Louisiana's Red River, site of the 2009 Bassmaster Classic, goes off-limits this Sunday at midnight. That means that many of the pros in the 51-boat field are either on the fishery right now, or have been over the past several weeks.
Remember that under the Classic format, pros can sample the water all they want prior to the cutoff. After that,
the next time they can fish the water is for 3 days during the week prior to the Classic. The water then goes off-limits again, and pros get one final practice day right before competition.
If the lake's a no-brainer in terms of navigation, or is an oft-visited venue (like a High Rock or Toho), there might not be much pre-practice activity prior to the cutoff. Not so with the Red, and it's been a pre-practice beehive the past several weeks.
While some pros like Boyd Duckett spent a lot of time fishing (as previously reported on BassFan), other pros like Matt Herren didn't fish at all.
What's Herren's report, and how did pre-practice go for some of the other pros? Here's a look.
Herren: Lots of Looking
"I really haven't fished – I've spent a lot of time looking," Herren said of his pre-practice. He's on the water this week. "I really tried to learn the pools and locate the better areas. It's all timber, so the big thing is trying to understand how these flats lay out. I've just been trying to prepare the best I can without fishing."
Pre-practice helped Terry Scroggins decide to focus on the closer pools, rather than make a long run.
The reason he didn't fish is he doesn't want to get "caught up in fishing memories." He'd rather begin official practice with a clean mind and "clear objectives" about which areas he wants to spend his time in.
"It's really hard to spend a lot of time fishing and learning the water," he added. "It slows you down. So I've spent a lot of time looking. My Humminbird side-imager, right now, is my best friend."
Scroggins: No Rod Either
Put Terry Scroggins in the same classroom as Herren. Scroggins didn't even bring his rods on the trip.
"I did that on purpose so I wouldn't stop and fish," Scroggins said. "I just wanted to look at as much stuff as possible. I knew fishing would be different when we go back. I just rode around and looked at a bunch of stuff where maybe they'll be sitting when we get back. I didn't do much more than that.
"I'd never been there before, but to me it looks pretty simple," he added. "There's quite a bit of backwater, but from the way it looks, it's going to fish fairly small. There'll be a lot of people grouped up. You have a ton of river that has nothing much to offer, then several backwater deals. I'm glad there's only 50 guys – otherwise it'd get really busy."
Scroggins also noted that he concentrated on pools 4 and 5. He knows there's "a lot of fish" in 3, but it's a long ride. "Not knowing much about the Red River, I'd rather spend my time fishing than riding. I think my chances are better by staying in 4 and 5."
Davis: Another Looker
"I went down there and looked for a couple days, but I just rode around," Mark Davis said of his Red River excursion. "I didn't even fish because I didn't think there'd be any use – it changes so much.
Mark Davis says if it rains the river will live up to its name – "Red."
"I refamiliarized myself with two or three of those pools that I know I'm going to want to fish when I go back, and I also found a few things that I didn't know were there – just stuff to check out. I tried to formulate a little strategy for how I'm going to approach my practice time. But as far as fishing right now, I felt that there wasn't much I could accomplish."
Davis' main reason for not fishing is that it's a river, and there's no way to predict what water conditions will be like.
"It all depends on rainfall," he noted. "If it's a relatively dry winter, then it'll be very much the way it was before the cutoff. But if it's wet in late January and early February, it'll be a total mess. It'll bunch everybody up into a double-handful of holes where the fishable water's going to be, and you'll have to get in those areas and slug it out.
"It's a good fishery with a lot of quality fish, but it's not really my cup of tea," he added. "There's a lot of dead water, a lot of standing timber, and it's hard to get from point A to point B – it's very time-consuming. It's just a typical river, and if it rains, it lives up to its name – Red."
Notable
> For an extensive Red River report from Gary Klein, including his tips for fishing rivers like the Red, click here to visit the Berkley Catch More Fish page.
