Lefebre Mined Specific Docks, Seawall Savvy Key

On day 1 of the Toyota Texas Bass Classic at Lake Conroe, Dave Lefebre showed everyone just how good he is on docks. Only 10 of the 60 pros weighed more than 15 pounds, but Lefebre tossed up a monstrous 24-08 limit caught amid howling winds and 3-foot waves.

He followed that up with 12-04 under post-frontal conditions

on day 2, then closed with a 10-pound bag on day 3 to finish with a 3-day, 46-12 total, which gave him the wire-to-wire win by a 4-ounce margin.

He threw a jig all 3 days to very specific docks around the heavily-developed Conroe and showed just how important ounces can be, and how certain pattern subtleties can make all the difference.

What follows is an in-depth look at how Lefebre attacked and defeated Conroe and the 59 other pros.

Practice

Lefebre was too busy to do much research prior to the event, but he and his family drove down together, so he studied some maps and looked at the Internet on the journey.

He learned that conventional wisdom said to do things like throw a Carolina-rigged lizard, or toss big baits for the Florida-strain giants.

But as soon as he saw the lake for the first time, he knew he'd be doing something different. The Pennsylvania pro said it reminded him exactly of Conneaut Lake along the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, so he decided to practice just like he would at Conneaut.

"It's the most-developed lake I've ever fished a tournament of this level on," he said. "It has McDonald's, Taco Bell and stuff right on the water. I re-thought everything I read and the night before the official practice, I started rigging just like I would to fish Conneaut."

He had an awesome first day of practice and would have been happy if the tournament started then.

"I went shallow right away," he noted. "I got to working those docks and seawalls. Whenever seawalls are involved, I always do well. There's a knack to that – where the fish are holding. I'm telling you, half that lake's a seawall. I don't even know how many miles of it there was. But being so familiar with how fish relate to seawalls, I think that helped me a lot. I was fishing a lot of the water that people passed up between docks."

He felt he had a 16-pound day that first day of practice, and the next 2 days he practiced strictly out deep trying to find crankbait fish. All his deep bites were good fish, and he thought "that was going to be the deal." But after official practice ended, he fished and won the 1-day pro-am that serves to kick off the event.

He won the pro-am shallow, and hooked his best fish of the day (5 1/2 pounds) from a dock he didn't fish in practice. He threw right back, got bit and shook it off in order to save the area for the TTBC.

"The fact that I won the pro-am solidified the shallow thing for me," he said. "It was more solid and dependable than I thought."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 24-08
> Day 2: 5, 12-04
> Day 3: 5, 10-00
> Total = 15, 46-12

Day 1 delivered the strong cold front with howling winds and a resultant temperature drop from the low-90s of practice to the 60s. That pretty much put the deep stuff out of Lefebre's gameplan – it was too rough to hold – so he started shallow. In fact, it played right into his hands because wind almost always makes seawall fishing better.

"The seawalls create eddies in big wind, and you can be in that rough water casting around a corner that's dead-flat," he noted. "I knew the fish would concentrate in those types of places, and they're hard casts to make, especially if there's a dock on top of them. But I was taking waves over my bow and making those casts."

His first stop was where he caught the 5 1/2-pounder and shook off another bite in the pro-am. He missed his first fish, then caught a 5 1/2 on his second cast under the dock. He moved around to the other side of the dock and caught a 4-pounder under the walkway. That gave him 9 pounds for two fish, and since he figured 14 to 15 pounds a day would make the cut, he decided to go practice.

"I went to rocky, pointed places," Lefebre said. "I tried to stay off the seawall thing and just fish rocky, windblown points with docks. I was fishing docks on both sides of a point – maybe the first two or three docks down each side. And I caught the rest of my 24 1/2 pounds in places I hadn't fished yet."

He started day 2 in the same area he started day 1 and missed a fish, but the miss clued him in to how to fish day 2.

"I missed one on the first cast and it felt like a big one," he said. "There was just one key cast up under that dock and I missed it. I grabbed a different jig, it hit and I missed again. After that, I never had another bite until 10:00. My deal in practice and on day 1 was I didn't fish the docks slowly and methodically. It was more a reaction deal – hopping and swimming it. But with the front settled in, I missed five or six bites that morning (day 2) and started to feel the pressure.

"At about 10:00 it was starting to get warm so I took a break, which I never do, took my clothes off to just a T-shirt and shorts, pulled a different rod out, rigged it with a smaller 5/16-ounce Tabu jig with a real thin skirt, tipped it with a Kinami Bug and decided to fish it almost like a Senko because I knew I was passing fish.

"I decided to go back to my best place and within 50 minutes I had a limit. I went back to places I'd already fished that had one perfect cast and I went through real slow and let the jig sit for a few seconds, then move it a little bit, and that made all the difference. I eventually culled up to 12-04."

He spent that night adjusting his tackle – trimming his skirts obscenely short, trimming his pre-cut trailers even shorter, and keeping his original 7/16-ounce jig for first casts, and the 5/16-ounce for follow-ups. He also put a 5" Senko in the equation.

With his downsized tackle, and follow-up jig for missed bites, he assembled a 10-pound dock-and-seawall limit and squeaked out the win.

Winning Pattern Notes

About his pattern, Lefebre said: "The seawalls were key. All the places I caught them were main points that had a little depth, with a seawall that came off the point. Most of the banks were still 4 feet deep 100 yards offshore, but mine had to be at least 6 feet deep a boat-length from shore. And the seawalls went around the points and came to the first dock. If the dock was by itself that was the best, but most of the time I caught them on the first dock of a line.

"The seawall is what led the fish there, and the docks were the first current break they'd hit. They were actually more boat stalls, with a dock sticking out in the middle of it. Everything was related to seawalls though. That was definitely the deal."

Winning Gear Notes

Lefebre fished both jigs on a 7'10" medium-heavy Setyr flipping stick, paired with an Abu Garcia Revo Premier. He used 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon with the 7/16-ounce jig, and 12-pound with the 5/16-ounce jig.

Both jigs were Tabu Tackle Open Water jigs. The 7/16-ounce was black/blue, tipped with an unnamed black/blue craw.

On day 2, when he fished the 5/16-ounce almost exclusively, he used a black/blue color tipped with a black/blue prototype Kinami Bug. The final day, he went to a green-pumpkin/green 5/16-ounce, tipped with a watermelon/green-pumpkin Bug as a throwback bait.

The Bottom Line

Main factor in his success – "God. I think that there's been a lot of stuff not happening quite right for me lately, and just having the faith in Him and knowing something good was on the way, and not getting bent out of shape about a 2nd in a Stren and all that stuff. When it's His time it's His time, and when it's my time it's my time. I knew good things were coming and it worked out. If I ever wanted to win one, this was the one I wanted, and He knew that."

Performance edge – "I'd say the Tabu jig, because that's why the jig was designed the way it was – to get that one extra notch (ounce) on the Boca grip. That concept of having to have everything perfect on that jig, and they way I was fishing – fast, and out of position on a lot of hooksets because of being over and under obstacles – that was key. The lightwire hook, the angle of the weedguard – it all matters. I wouldn't have won without it, and it's the only piece of equipment I can say that about for sure."

Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here.

Final Standings

> Field = 60 Boats

1. Lefebre, Dave -- 46-12
2. Montgomery, Andy -- 46-08
3. Auten, Todd --46-04
4. Martens, Aaron -- 45-12
5. Christie, Jason -- 42-00
6. Wendlandt, Clark -- 41-04
7. Morgenthaler, Chad -- 41-00
8. Horton, Timmy -- 39-08
9. Hoernke, Sean -- 37-08
10. Biffle, Tommy -- 29-00

The following anglers didn't make the cut and didn't fish day 3:

11. King, Stacey -- 26-08
11. Lane, Russ -- 26-08
13. Cecil, Russell -- 25-12
14. Omori, Takahiro -- 25-08
15. Ogrodowicz, Matt -- 25-00
16. Thomas, Joe -- 24-04
16. Kenney, J.T. -- 24-04
18. Clausen, Luke -- 23-08
18. Baumgardner, Chris -- 23-08
20. Blassingame, Shonn -- 23-04
20. Hackney, Greg -- 23-04
22. Contaoi, Fred -- 23-00
23. Kennedy, Steve -- 22-12
24. Fukae, Shinichi -- 22-04
25. Dudley, David P. -- 22-00
26. Kriet, Jeff -- 21-08
27. Jenkel, Duke -- 21-00
28. Eaker, Sr., Guy -- 20-04
28. McClelland, Mike -- 20-04
30. Faircloth, Todd -- 20-00
30. Gagliardi, Anthony -- 20-00
30. Browne, Glenn -- 20-00
30. Lane, Arnie -- 20-00
34. Lane, Bobby -- 19-12
35. Bobo, Dalton -- 18-12
35. Melvin, Sandy -- 18-12
35. Evers, Edwin -- 18-12
35. VanDam, Kevin -- 18-12
35. Caka, Keith -- 18-12
40. Snowden, Brian -- 18-08
40. Walker, David -- 18-08
42. Duckett, Boyd -- 17-12
43. Grigsby, Shaw -- 17-08
43. Elliott, Chris -- 17-08
45. Morris, Rick -- 17-00
46. Daves, Chris -- 16-08
47. Martin, Tommy -- 16-00
48. Rackley, Justin -- 15-12
49. Bird, Cody -- 15-08
50. Morgan, Andy -- 15-04
51. Jordon, Kelly -- 15-00
51. Thrift, Bryan -- 15-00
53. Dowling, Craig -- 14-08
54. Rose, Mark -- 10-04
54. Reed, Matt -- 10-04
56. Wurm, Michael -- 9-12
57. Smith, Dave -- 8-08
58. Mabrey, Kyle -- 6-12
59. Vick, Lance -- 5-04
60. Mansue, Dave -- 1-04