By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Tournaments at Lake Mead are rarely won by an angler who focuses the bulk of his time on a single location. Run-and-gun is ordinarily the name of the game at the massive Nevada impoundment and the big motors on competitors' boats usually don't see a lot of down time.

Justin Patti enjoys fishing that style, but he veered away from it en route to winning last week's WON Bass U.S. Open. A single stretch of grass in the Overton Arm gave up 11 of the 15 fish he took to the scale.

"I've fished a lot of tournaments there over the years and I've learned that the bigger bites come when you get something on the bottom and try to grind it out slowly," said the 33-year-old firefighter from Phoenix, Ariz. "Even if I'm running a lot of spots, I try to fish super-slow.

"I knew the quality that was in that area."

He led the event from start to finish and wound up with a 3-day total of 36.30 pounds. His final-day bag weighed just a little over 8 1/2 pounds, but it was enough to hold off a hard charge by Bassmaster Elite Series pro Brett Hite.

The victory was a big dose of vindication for Patti, who led the field after day 1 last year, only to bomb on day 2 and fall out of contention.

"I'm still kind of in shock," he said a day later. "You dream of winning an event like this, and when it actually happens there's such a release of endorphins and everything else. It's an emotionally draining tournament, whether you end up doing good or bad, and I'd much rather it be the good feeling.

"It's pretty cool to do what I did, not necessarily to prove anything to anyone else, but to prove to myself that I've got what it takes."

Practice

Due to work and family commitments, Patti put in only a day and a half of practice for the tournament. That wasn't a big hindrance, though, due to his vast experience on the lake and having been there just a few weeks prior for a Wild West Bass Trail event.

"I only went to two areas and made my decisions off of that," he said. "I've been there enough times over the last 8 years that I know where the bigger fish hang out and where I need to go to catch a limit."

He'd planned to spend all of his first practice day in the Great Basin, but discovered that a plethora of other competitors had the same idea. He opted to refuel and run to the Overton Arm and look at some grass that had been good to him in an October derby a few years back.

"I caught one that was a little over 3 pounds, and then I left. I checked some other things on the way back (to the launch in Callville Bay), but nothing else produced."

The plan for the next day was to visit the Vegas Wash, but he felt he needed to dial in the Overton bite and ran back up there. He eventually determined that a jig was his best bet.

"I'd done really well on the jig in previous events in October. A lot of people try to pattern the shad bite, but I knew the bigger bites would come on the jig."

He honed in on a particular type of vegetation in the 6- to 8-foot depth range.

"There's grass all over the lake, but I was looking for the good crunchy stuff. I don't know the names of all of them, but there's stringy shallow grass that's dying off and I couldn't get good bites out of it. I had to go a little deeper."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 14.71
> Day 2: 5, 13.00
> Day 3: 5, 8.59
> Total = 15, 36.30

Patti started each morning of the event throwing a bladed jig in shallow water, which was a pattern that was only effective for the first 15 or 20 minutes of the day. It resulted in a couple of solid chunks on day 1 and he and his triple-A partner (the U.S. Open is a shared-weight event) had a solid limit by 8 o'clock.

His initial stringer was topped by a 4.17-pounder.

"That one came during a little flurry that got us close to the 14-pound mark," he said. "There was a little pocket where they were feeding and it was fast and furious for a little while."

It was 9:30 on day 2 before the fifth fish went into the livewell. The biggest weighed 3.80 – he had a 4 1/2 hooked up, but it got off before it reached the boat.

He had a lead of almost 3 1/2 pounds to start the final day. Another competitor had reached the grass bed first (the top 10 are the last to leave the dock on day 3), but graciously departed when Patti told him he was leading the tournament and that was his primary locale.

He quickly landed two keepers, but then the action ground to a halt. At 11 o'clock he decided to move and visited two nearby places over the next hour that surrendered four fish to complete the limit with one cull.

"We caught eight or 10 more fish after that, but none of them helped."

Pattern Notes

Patti said that five of his weigh-in fish bit the bladed jig, six came on either a conventional jig or a Texas-rigged plastic and the other four were caught by his partners dragging Carolina rigs.

"I tried to capitalize on the (bladed jig) right away and make some key casts in that 15- to 20-minute window," he said. "After that I had to just put my head down and grind. I fished every cast super-slow and I stayed off the trolling motor as much as I could.

"I let the boat sit on top of areas where we could fan-cast. I told my co-anglers they were going to get bit if they just kept that Carolina rig on the bottom and dragged it slow, and that was key to getting a limit on days 1 and 3."

He didn't worry about whether his slow-moving baits were on the outside or inside edge of the grass line.

"As long as the bait was coming through it and up and over, that's what mattered. Once it fell on either side was when I got those bites."

Winning Gear Notes

> Bladed jig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Spiralite Maverick rod, Shimano Curado casting reel, 16-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce Phenix bladed jig (shad), Arizona Custom Baits ChatterBait Trailer (white ice).

> Conventional jig gear: 7'4" Spiralite Defiant Series rod, same reel and line, 1/2-ounce Phenix Flipping Jig (green-pumpkin), Arizona Custom Baits Little Flapper trailer (green-pumpkin).

> He also threw a Texas-rigged Yamamoto Flappin' Hawg (green-pumpkin) on a 4/0 Owner Flipping Hook with a half-ounce tungsten weight. He employed a 7'4" Spiralite Ultimate Frog rod, the same reel and 65-pound Sunline BX2 braided line.

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "I planned on having people in my area and I knew I'd have to slow down and wait for the bites. It was more of a patience deal."

> Performance edge – "I'd have to say my Phoenix/Evinrude for getting me there and back – it was a long run and I didn't have any issues and I beat a couple other anglers to my spot because my boat was so fast. Also, the Costa sunglasses were key for seeing the grass lines and making the right cast."

Notable

> For complete final results, click here.