Ritter Frogged While Tucker Mixed It Up

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Competing in the 2-day BFL Great Lakes Division Super Tournament 2 weeks ago, Jeff Ritter got a feel for the changes that were happening all along the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wis.

The water was high and there was considerably more current compared to what is typical for early to mid September. Ritter, a native of Prairie du Chien, Wis., was pretty familiar with how those conditions might affect the bass in pools 7, 8 and 9, which was the tournament waters for the Central Division Rayovac Series.

Mark Tucker, on the other hand, had never fished that stretch of the Mississippi before, so he was learning on the fly how to narrow down what the better fish were relating to.

While Ritter did all of his damage with a hollow-body frog to collect a runner-up finish, Tucker, a tour veteran looking to get back to the sport's top level, flipped and threw a fluke in finishing 3rd.

Here's a breakdown of how both Ritter and Tucker matched up against the Mississippi.

2nd: Jeff Ritter

> Day 1: 5, 12-12
> Day 2: 5, 14-14
> Day 3: 5, 15-05
> Total = 15, 42-15

Ritter said the high water conditions concentrated the fish in specific areas that weren't obvious to the anglers unfamiliar with the river.

"The river was definitely fishing off," he said. "Number one, the high current and high water for this time of year in the fall threw some guys off their game as far as traditional spots the fish may have gone to. They were pushed back way further than they thought they would."

Ritter practiced on pools 8 and 9, the latter of which he said is more his style.

"I was up there for a week before the Super BFL and spent quite a few afternoons and evenings on 9 and a couple days on 8," he added. "As far as traditional type stuff goes for fall fishing, I had found a large group of fish in an area where they go when the water is high. It's on their migration route to their wintering ground. I'd found them in practice, but couldn't get bites in tournament."

That forced him to his plan B, which was a group of fish in Pool 8 that he'd found for the BFL.

"I checked them before the Rayovac started and they were in the same place and it was an every-cast deal," he said. "It was on fire."

He started the tournament there and caught two quickly on a frog, but when the water started to drop out of the area, he couldn't access them, forcing him to go to another back-up plan.

"I had another spot in Pool 8, but I didn't know their potential," he said. "I went there and caught seven or eight keepers with two nice ones within 10 casts. I chose to leave those fish because I figured I'd need them the next day."

At 8:30, he decided to lock through to Pool 9 where he had some smallmouth that would eat a topwater bait. He ultimately culled twice and had a respectable 12-12 to start the event.

The wind picked up significantly on day 2 and the water had started to recede, up to 2 feet in some places.

"I ran straight to that second spot and I knew I needed to make up some weight," he said. "I probably stuck 20 fish in there and I was in the locks (to Pool 9) by 8 a.m. I had all of my weight in the first half-hour all on a frog."

He said he'd found the area years ago and it just seems to be a safehaven for largemouth when the conditions are right.

"This area is something I found 3 to 5 years ago," he said. "We had high water one of those years and I had found this spot because it's just unique. It's nothing more than a little patch of grass, maybe the size of a truck or boat and it sits in the middle way back in the middle of a bunch of tall grass.

"The way the current come through there where it's only matted grass, there's hard bottom under it so when the water comes up the fish go there. When it comes down, it's just a magnet The current flows through it, not around it. It's just a different spot. There's something in the river that must keep the flow going there, something I'm not seeing right."

He said he never saw another boat the whole tournament.

"Spots like that are the ones that can really help you do well," he added.

His 14-14 bag on day 2 moved him into 7th place, 4 pounds behind eventual winner Jimmy Johnson.

The wind blew all night between days 2 and 3 and the air temperature didn't drop all that much and when Ritter got to his frog spot on the final day, the bite was clearly off.

"Something had the fished messed up," he said. "I got six bites and got my limit, but I didn't anything good. I maybe had 12 pounds and I fished hard for them."

At around 8:30 he headed to the lock to chase smallmouths in Pool 9. The smallmouth areas had dried up, too, but he was able to catch a couple largemouth upgrades. He headed back to Pool 8 at 10:30 and returned to his sweet spot and, "It was on is all I can say," he said. "I threw in there and the first one ate it. I landed 10 to 15 fish all in the 3-pound range there. Thirty fish later, I think I had stirred them up enough that they didn't want to bite.

"I've found a lot of groups like that over the years and it's really special when the 3-pounders are mixed in like that."

His final-day bag of 15-05 was his biggest of the event and gave him his best finish in a Rayovac Series tournament since he won at the Mississippi River in Minnesota in 2004.

He said the key places that produced for him were all about 6 to 7 feet deep with sand drops.

"I'd throw across a point and throw up into nothing and work the bait right into the edge of the current," he said. "The combination of the water falling and the current dropping pushed the bait around as the fish moved."

> Frog gear: 7'5" heavy-action iRod Air casting rod, Quantum Tour KVD casting reel (7.3:1 gear ratio), 65-pound PowerPro braided line, SPRO Bronzeye 65 (natural red).

> He made the switch to the darker-colored frog after a few misses on a lighter hue. "The minute I went to the darker frog, it went from fish boiling on it and blowups to when you'd reel them in, all you could see was line coming out of their mouth."

> Topwater gear: 7'6" heavy-action iRod Genesis II casting rod, same reel, 20-pound Maxima Ultragreen monofilament line, Heddon Super Spook (bone).

> Main factor in his success – "I feel comfortable when the water is rising on the river. I feel like I know where to start looking for fish – they push back further than people are willing to think they go. Plus, being from here, I know what different water to look at, and I've always been strong in the fall. I know what those fish look for."

> Performance edge – "My Power-Poles were a big-time key. Once I got that first bite, I have to believe a few fish would follow. I was getting bites on the frog 10 feet from the boat just as I was ready to pick it up out of the water. I never had to stand on the trolling motor."

3rd: Mark Tucker

> Day 1: 5, 16-02
> Day 2: 5, 12-08
> Day 3: 5, 12-12
> Total = 15, 41-06

Tucker thinks his shot at winning dissipated when the water started to come down on day 2 of the tournament.

"It worked out good, though, considering I'd never fished there before in my life," he said. "I got real fortunate that the water was up when we got there. I was able to run around, but after day 2 I'm surprised I still have a motor on back of the boat. I ran over some stuff that you would've died if you'd have seen it.

"To go up there and compete with those guys who've been there for 30 years, it's more than I could've expected. I never dreamed I'd do that well. It shows you it's all about being in the right place at the right time."

Tucker put in a week's worth of practice before the tournament and said the water was 2 1/2 to 3 feet lower by the time the competition was over. Those changes caused him to adjust throughout, but it seemed every move he made – he spent the whole tournament in Pool 8 – was the right one.

"The first couple of days I had to target specific grass," he said. "There's a lot of ricegrass, but fish weren’t in there. The grass on cut banks was key. Once the water drops that grass was exposed and there was nothing to break the current.

"I then flipped into the rice that was still flooded in the marsh and I had to find places where the marshes were still dumping into the channel. I needed to be in areas where it was draining into the river. It was typical delta-style fishing."

On day 1 of the tournament, he opted to fish for smallmouth in an area where the water was plummeting.

"I'd caught a limit of largemouth first thing and knew nobody would find those smallmouth," he said. "I ran there at 1:30 and set the boat down and it was getting shallower. I was a little worried about getting in there, but I blew in and made three casts and caught three that were all 4 pounds. I wished I'd went there first.

"The conditions were just perfect and I probably could've caught a bigger bag of largemouth, but I caught those smallmouth on a fluke. I'd throw the bait out, twitch it twice and then there'd be a huge wake and boil and then I just held on. It was unbelievable."

He was back in that area on day 2 after weighing 16-06 on day 1, but he almost got stuck and he chose to abandon that plan.

"I had a pattern going with the high water, but once the water dropped, that all changed," he said. "After the water dropped, it was too late to expand on it so I ended up staying in the area where I had most of the bites and I figured them out.

"That worked out good because there were a lot more fish there than what I anticipated after I figured out of what was going on. That's the good thing about not knowing the place. I probably would've peeled out of there and gone to other stuff. Instead, I stayed and that helped a bunch."

He tallied 12-08 on day 2, but caught nothing on the fluke. Instead, he flipped a Zoom Brush Hog to get fish in the boat.

"I'd found some deep water in the channel and I fished the outside edge of the grass by the channel, that's where they were," he said.

An overnight storm Friday may have affected the fish that Tucker was targeting and he said the wind from day 2 had "destroyed" the areas where he caught them on Friday.

"They had moved again and I had to keep experimenting and changing to figure them out," he said. "The current stopped in my key area with that south wind and when the current stops, it gets hard to pinpoint where the fish will be. If you're fishing in current, you almost know the exact flip to make. If the current's too slow, it's too time-consuming to figure them out."

The final day was a struggle for Tucker. He only had three fish with about 15 minutes left and he gambled on a spot that had produced a few bites previously.

"I tried to make something happen and wound up catching a 3 and a 4 in the last 10 minutes," he said.

Those fish got him to 12-12 and moved him into 3rd place.

Tucker finished 4th in points in the Central Division and qualified for the Rayovac Series Championship at Wheeler Lake in late October. He hopes it's the first step toward getting back to the tour level.

"I'd like to return to the Tour and I have a desire to return to the Elites," he said. "I'm trying to make something happen. I love doing concrete work, but I love fishing twice as much."

> Flipping gear: 7'6" medium-heavy unnamed casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 25-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. unnamed tungsten flipping weight (pegged), 4/0 Gamakatsu flipping hook, Zoom Brush Hog (green-pumpkin).

> Fluke gear: 6'6" medium-action unnamed spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 10-pound unnamed braided line, 8-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line (leader), 4/0 Gamakatsu wide-gap worm hook, Zoom Super Fluke.

> Main factor in his success – "My biggest thing was just fishing hard and having confidence in what I was doing. On day 3, I could've given up, but I stayed with what I was doing and kept looking for where they went."

> Performance edge – "Two things – one was my Power-Poles were huge on day 2. If I hadn't have had them, I probably would've zeroed. The wind blew so hard you couldn't control your boat, especially with it blowing against the current. Another was my Mercury outboard. It's almost like an iron ball, you can't tear it up. I ran through stuff and I hated doing that to my engine, but to win you have to gamble and take chances. Thankfully, it's still intact. There will never be another engine on my boat."

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