Scheide Knew What To Look For And Found It

It's a rarity when a rookie wins a tour event. When it happens, the tendency is to think that the angler "got lucky" and stumbled onto the motherlode of fish, or was put on them by a local. But as with virtually all wins, that's rarely (if ever) the case. Rookies are behind the 8 ball when it comes to people offering to put them on fish – which is of questionable value anyway – and stumbling on fish that 199 other competitors haven't found is at best doubtful.

So it was with Ray Scheide at last week's Okeechobee FLW. He did his homework, found the spot and the fish on his own, fished flawlessly and won the event by a margin bigger than 90-plus percent of daily weights caught. Here's what his weights looked like:

> Day 1: 5, 16-05
> Day 2: 5, 20-00 (10, 36-05)
> Day 3: 5, 14-08
> Day 4: 5, 21-09 (10, 36-01)

Practice: Burnt GPS

The FLW Tour's no off-limits rule levels the playing field a little for rookies. Scheide practiced for 7 days to get oriented and to make sure he had enough time to check the areas he wanted to check. (The first time he saw the lake was at last fall's Bassmaster Southern Open, and he spent 2 weeks on it in part to prepare for this event. He finished 103rd.)

This time around he "stayed up on the north shore" first. "I really wanted to catch them flipping, but I couldn't. I got into some areas that had lots of beds, and I marked 38 bed fish (with his GPS). I could catch them on a little flapping shad, but that's really not my style. It's not what I like to do."

After 3 days of messing around up there, he went to the south end of the lake. "I started all over, like I hadn't seen the lake before," he said. "I was flipping again, and was catching a lot of fish. I had 50 keepers one day, but was only getting one good 5-pound bite a day. The second-to-last day of practice I had some sight-fish located, but right before the end of the day my GPS fried. I lost everything.

"I was freaking out. I couldn't find where those fish were (again). That threw me back into a flipping plan, but I still thought I'd catch a limit flipping and then go after the big sight-fish."

On the final practice day he started flipping an area he liked, and had about 10 bites in 30 minutes. He didn't set the hook because a few boats were around, but when they left he decided to pop one just to see what he was on. The fish was an 11-pounder. "That's where I started, and that's where I won the tournament," he said.

The Spot and the Strategy

The spot he fished had clear water covered by matted hydrilla, with "small patches of hyacinths in there, the size of the hood of your car or even smaller," Scheide said. From the shore toward the main lake, it looked like this:

> Hydrilla (not matted) with holes where the bass were bedding

> The matted hydrilla with hyacinth patches

> Eelgrass, which filtered the main lake water so it was clear under the hydrilla

Why did he pick that spot? "This time of year you look for a spawning area with deep water close by," he said. "This was Okeechobee so I figured there was no deep water, so I picked a spawning area that had heavy vegetation close by." The hydrilla mats were in 5 feet of water, which is relatively deep for Okeechobee (generally accepted to get to 6 feet deep).

"I think the biggest key was putting myself in an area where, if it stayed warm, I could turn around and sight-fish with the rest of (the competitors), or if the cold front stayed there I didn't have to leave because the fish were staying right there," he noted. "I could constantly stay in tune with them."

Competition: Stopped Running

Even though he had that spot, the first two days he "ran around a little bit. I had them kind of located on some other vegetation, but I think a lot of people figured (those spots) out because when I went there, I'd only catch one fish. I wasn't getting the numbers or quality (he had in practice."

His lack of productivity elsewhere made him concentrate on his best spot, but he did go elsewhere on day 3. "I ran around one time," he said. "I did upgrade with a 3-pounder, but it was the only bite I had."

On day 4, he went to his honey hole and caught a 6, and then a 4 1/2. "I was locked in after that," he noted. "I think the third one was a 7, so I wasn't leaving."

What He Did

On day 1 "there was a lot of (fishing) pressure, and everyone throws that (Gambler) Cricket down here," Scheide said. So he switched to a Terminator SnapBack Skeet's Creature bait, and caught 11 bass on it.

He fished the same lure on day 2. But the strong morning winds on day 3 "pushed the hydrilla and hyacinths so tight together that I couldn't punch that bait through there," he said. So he switched to the smaller 3-inch B.B. Cricket and the fish "ate it just as well." On day 4 the mats were still tight, so he stuck with the Cricket. All baits were black/blue.

Notes:

> He fished the Skeet's Creature on a 1 1/2-ounce Bass Pro Shops tungsten weight. "An ounce wouldn't quite get it down there."

> The SnapBack plastic is "so stretchy that you can put a big 1-inch rattle in there, which makes it super-loud," he noted. "Ever since I've started using (that combo), they hit it everywhere I go." He felt the big rattle was a key.

> He let the bait hit the bottom, and then pulled it up to the bottom of the hyacinths and shook it. "They'd knock the fire out of it," he said.

Notable

> On day 1 he lost 2 1/2 hours of fishing time when his outboard stopped working.

> Main factor in his success -- "Just hard work, or fate. My lucky number has always been 7. My full name is Raymond Michael Scheide, and all those names have 7 letters. My kids' basketball jerseys are both No. 7. After the second day I finished in 7th place, which I thought was cool. We were picking out boats (the Top 10 get to choose, in order of finish, which FLW-sponsor boats they want to run) and when they got to me the 7UP boat was available. I got in the boat the next morning, and the boat is number 77. So I thought the stars were aligning." OLN is also airing the Okeechobee coverage on his birthday, Feb. 8.

> His sponsors are Terminator lures, Triton Boats and Mercury.