By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
By now, most BassFans know that the Sturgeon Bay area of Lake Michigan did not produce as many had hoped or expected for the Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Championship. It was simply a case of bad timing. In three weeks, some suspect the smallmouth catches could be prodigious.
Look at the bright side: At least the 50 pros who qualified for the Wisconsin event were able to compete for 3 days, unlike last year’s AOY event at Bay de Noc.
It was the opinion of several competitors that the lake, or at least the area that was considered tournament waters last week, was in the midst of its seasonal turnover. When that happens, the fish tend to scatter and the schools that had been ganged up on offshore structure or contour breaks for much of the summer become much smaller and harder to locate. What’s more is they wouldn’t stay put once one of their buddies fell for a dropshot rig or a swimbait.
The conditions weren’t the greatest – winds shifted around throughout the event – and that made staying on top of fish challenging for those who ventured away from Sturgeon Bay.
Below is a rundown of how the rest of the Top 5 finishers targeted the smallmouth at Sturgeon Bay.
2nd: David Walker
> Day 1: 5, 11-15
> Day 2: 5, 18-02
> Day 3: 5, 20-10
> Total = 15, 50-11
David Walker was in a fairly comfortable position heading to the AOY Championship. His berth in next year’s Classic was virtually guaranteed and if he climbed into the Top 20 in points, he stood to earn at least $6,000 in year-end prize money.
What wasn’t comfortable was how inconsistent the fishing was.
“The hype coming up here was you’d need 20 (pounds) a day to compete, but that was not reality,” he said.
Eventually, he settled in on a deep-water dropshot pattern and caught bigger bags each day. His runner-up finish moved him up two spots in points to 23rd.
“I started shallow in practice along the banks and moved out to the 10-foot range,” he said. “I had a big area and whittled it down to the best parts. Once I found what I needed to look for, there was a pattern fishing the shoals. It was an obvious pattern, but looking for the right depth range and all the nuances takes time.”
He caught smaller fish on day 1, but slid out to a deeper range on day 2 and caught 18-02. He targeted fish in 35 feet on the final day and bagged 20-10.
“On Friday, I caught about 20 fish and they were mostly 3-pounders,” he said. “I was catching a lot of fish so that made me feel good about Sunday. I was looking forward to getting back out there. It seemed like there were fewer fish (out deep), but I could catch bigger fish. At that point, I was not concerned with numbers. I was looking for quality.”
> Dropshot gear: 7’1” medium-action G. Loomis NRX spinning rod, Shimano Stella 3000 spinning reel, 10-pound Sunline SX-1 braided line (main), 7-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line (leader), size 1 Owner dropshot hook, size 1 Gamakatsu Aaron Martens TGW dropshot hook, 3.75” Z-Man StreakZ (red bone and shiner), 3/8- and 1/2-oz. Reins Down Shot sinker.
> He tried the larger StreakZ, but had the most success with the smaller version.
> Main factor in his success – “Going into the final day with some confidence is what iced the cake.”
> Performance edge – “It was a network of everything I use. Each one had a role and when you add it all up, it made it really good.”
Alton Jones has developed supreme confidence in the YUM Warning Shot dropshot bait when targeting smallmouth.
3rd: Alton Jones
> Day 1: 5, 13-04
> Day 2: 5, 16-08
> Day 3: 5, 16-07
> Total = 15, 46-03
Being that he was in the Top 20 in points coming into the AOY Championship, all Alton Jones needed to do was weigh in one fish and his Classic berth would be secured. He did that and then some.
He caught the fish he needed on his first cast of day 1 and never looked back in registering his second Top-3 finish of the season. He also moved up to 16th in points and secured a spot in next year’s Toyota Texas Bass Classic (last year’s TTBC winner Brent Ehrler finished 7th in points so he’ll be considered a double-qualifier).
“My goal coming in was to qualify for the Classic and I got that done by catching a keeper on my first cast,” he said. “Beyond that, I wanted to stay in the Top 20 in points because it meant a better payday. I accomplished every incremental goal that I set.”
He did it by relying on what’s become his go-to smallmouth tactic – dropshotting a green-pumpkin YUM Warning Shot. Last week, he targeted a isolated 50-yard square rock hump in 35 to 40 feet of water well north of Sturgeon Bay.
“I’m convinced a lot of those Green Bay fish leave Green Bay for the summer and go to the islands up north and out into Lake Michigan,” he said. “I went as far North as we could trying to catch fish coming in from lake. The fish were just eating whatever scattered across the area I was on. It was a lot of fun.”
That particular area produced all but one of his weigh-in fish on days 2 and 3.
“Most of my fish were deep on a late-summer pattern, at least those were the more consistent fish,” he said. “If the water had been a little cooler, those shallower fish would’ve been better and more bigger fish would’ve been caught.”
> Dropshot gear: 6’9” medium-action Kistler Z-Bone spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 15-pound unnamed braided line (main), 8-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon line (leader), 1/0 Owner offset worm hook, YUM Warning Shot (green-pumpkin), 3/8-oz. unnamed dropshot sinker.
> Jones prefers to Texas-rig the Warning Shot and he rigs it upside down.
> Main factor in his success – “That YUM Warning Shot. I really believe there’s something to that bait. I gave a bag to a few other guys and I don’t think they used them. I hope they don’t.”
> Performance edge – “My Skeeter and Yamaha. We were in brutal conditions and I didn’t have a lick of trouble. It got me there and back safely and comfortably.”
Bobby Lane bounced back from a dismal day 2 to score a Top-5 finish.
4th: Bobby Lane
> Day 1: 5, 21-05
> Day 2: 3, 5-10
> Day 3: 5, 18-15
> Total = 13, 45-13
Practice at Sturgeon Bay did nothing to instill confidence in Bobby Lane’s mind. The night before the tournament, he was left with this dilemma: Go 5 miles south of Sturgeon Bay where he’d caught one fish, 16 miles north of the bay where he’d caught another one or stay around takeoff, where he’d caught his only other keeper in 3 days of practice.
“Practice was absolutely horrible,” he said. “I decided to start where I’d caught my biggest one and that’s where I wound up catching 21 pounds on the first day.”
That area, which also produced fish for several other competitors, yielded no fish for Lane for the rest of the tournament. He limped in with three fish for 5-10 on day 2.
“I just had to get lucky after the second day,” he said. “On the first day I’d drop down and four would chase it up and four would chase it down. I don’t know what they’re doing. I saw plenty on my graph every day and dropped straight on top of them. On Thursday, I got five bites. Friday, I had zero bites and on Sunday, I didn’t get a bite there. I caught a lot of short fish, though. They were still there. You could see them. It’s just a weird time right now.”
After starting the year with a zero on day 1 at the Sabine River, Lane was thrilled to have a mostly pressure-free event to end the season.
“This week was very enjoyable,” he said. “Sturgeon Bay was phenomenal. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end my season. It’s been an amazing adventure.”
On day 3, he caught all of his weight off a bridge in the city of Sturgeon Bay. He was in an area with several other competitors, including brother Chris, and they all had success on Sunday.
“That current goes in that way and I think it had something to do with the lake turning over,” he said. “The fish were swimming into the river and replenishing because you could catch them off same spot after a little bit. I underestimated Sturgeon Bay. There are more fish here than I could ever imagine. I bet if they did a shock around those 2 bridges, thousands would pop up.”
> Dropshot gear: 7’ medium-action Abu Garcia Veracity spinning rod, Abu Garcia Revo SX and Revo S spinning reels, 8-pound SpiderWire Ultracast Ultimate Braid braided line (main), 8-pound SpiderWire Ultracast fluorocarbon line (leader), size 1 Lazer TroKar dropshot hook, Berkley HAVOC Money Maker (green-pumpkin), 1/4- and 1/2-oz. unnamed dropshot weights.
> He rigged the Money Maker wacky style, but also nose-hooked it on occasion for a different look.
> He opted for a heavier weight when fishing deeper water, but downsized on day 3 near the ramp because there was not as much current.
> Swimbait gear: 7’ medium-action Abu Garcia Veracity casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX casting reel (7.9:1 gear ratio), 12-pound SpiderWire Ultracast fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed ball-head jig, 3.5” Berkley HAVOC Grass Pig (swamp gas).
> Lane would throw the swimbait in near-shore situations where the depth fell off about a cast or two from the bank. “Rock was the key no matter what,” he said.
> Main factor in his success – “Getting a little help from my brother on the final day.”
> Performance edge – “Where there was deep water near the shoreline, the only way I could find that was to have the Lakemaster chip on my Humminbird. Lakemaster made it easy to find where to fish the swimbait.”
Chad Pipkens finished off an incredible second half with a third straight Top-5 finish at Sturgeon Bay.
5th: Chad Pipkens
> Day 1: 5, 18-01
> Day 2: 5, 16-03
> Day 3: 5, 11-07
> Total = 15, 45-11
It didn’t take long for Chad Pipkens long to figure out that the fishing was a little off compared to expectations at Sturgeon Bay. He has plenty of Great Lakes smallmouth experience so he has a sense of when a fishery isn’t up to par. He was coming off consecutive Top-4 finishes and worked his way inside the Classic cut in points.
Still, he needed to register a decent finish to guarantee himself a trip to Grand Lake next March. He came through by employing his favorite smallmouth techniques – dropshot and cranking – to score a third straight Top-5 result.
“I’d had an awesome two events to get there, but I didn’t know if this would come together,” he said. “I knew it was off and I didn’t know if I could catch 12 (pounds) a day. My goal, having not been there, was I wanted to see a lot of water.”
He fished most of the event shallow in order to cover more water, but they was getting into an area he felt confident had a strong population of fish and somewhere he could expand on spots he’d found.
“I wanted to get in the right section because if I got a few bites, I wanted to be within 5 or 6 miles of other stuff and expand on things during the tournament,” he said. “The area I caught fish in the tournament was a spot I hadn’t caught them in practice.”
His key was an underwater bar with “nubs and high spots” that stuck out, he said.
“There were little sweet spots on the bar where the rock was broken up or there was a high spot,” he added. “Depending on the current, they weren’t always on the rock. They were ahead of it or behind it. In a way, it was just like (Lake) Erie with the current except on Erie I know where to go when the wind slacks off. Here, I didn’t know where to go to maximize it. I had to drive around and explore more.”
While the dropshot was his key vertical presentation, he caught fish on a Damiki crankbait each day of the tournament, including three key upgrades on day 1 when he had 18-01.
“I had about 16 pounds and it was midday on day 1, but I hadn’t had a bite in 90 minutes,” he said. “It was cloudy and windy and I’d been fishing a shallow spot, but was driving between spots. I drove over a flat in 10 to 12 feet that looked right. I got up wind and cranked the edge of the drop and culled three times.”
> Dropshot gear: 7’ medium-action Powell Max 3D spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 8-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 10-pound SPRO barrel swivel, size 1 Gamakatsu dropshot hook, Poor Boys Baits Darter (smoke pepper), 1/4- or 3/8-oz. unnamed dropshot weight.
> Cranking gear: 7’ medium-heavy Powell Max 3D crankbait rod, unnamed casting reel, 12-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Damiki DC-300 (real shad).
> Main factor in his success – “Knowing how much these fish move. It’s important to have confidence in an area. I didn’t want to run around and chase spots. After having an awful practice, it was about getting in the right areas that had some fish.”
> Performance edge – “That Sunline FC Sniper line. I don’t use a braid to fluorocarbon set up because with braid you almost feel too much. I’ve had situations where I’ve pulled the bait out of their mouths using braid. With the fluorocarbon, they eat the bait and on days like day 2, after a front goes through, they’ll just mouth it. If you give them the slack and it loads up, you can catch them.”
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