By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
On a fishery as vast as the upper Mississippi River, maybe one out of every 10 professional anglers will find locations that harbor winning-quality fish that they can have pretty much to themselves over the course of a multi-day tournament. Of that 10 percent, probably less than half will fully capitalize on a great area's potential – the remainder will leave too early, show up too late, miss key bites, employ the wrong techniques, etc.
That's just the nature of the game, and it's why the pros always say that to win an event at that level, just about everything has to go right for the entire week.
Todd Faircloth had one of those weeks at the Bassmaster Elite Series derby staged out of La Crosse, Wis. The veteran from Texas snatched the lead on day 2 and held it the rest of the way on a fishery that's teeming with eager-to-bite 2-pounders but somewhat short on larger specimens, which made bag weights ridiculously tight throughout the 98-angler field.
He took a 7-ounce lead into the final day and sacked 14 1/2 pounds for a 1-04 margin over runner-up Cliff Pace. It was his third career Elite Series victory and first since 2008.
Here's how he went about it.
Practice
On the first day of practice, Faircloth found the area in Pool 8 he'd begin each competition day on.
"I was just running down the river and I came to a big grass flat – the biggest one I'd seen so far," he said. "I kind of idled in and started looking around, and I saw some openings over by an island.
"I caught a couple real quick, and then I started expanding on it a little bit. There was a cut in the grass and I kept following it and kept getting bit, and there was a big hole at the end and I got several bites in there. I knew that was going to be my starting place."
The flat was just a short distance off the main channel, and the water on the innermost side was considerably cleaner than most of the river (the Mississippi was running high and off-color for this time of year due to recent rains to the north).
"One of the big deals was it had current coming through it. I got half of my weigh-in fish from there."
His other significant spot was the mouth of a small bay – the back portions of which were popular among several fellow competitors.
"There was a big grass flat that ran out with ditches on both sides. The outside edge was dirty, but if you went inside, right where the water color started to transition was the key place. The water there was 3 to 5 feet deep, whereas in the starting spot it was 1 to 2 feet."
He described the vegetation as a mixture of milfoil and hydrilla, along with "some type of cabbage-looking stuff" and some duckweed.
"It seemed like the matted stuff where the duckweed created a canopy was the best. I caught some punching there, and also some on top."
He found that he could bring fish to the surface with a frog and a shad-imitation topwater with frog-style hooks. For punching, he used a creature bait under a 1 1/4-ounce weight. He also picked up a few fish on competition days on a swim-jig and a fluke-style bait.
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 15-00
> Day 2: 5, 17-14
> Day 3: 5, 14-13
> Day 4: 5, 14-09
> Total = 20, 62-04
Faircloth caught a 15-pound sack on day 1 to position himself among the leaders, just a pound and a half back of early pace-setter Kyle Fox. He then made his big move on day 2 with a stringer that was the second-best of the tournament, and he held the top spot the rest of the way.
He had a limit by 8:15, and one of those fish was a 5-03. That bruiser equaled one caught by 3rd-place finisher Terry Butcher as the biggest of the event.
He had almost no company on either of his best areas on any of the 4 days.
"On the second day Rick Morris came in and fished a little bit," he said. "We talked at the weigh-in and he was very courteous in letting me have it the rest of the tournament."
Weights were down across the board on day 3, which featured gray skies and intermittent thundershowers. He began that day with a 12-ounce advantage and was still up by 7 ounces when it was over despite not boating a fish that weighed more than 3 1/4 pounds.
The early part of the final day went well for him as he had a decent sack by 10:00, but his action slowed down dramatically at that point. He'd thought the return of the sun would enhance his mid-day punching bite, but that didn't occur.
Faircloth moved into the lead on day 2 and never relinquished it.
After continually rotating through several locales, including some that he hadn't fished yet during the tournament, he returned to his primary late-day with a half-hour to go and flipped up a 3-pounder. That fish replaced one that was a little over 2 pounds and it's likely that he wouldn't have held off Pace without it.
Winning Gear Notes
> Frog gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Castaway Skeleton Series rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 50-pound Spiderwire Ultracast braided line, unnamed hollow-belly frog (white).
> Punching gear: 7'6" heavy-action Castaway Skeleton Series flipping stick, same reel and line, unnamed 1 1/4-ounce weight, unnamed 4/0 round-bend hook, 4" Yamamoto Kreature (black/blue).
> He clipped the wings off the Kreatrue so that it would penetrate the vegetation more easily.
> He threw the shad-imitating topwater (shad color) on the same gear as the frog. He said he doesn't know the name or manufacturer of the bait.
> His swim-jig was a 1/4-ounce All-Terrain Tackle model trailed by a Yamamoto single-tail grub (both green-pumpkin).
> The fluke-type offering was a Yamamoto D Shad (junebug) attached to a 4/0 round-bend hook that was tied to 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon.
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "I think it was the areas. I had two really good spots and I was able to expand on the second one a little bit on day 2 when I had the big stringer. I started exploring around and found a couple key stretches that paid big dividends on the last 2 days."
> Performance edge – "My Skeeter/Yamaha always plays a big role, but I'd also have to say the line, rods and reels. I was pulling those fish out of some really heavy stuff."
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