Darrell West has fished two or three tournaments a year at Arkansas' Lake Dardanelle for the past couple of decades. He's won his fair share of events there, but none were as lucrative or prestigious as the recent Bassmaster Weekend Series Championship.
And none of those other victories gave him a berth in the Bassmaster Classic.
"It's just incredible," said the 44-year-old dental-lab owner from Drasco, Ark., who earned $100,000 for the triumph. "I'm real good friends with (Bassmaster Elite Series angler) Billy McCaghren – we spent a couple of years fishing the Opens together – and he made his first Classic this year.
"For me to have this opportunity to go with him, it's a dream come true."
He caught more fish (14) than any competitor in the 193-angler field at Dardanelle, which was in a stingy mood in the wake of recent heavy rains. His 38.67-pound total over 4 days gave him the win by less than a quarter-pound over Florida's Hojin Chang.
Here's how he did it.
Practice
West didn't qualify for the Championship via his regional event until after Daradanelle had gone off-limits to the field, so he couldn't pre-practice. That didn't bother him much, though, due to his familiarity with the lake.
When the 3-day official practice period started, he knew precisely what he was looking for. And he found it.
"I went in with a preconceived notion that I had a great shot at winning this thing," he said. "The last few years up there I'd gotten two 2nds and a 3rd in the Weekend Series, and I caught every one of those fish off milfoil.
"Milfoil only grows on a small portion of the lake, and I knew exactly where those places were. I was pretty sure the fish would be relating to that at this time of year, and they were."
He discreetly checked a couple of milfoil locales, and they were as loaded up with bass as he'd anticipated. He stayed away from the grass for the rest of practice and went in search of a backup plan, but never found one.
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 14.65
> Day 2: 5, 13.56
> Day 3: 1, 3.27
> Day 4: 3, 7.19
> Total = 14, 38.67
The morning of day 1 was chilly and West's action started off cold as well. The fish weren't on the milfoil in the early going, so he tried some other stuff while he waited for the sun to warm things up.
At about 11:00 he went to one of his best areas and saw some surface commotion caused by threadfin shad, which was exactly what he'd hoped to see. It didn't take him long to put together his best bag of the tournament with a 1/4-ounce Rat-L-Trap, and his co-angler caught a double-digit stringer as well.
He began day 2 with a lead of about 3 1/2 pounds. His day-1 co-angler had caught all of his fish on a spinnerbait, so he tied one on to begin the day and picked up three solid keepers.
That bite died and the fishing got tough for a couple of hours, but he eventually enticed two more good ones with the Rat-L-Trap before heading in an hour early because his co-angler was feeling ill. The 13 1/2-pound bag boosted his lead to about 8 1/2 pounds.
That advantage evaporated on day 3, however.
"I had a little bit of a mental meltdown that day," he said. "I went to my primary area, which I'd had to myself for 2 days, and I caught a good fish right off the bat, but then the bite got real slow. The water had fallen close to a foot overnight and I wasn't getting bit, and then at 10:00 two boats came in on me.
"Out of frustration, I left my fish and went on a wasted effort running around the lake, looking for something different. I finally went back and my co-angler caught a 5-pounder on a 1/2-ounce Rat-L-Trap – he threw it a little deeper than I'd been fishing – and that pretty much took all the air out of me."
His one-fish haul dropped him to 3rd place – a half-pound out of the lead. He'd assumed he'd need much more than 7 pounds on the final day to move back to the top, but such wasn't the case.
West's final-day bag was nothing to shout about, but it was enough to put him in the Bassmaster Classic.
He started out with a 1/2-ounce "Trap" like the one his co-angler had caught the 5-pounder with the previous afternoon and plied the outside milfoil clumps. He caught a couple of keepers quickly and boated a 3 1/2-pounder a bit later on.
He lost another 3 1/2 just minutes after that and figured that his failure to boat that one might've cost him the tournament.
"I headed back preparing myself to finish no better than 3rd. I thought I had no chance to win with 7 pounds when I started the day a half-pound out of the lead. I was devastated because I knew I'd let it slip away."
As it turned out, there was no reason for all that despair.
Winning Gear Notes
> Lipless crankbait gear: 7' medium-action G. Loomis rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 10-pound Maxima monofilament line, 1/4- or 1/2-ounce Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap (chrome/blue back).
> He pulled the smaller Rat-L-Trap across the top of the milfoil and used the bigger one to work the deeper outside edges.
> Spinnerbait gear: 7' medium-heavy G. Loomis rod, same reel, 15-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Hildebrandt spinnerbait (white with single gold Colorado blade), Zoom split-tail trailer (chartreuse).
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "My knowledge of the milfoil and where it was at."
> Performance edge – "The 1/4-ounce Rat-L-Trap. I could keep it up high above the grass, and it was very difficult to fish that stuff without the grass balling up on your bait."
Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here..
The Top 25
Field = 193 boats
1. Darrell West -- Drasco, AR -- 14, 38.67
2. Hojin Chang -- Windermere, FL -- 12, 38.45
3. Brandon Gray -- Bullock, NC -- 12, 36.60
4. Andre Dickneite -- Freeburg, MO --13, 32.46
5. Sam Boss -- Paducah, KY -- 12, 31.35
6. Mark Mauldin -- Knoxville, TN -- 11, 28.94
7. Coby Carden -- Calera, AL -- 10, 27.97
8. Todd Pierce -- Tyler, TX -- 10, 27.86
9. Curtis Staley -- Huntsville, AL -- 10, 26.96
10. Ray Winans -- Manning, SC -- 8, 24.36
11. Phil Hennigan -- Center, TX -- 9, 21.98
12. Rodney Brown -- Eddyville, KY -- 8, 20.41
13. William Merrick -- Mt. Juliet, TN -- 8, 19.48
14. Brett Sellers -- Denham Springs, LA -- 9, 19.40
15. Dan Beard -- Cornith, TX -- 7, 19.22
16. Jerry Barnett Jr. -- Haughton, LA -- 7, 19.03
17. Allen Engelmeyer -- Severn, MD -- 8, 18.60
18. Chris Payne -- West Blocton, AL -- 7, 17.38
19. Mike Michalec -- Willis, TX -- 6, 17.14
20. Wes Ward -- Bessemer, AL -- 7, 16.87
21. Marty Giddens -- Alpine, AL -- 6, 16.72
22. Brian Bishop -- Gray, GA -- 5, 16.12
23. Rip Bass -- Spring Hope, NC -- 6, 15.85
24. Dannie Golden -- Roanoke, TX -- 7, 14.22
25. Brian Brown -- Kuttawa, KY -- 6, 13.70
For complete standings, click here.
