It's not often an angler wins back-to-back. It's even rarer to see back-to-back wins with the same bait. But Tommy Biffle's remarkable surge today at the Cherokee PAA Series in Tennessee showed just how hot the Oklahoma pro is, and how deadly his special-color Biffle Bug can be.
On a fishery that was beat up, tore up and stuck in the dog-day doldrums,
Biffle slammed the biggest bag of the event (16.76 pounds). He not only erased the 8-plus-pound deficit he faced this morning, but bested former leader Bobby Lane by 2 pounds.
It was classic Biffle all the way – hunting shallow with a big stick, leaving no willow or bush untested.
Lane made things much easier for Biffle. He started to fall apart yesterday when he faced a two-fish day with just 45 minutes left. A late flurry filled his limit, but the gas ran out today and he sputtered in with four fish for 4 1/2 pounds and finished 2nd.
The news was worse for David Walker, who began the day in 2nd. Walker weighed a single fish and fell to finish 5th. A bitter pill for an angler to swallow on his local lake.
A similar fate befell Bradley Hallman, who weighed a single dink and plunged from 3rd to finish 12th.
Todd Auten, who began the day in 4th, assembled a 12-pound limit and moved up a spot to finish 3rd, while Texan Lance Vick pulled off some heroics and climbed four spots to finish 4th with a 14-pound limit today.
Biffle's win delivered shades of Oneida 2006 – a clear-water event in New York that he won fishing in inches of water. It was Oneida that seemed to shake Biffle's 2nd-place jinx and usher in a new era for the Oklahoma pro. He won Wheeler a few years later, Ft. Gibson just a few weeks ago, and Cherokee today.
Both wins paint Biffle as an angler at the top of his game, and it's a good time to be there. He heads to Alabama for the BASS post-season in less than 2 weeks. He finished 2nd and 3rd at the same post-season venues last year, and as he told BassFan, he absolutely can't wait to get down there.
Biffle Delivered
Biffle, widely regarded as the father of pitching, is right at home in ultra-shallow water. Some like to paint him as a mud king. Not so. He can catch 'em that shallow in water that's made for drinking too.
"It's unbelievable, isn't it? – at least for me anyway," he said after tonight's weigh-in. "I had a good day on the last day, and that's when you need it."
Biffle found a willow this afternoon with as many as eight 3- to 4-pounders around it, but they turned negative and he didn't have any finesse gear in the boat.
The victory almost wasn't, in more ways than one. First, he didn't even want to fish the event. He's supported the PAA since the modern version of the association formed several years ago, but his schedule's so hectic, Cherokee was tough to fit in. He's going to the ICAST industry tradeshow in Las Vegas next week, then has 1 day at home before he leaves for the BASS post-season. In the midst of it all, he's trying to get his truck wrapped.
Second, he didn't lose a fish across the first 2 days, but this morning he lost a 3-pounder right off the bat. He figured he blew it right then and there.
He finally caught his first two fish around 10:30 in the back of a pocket.
Biffle noted: "That pocket had a little ditch in it, and I said, 'Well, in practice, I thought I saw some places that looked like that.' So I ran around and looked at the locator and found another pocket with a little ditch running to the back. I ran back there as far as I could, peeked around a willow just to see if there were any in the water around it, and I saw like seven or eight 3- to 4-pounders sitting out there.
"I dropped the PowerPole and told my cameraman, 'We're not leaving 'till we're winning.'"
He caught two of those fish, but they turned off pretty quickly. He was set up for flipping and pitching – 20- and 25-pound line – thus he didn't have an finesse baits. He faced a decision and elected to let the fish rest – the field was cut to 30 and he didn't see any boats around all day.
He ran around and found another willow tree in the back of a pocket, flipped in and caught a snapping turtle. He retied, pitched back as far as he could – almost on the bank – and caught his fifth fish.
At that point it was 2:00 and he decided to give the rested fish another try. He only had 10 minutes left, and just like at Oneida 4 years ago, a 4-pounder swam into the willow. He pitched in and hooked it, but unlike Oneida, he lost it.
That was it, he had to leave. If he'd landed that fish, he'd have had a 20-pound bag. On the other hand, if Lane landed one more fish, Biffle likely would have lost. In the end, Biffle's 17 pounds were enough and he notched his second victory in 3 weeks.
Like his attack plan at Ft. Gibson, he fished a Gene Larew Biffle Bug exclusively, in the Sooner Run custom color that's now available to the public. For the most part, he flipped and pitched, but he caught a few fish the first day with his bottom-buggin' technique – swimming the Bug along bottom with a Gene Larew HardHead, which is a hinged football-head.
Bobby Lane's not happy with 2nd, but he's not complaining either – it's a tough, tough fishery this time of year, he says.
The details of his winning pattern will be posted at a later date.
2nd: Lane 'Not Complaining'
Although Lane would have dearly loved to win, he faced reality: He was fading, and there was only so much he could do.
"The bite's been brutal all week," he said. "I'm not happy with 2nd, but I'm not complaining that I finished 2nd on a lake that was definitely a tough, tough fishery. I was already starting to fall apart yesterday. I went back into that pocket today and it looked like somebody had taken a Weed Eater and chainsaw to it. If the mat was 100% yesterday, it was down to 15% today.
"But I had to go there. It was the spot to win the tournament if everybody wasn't running new water."
His strategy was to hurl a black Revenge buzzbait "aimlessly down banks" in the mornings to cover as much water as he could. Later in the day, he hit the backs of pockets, where he skipped a frog into shade pockets.
"I burned 48 gallons of gas every day and I keyed on going to the very backs – as far as you could go with the trolling motor. I'd fish that area, crank it up and go to another pocket."
3rd: Auten Pleased
Auten, who won the Neely Henry PAA Series last year, never rocked a big bag this week. But he was steady and averaged 10 1/2 pounds a day.
"I'm real happy with it," he said of his finish. "At a place like this, you wouldn't think 10 to 11 pounds would be any good. Who knew the fishing would be so tough? But I like tough tournaments. I seem to do better in those – when we fish somewhere where you don't have to have 20 pounds a day."
He said he caught five to six keepers and had a limit by 1:00 each day. He fished shallow and threw a buzzbait and a Zoom Horny Toad in the mornings. Later in the day, he stuck with the Horny Toad.
"I was trying to make long casts and fish way back in the grass," he noted. "I was fishing little pockets with dead broomstraw grass, and the fish were on the backside of the grass. You'd think that this time of year they'd be on the outer edge, but all the fish I caught were basically on the inside edge."
Todd Auten's surprised it only took 10 1/2 pounds a day to finish 3rd.
He intermittently fished docks with a Santone jig tipped with a Zoom Super Speed craw. He caught a few key fish off docks, but it wasn't a confidence pattern for him – the Toad was much better overall.
4th: Vick Excited
Vick, a well-known Texas stick who fished the Bassmaster Tour in 2003 and competes widely at the AAA-level, spent his tournament up the river, where he worked two points. He got his bites in about 18 feet of water and one point had a significant rock that continued to produce the first 2 days.
"I love my finish," he said. "Anytime you can get a Top 5, it's great. If I had just a couple more bites the first or second day, I could have been in contention to win. I'm excited."
About his pattern, he said: "The first 2 days I caught all my fish on one point – actually off a rock on the tip of the point. I was throwing a 3/4-ounce Black Angel football jig in the Tennessee craw color with a Grande Bass Mega Claw trailer in green-pumpkin/candy. When I crawled it up on the rock, they'd eat it. But they'd only eat early, and once they were done, they were done."
That spot was played out today, so he worked the other point, which was close by.
He's especially stoked about where he thinks the PAA is headed.
"I'll tell you, this is the up-and-coming trail where all the best anglers are going to want to end up," he said. "The payout's great, and the way they have registration at Bass Pro Shops – there were a ton of people here just for registration. It was like a meet-the-pros day. And the people here turned out in droves for today's weigh-in.
"There's the Toyota Texas Bass Classic – they're taking the Top 15 from the PAA – and they're working on a no-entry-fee trail for next year. The PAA's going to the top."
5th: Walker Disappointed
Walker came close but fell short once again. His single fish today doomed him to a 5th-place finish. He noted that this week didn't show the true Cherokee fishery – it's the wrong time of year – and he's not surprised at all that Biffle roped 17 pounds today.
"I caught one today, and I really didn't have much of a chance to catch any more," Walker said. "I had one more keeper bite and that was it. It was just tough.
"I'm definitely disappointed. I've finished a little bit lower before and been happy with it, but this one here – to have a chance to do way better and not make the most of it, I'm disappointed."
He stuck with the same area he fished the first 2 days and largely fished deep – from 15 to 22 feet.
"After the tournament it's a lot easier to figure out what you should have done," he noted. "During the tournament is when it's hard. You don't know what's being caught or where or how. I thought I had a winning-type spot. It just didn't happen for me. One of these days I guess it will."
Notable
> The next PAA Series event is slated for Lake Norman, August 12–14.
Day 3 (Final) Standings
1. Tommy Biffle -- 4, 12.34 -- 3, 7.08 -- 5, 16.76 -- 12, 36.18
2. Bobby Lane -- 5, 15.57 -- 5, 12.08 -- 4, 6.46 -- 14, 34.11
3. Todd Auten -- 5, 9.9 -- 5, 9.89 -- 5, 12.2 -- 15, 31.99
4. Lance Vick -- 3, 6.94 -- 4, 9.8 -- 5, 14.14 -- 12, 30.88
5. David Walker -- 5, 12.88 -- 5, 11.1 -- 1, 2.22 -- 11, 26.2
6. Harold Allen -- 5, 14.12 -- 2, 6.24 -- 2, 4.96 -- 9, 25.32
7. Bryan Thrift -- 5, 7.95 -- 5, 10.56 -- 3, 5.74 -- 13, 24.25
8. Andy Montgomery -- 2, 6.91 -- 2, 5.94 -- 5, 10.32 -- 9, 23.17
9. Randall Tharp -- 3, 8.74 -- 2, 5.61 -- 3, 8.61 -- 8, 22.96
10. Andy Morgan -- 5, 10.93 -- 1, 2.44 -- 5, 9.52 -- 11, 22.89
11. Randy Howell -- 5, 10.02 -- 2, 3.12 -- 5, 9.39 -- 12, 22.53
12. Bradley Hallman -- 5, 15.57 -- 3, 4.9 -- 1, 1.6 -- 9, 22.07
13. Stacey King -- 3, 6.36 -- 2, 5.14 -- 5, 10.11 -- 10, 21.61
14. Aaron Martens -- 5, 7.88 -- 5, 5.1 -- 5, 8.26 -- 15, 21.24
15. Dave Lefebre -- 5, 9.62 -- 2, 3.36 -- 4, 7.5 -- 11, 20.48
16. Todd Faircloth -- 5, 7.75 -- 5, 8.77 -- 2, 3.74 -- 12, 20.26
17. David Hendrick -- 5, 11.11 -- 5, 7.8 -- 0, 0 -- 10, 18.91
18. Zell Rowland -- 5, 9.21 -- 4, 6.98 -- 1, 2.54 -- 10, 18.73
19. Stephen Browning -- 5, 9.68 -- 3, 6.44 -- 1, 2.07 -- 9, 18.19
20. Jason Quinn -- 4, 7.35 -- 3, 7.94 -- 1, 2.36 -- 8, 17.65
21. Edwin Evers -- 5, 11.04 -- 1, 2.11 -- 2, 3.84 -- 8, 16.99
22. Luke Clausen -- 5, 11.86 -- 2, 4.69 -- 0, 0 -- 7, 16.55
23. Jason Christie -- 3, 9.43 -- 1, 3.21 -- 2, 3.78 -- 6, 16.42
24. Mike McClelland -- 5, 8.16 -- 3, 4.4 -- 3, 3.13 -- 11, 15.69
25. Shaw Grigsby -- 5, 6.04 -- 3, 6.26 -- 1, 2.6 -- 9, 14.9
26. Jeff Kriet -- 1, 2.54 -- 5, 11.4 -- 1, 0.95 -- 7, 14.89
27. Brian Holt -- 4, 8.88 -- 2, 5.88 -- 0, 0 -- 6, 14.76
28. Dave Wolak -- 3, 5.89 -- 3, 8.64 -- 0, 0 -- 6, 14.53
29. Charlie Hartley -- 3, 6.89 -- 2, 5.66 -- 1, 0.84 -- 6, 13.39
30. Pete Ponds -- 5, 10.25 -- 1, 2.42 -- 0, 0 -- 6, 12.67
Big Bass
> Day 3 -- Tommy Biffle -- Oklahoma -- 4.38
> Day 2 -- Casey Ashley -- South Carolina -- 4.95
> Day 1 -- Jason Seaton -- Indiana -- 4.65
