing to do. It's my favorite way to catch bass, and I think it's one of my strengths. I get so excited when I see it, but it's hard work. All day long it's punch-punch-punch. The middle index finger on my left hand was numb every day."
> Performance edge – "My Fenwick flipping stick. If I didn't have that, I wouldn't have been able to flip mats. The Craw Tube too. If you can get it to go through the stuff you're fishing, that thing is the bomb. Nothing will touch that for flipping mats, and I think I've proved that over the last several years. When they bite it, they eat it. I never lost a fish I hooked all tournament."
Matt Reed worked a one-two combo – he punched mats and threw a spinnerbait.
3rd: Matt Reed
> Day 1: 5, 9-15
> Day 2: 5, 18-04
> Day 3: 5, 13-08
> Day 4: 5, 14-07
> Total = 20, 56-02
Matt Reed, a Texas pro like Jordon, likewise flipped heavy mats. He's a Yum pro though, and used the new Big Show craw designed by mat specialist Terry Scroggins. He additionally threw a spinnerbait for the other half of his catch.
"I caught all my flipping fish on that Big Show craw," Reed said. "I was finding the heaviest mats you could fish – the thickest stuff. You had to chop through the salad to get to the thickest mats. That accounted for basically half my fish. Then I was throwing a 1/2-ounce Booyah spinnerbait on outside eel grass, which accounted for the other half."
About his spinnerbait area, he said: "It was a main-river place. You couldn't see the eel grass, but there were a couple little tips to (the weed edge) down there. They seemed to be more concentrated on (the tips) when you could find them. But that bite was only during the last hour of the falling tide. It took me a while to really figure that out."
> Mat gear: 7'6" heavy-action Bass Pro Shops (BPS) Pro Qualifier flipping stick, BPS Johnny Morris casting reel, 65-pound braided line, 1- and 1 1/2-ounce BPS tungsten weights, 5/0 Owner straight-shank XXX-strong hook, Yum Big Show craw (cooter brown).
> Spinnerbait gear: 7' medium-action BPS Pro Qualifier rod, same reel, BPS XPS fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce Booyah spinnerbait (golden shiner with downsized twin gold willow-leafs).
> Main factor in his success – "I had two areas that I knew some good fish were in. Instead of running all around, I just tried to figure out what tide I needed for each of those areas."
> Performance edge – "That Yum Big Show craw. I like the way it goes through mats, and the plastic's firm enough that the hook doesn't always try to come out. I just really like the way that bait performs."
Randy Howell's mats had crawfish on top at low tide, which was a big key.
4th: Randy Howell
> Day 1: 5, 15-06
> Day 2: 5, 14-03
> Day 3: 5, 12-02
> Day 4: 5, 13-10
> Total = 20, 55-05
Randy Howell caught 90% of his fish punching hydrilla mats with a Berkley Chigger craw.
"I was fishing real thick hydrilla mats, and they were shallow – like 2 to 3 feet," he noted. "I had one little area that produced most of my good bites."
During the morning high tide, he flipped around some grass flats because he couldn't get bit in his best area until the final 2 hours of the outgoing tide.
> Flipping gear: 7'4' heavy-action Quantum flipping stick, Quantum Tour Edition PT 1170 Burner casting reel (7.0:1), 50-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid, 1 1/2-ounce Molix tungsten weight, 4/0 X-Point heavy duty hook, Berkley Chigger craw (green-pumpkin with red stripes added).
> He said Molix is an Italian company.
> Main factor in his success – "I think it was the fact that I maximized the fish I had. I managed them correctly. Also, fishing them at the right tide. After the first day, I waited until the tide was right, then I'd go in and catch them."
> Performance edge – "It was the combination of the Stealth braid and Berkley Chigger craw. The mats I was flipping had crawfish laying all over the tops of them. Nowhere else had any (crawfish on top). But you never saw the crawfish until the tide was low and outgoing, and that's when the fish would feed. I saw how red and dark brown they were, so I sprayed the Chigger craws a little red to look just like those crawfish. I tried flipping some other baits, but I wouldn't get bit on anything but that Chigger craw.
Chris Lane said his Power Pole played a major role in his finish.
5th: Chris Lane
> Day 1: 5, 15-01
> Day 2: 5, 14-07
> Day 3: 5, 12-14
> Day 4: 5, 12-06
> Total = 20, 54-12
Florida pro Chris Lane punched mats too. He used a Gambler BB Cricket.
"There were two kinds of mats I fished," he said. "One kind looked like it had little pom-poms on it – I don't know what to call it. The other stuff was milfoil.
"I was looking mainly for the green stuff," he added. "I tried the dead stuff, and I wasn't getting quite as many bites as in the green stuff. So I stayed in the green mats and focused on mats that the other people weren't fishing. I think that was the biggest key. That, and the confidence that I could go behind local or tournament boats and be able to flip in those areas. I didn't shy away."
> Mat gear: 7'6" heavy-action 2iG UltraStrike rod, Quantum Energy E500 casting reel, 65-pound Stren Super Braid, 1-ounce tungsten weight, 3/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank hook, Gambler BB Cricket (blue/silver-flake).
> Main factor in his success – "One of the biggest things that helped me out there was my Power Pole I have on the back of my boat. With that tide, and the heavy fishing pressure, I could put the Power Pole down and just stop to fish the mat without having to turn my trolling motor left or right or backwards. And when the tide's going out, you want to go with the tide, and you can just pick up the Power Pole, drift down some more, and put it down again. That was a big, big factor for me."
> Performance edge – "I'd say the Power Pole. It's just something I could do that nobody else was doing."
Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here.
