Paul Elias won the Atchafalaya Basin FLW on Saturday because he took a series of risks. He risked being more tired for the Seminole BASSMASTER to prefish one day at the basin. He risked fishing two canals with limited cover on days 1 and 2 to save a spot in case he made the cut. And then, to go for the win, he risked going to the spot and potentially running aground or zeroing.

In this two-parter, Elias talks about all of that plus a few other things that were key to his winning patterns.

Short But Important Pre-Fish

"We had the Seminole tournament in front of this one, and I'd just gotten home from the first three (tour events) so I really didn't have much time to prefish," Elias said. "I wasn't going to go, but I decided to drive over for a day. I got there on Tuesday evening (the week before Seminole), and on Wednesday morning I put in and fished for about 5 hours."

He found one of his days 1-2 canals during that time. Given the conditions and time of year, "the whole pattern there is dead-end canals. So I went there with it on my mind to find dead-end canals to pitch.

"I started by looking at a map. That place has numerous lakes, but the bayous and canals for the most part are deeper than the lakes. When the water warms up the bass move into the lakes, and when it's cold, they move out. So I thought I'd fish some main bayous and canals off those lakes."

He found a dead-end canal off Duck Lake that had a "keeper on about every log in there -- stump, log, any piece of wood." He caught a 12-pound limit there. "It was only 1/4-mile long so I thought it would be a day's worth of fishing. And I didn't know if any other tournament boats would find it."

He headed back to the ramp. "I was going to leave, but I ran into a local guy who had one of those aluminum tunnel hull boats (jump boats) they use down there to get in those (shallow) areas. He offered to show me how to get into places I'd found on the map because I didn't know where I could run and where I couldn't."

The local fisherman ran Elias around some shallow areas, and as they were running through one spot he said: "If the water falls any more, the fish will stack up in this area." That stuck in Elias' mind. "But we didn't stop," he said. "We ran right on through it."

Practice

When he got back to the Atchafalaya Basin after finishing 9th at Seminole, Elias found what his fellow FLW Tour competitors had been experiencing in practice: even lower water.

"I checked the canal I found in practice and the fish were still there," he said. "I caught a good fish, about a 4-pounder, and shook a couple of other bites off.

"I also found another canal close to that one where I got some bites, so I felt comfortable with that (area). I figured those two areas were close together, and maybe I'd be alright.

"But I never went to that shallow area -- because I was scared," he said. "I didn't know if I could make it back there or not."

Competition: Days 1 and 2

> Day 1 -- 5, 12-14
> Day 2 -- 5, 14-12
> Total = 10, 27-10

"The first day of the tournament I started to go to the (shallow) area because I didn't feel like I had enough weight (in the canals)," Elias said. "But I talked myself out of it because I knew if I went there and got stuck, I was done and wouldn't make the cut for sure."

So on day 1 he went to the first canal he found, caught a limit and then fished the nearby canal. "I caught my best fish of the day there and culled a fish. I didn't go back to the first canal because I thought I had about 14 pounds, but I misjudged my weight."

On day 2 he started in the second canal and caught only one fish: a 3 1/2-pounder. "Then I went to the other canal," he said. "I was thinking there were no fish in there, but there was a better-quality fish on every log. I couldn't believe it.

"I caught 6 keepers that day and my partner caught 4. It got better instead of worse. But on my second pass through there I didn't get any bites, so I thought I'd wiped them out."

Days 1 and 2 Gear/Notes

He caught all of his days 1 and 2 bass on a customized Mann's 1/2-ounce Titanium Classic spinnerbait and Mann's It creature bait.

> Spinnerbait -- 7' 4" heavy-action Quantum PT rod, Quantum PT 600 reel, 25-pound Trilene XT, 1/2-ounce Mann's Ti-Classic titanium spinnerbait with two modifications. Re: using a heavy rod to fish the spinnerbait, he said: "There was a lot of cover -- I got hung up a lot and made long casts to cover -- so I wanted to really get good hookset on the fish."

> Spinnerbait mods -- The spinnerbait comes with two gold Indiana blades, but Elias replaced the bigger blade with a No. 5 Hildebrandt blade (gold). He also likes a red/orange skirt in the spring, and had one but couldn't find another. "I thought I wouldn't lose it fishing 25-pound line. But the first day of the tournament I caught 3-4 fish, got hung up and like an idiot I didn't retie when I should have. I set the hook on a 3-pounder, broke my knot and lost that spinnerbait. That fish jumped 5 times when I was in that canal." That night he glued orange skirts over red skirts to use the next day.

> Flipping -- Same rod and reel, 30-pound Berkley Fireline, 1/4-ounce Water Gremlin Bullshot weight, 4/0 X-point hook, 4-inch Mann's It creature bait (black/blue).

> "I have no idea why that canal got better on day 2," he said. "Two crappie boats were in there with 3 guys in each boat. They were going to every log in that canal and crappie fishing, and they were banging around. I thought, Man, they're spooking all these fish. I watched them pull up on this log I was dying to fish, and they were banging around -- I didn't see how they were going to catch anything. One guy dropped a crappie jig by a log and caught a 3 1/2-pound bass. It made me sick, but I learned that you couldn't scare (those fish)."

End of part 1 -- part 2 will be up later today



Mann's Bait Co.
Photo: Mann's Bait Co.

The Mann's Classic spinnerbait figured big in Elias' win.