By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor


Man, what a difference a couple of months and 250 highway miles can make!

Brent Ehrler's first visit to the Lonestar State this year was completely devoid of highlights. In his Bassmaster Elite Series debut, the former FLW Tour star and 2006 Forrest Wood Cup champion boated just three keepers over 2 days at the Sabine River out of Orange, Texas. Their total weight amounted to a paltry 5-12.

Things went far better over the recent holiday weekend at a much different type of fishery 4 hours to the north. Ehrler caught a single fish from Lake Fork that was more than twice the size of his entire haul from the Sabine in March, along with 14 other nice ones that carried him to victory at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic.

The Californian has fished extremely well since his tank job at the Sabine and has clawed his way back to No. 9 in the Toyota Tundra B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year (AOY) race. He'll take a great deal of momentum into BASSFest next week at Kentucky Lake, where he'll go about his work in much the same way he did at Fork.

He started the final day at the TTBC trailing Jason Christie by 5 3/4 pounds, but made up that deficit and then some by catching a tournament-best 10-11 behemoth with about an hour remaining in the day. The giant anchored a 31-08 sack that pushed his total to 89-12, which was 2 pounds more than runner-up Christie compiled.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Ehrler, who's respectfully called "Meter Man" by his fellow pros due to his ability to locate offshore fish using his depthfinders, spent almost all of the 2 1/2 practice days staring at his Humminbird units. He found quite a few places where multiple post-spawn fish had congregated, but only one that he was really wild about.

It was a spot where a long point fell off into much deeper water that went undetected or ignored by just about everybody else. Naturally, he found it with his graph, and the first practice cast he made produced a 6-pounder.

"I just idled over it and the fish were there," he said. "I don't know what was different about it, to be honest – it was just one of those overlooked spots.

"It seemed obvious, but maybe not completely obvious to everybody. Some places seem like they have a flag waving that says, 'Hey, come over here.' This wasn't one of those."

Unlike a lot of similar offshore hotspots at Fork, this one wasn't peppered with timber. The sweet spot was a 40-by-40 foot shelf topped by either rock or mussels. The fish were sitting in depths ranging from 18 to 25 feet.

"It had a bunch of white bass there, but they were off on the sides," he said. "There was one cast I could line up that produced a lot of bites.

"Some of the largemouths were up on top and some were on the sides."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 29-00
> Day 2: 5, 29-04
> Day 3: 5, 31-08
> Total = 15, 89-12

Ehrler caught an 8-pounder and four fish that averaged a little over 5 pounds apiece on day 1 to establish himself as one of the contenders. He came in a quarter-pound heavier on day 2, which move him up one spot (to 5th) in the standings and set the stage for his final-day heroics.

Kevin VanDam came into his primary area for a short time on day 1 and then departed. When VanDam arrived again on day 2, he made a few casts and then asked Ehrler if that's where he'd been catching most of his fish. When Ehrler said yes, VanDam pulled up his trolling motor and moved out.

"It's a big deal when people do that for you, especially when it's the biggest name in fishing," Ehrler said. "He just said, 'I'm not going to mess with you,' and then he was gone."

He pulled 23 pounds off his primary locale during the morning of day 3, but then the action went stagnant. He finally pulled out during the lunch hour and relocated to a point that he'd fished in last year's event.

It was a place he'd wanted to try earlier in the event, but found a boat on it each time he arrived. With only 10 anglers in the field on Monday, he hoped it had gotten a much-needed rest.

Within 20 minutes of arriving, he connected with the bruiser that would bring him the victory and also garner him a new Toyota Tundra as the largest fish of the event. The fish took a hollow-belly swimbait – one of three baits he used during the week (the others were a jig and a deep-diving crankbait).

That goliath and a 6-pounder that arrived shortly thereafter gave him enough weight to overtake Christie, who weighed 23-12 on the final day.

“I’m still kind of shocked," he said a couple hours later. "I really didn’t think that I had a great chance to win today because I was so far behind.



BassFan
Photo: BassFan

Ehrler used Daiwa Tatula casting reels on both of his swimbait rods and employed a lower gear-ratio version for cranking.

"This win ranks way up there for me."

His best spot ended up surrendering 11 of the 15 fish he took to the scale. Ten of those were enticed by the swimbait, but the others played key roles.

"Bait rotation was a big thing. I'd catch one on the swimbait, then not get a bit for 15 minutes, then throw the jig and I might get one on my first cast. I only got a school fired up on a crankbait one time – the rest of the time the bites were sporadic."

Winning Gear Notes

> Swimbait gear – 7'6" heavy-action Daiwa Zillion or Daiwa Tatula flipping stick, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 16-pound Sunline Shooter flurocarbon line, 3/4- or 1-ounce BOSS jighead, unnamed hollow-belly swimbait (various shad-themed colors).

> "I didn't have very many baits of any one color and I probably used four different ones," he said. "That really didn't seem to matter."

> He threw the 1-ounce jighead on the Zillion rod and the 3/4-ounce on the Tatula. "The Tatula has just a slightly softer tip," he said.

> Jig gear: 7'4" heavy-action Daiwa Tatula frog rod, Daiwa Steez EX casting reel (7.9:1 ratio), 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce BOSS football-head jig (green-pumpkin), 5" Yamamoto Twin Tail trailer (green-pumpkin).

> Cranking gear: 8' prototype Daiwa fiberglass composite cranking rod, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (5.4:1 ratio), 12-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon, Lucky Craft RTO 3.5XD (pearl threadfin).

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "It was that spot, for sure. I had it to myself and I was able to kind of watch it and make sure it didn't get a lot of pressure on it."

> Performance edge – "It was just a combination – the Humminbird showed me where the fish were, and then everything else took over."

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