Scalish Went For Fewer Bites

Photo: Bassmaster.com Frank Scalish committed to a big-fish pattern, and got the bites he needed.

Practice

When Scalish was driving up to Erie to practice, he thought about fishing the Open there last year. "I got on big fish, 4-6 pounders, on 15-18 foot breaks – a ton of them," he said. But "the fish were moving out during practice, and I didn't adjust very well." So in competition, he had a good bag the first day, but the second day only had 12-13 pounds. "I never went deep on those fish, and I told myself I wasn't going to get burned this year."

When he got to the lake this time, the first things he checked were those 15-18 foot breaks. "I was catching 60 to 70 bass a day, but I had to go through a ton to catch a 3- or 4-pounder. So I gradually worked out deeper and deeper until I found better-quality fish."

But it wasn't as straightforward as it sounds. "There was this dead zone from 28 to 36 feet where you couldn't get a bite," he said. "But from 36 feet to 42 feet they were all pigs. You didn't catch a lot – 6-7 a day – but they were all over 4 pounds."

When he figured that out, he "just idled around looking for boulders and rockpiles in 36-40 feet of water."

Competition and Gear

> Day 1: 5, 19-04
> Day 2: 5, 19-02
> Day 3: 5, 16-14 (15, 55-04)

Once Scalish found the fish he wanted – about a dozen rockpiles in 36-40 feet, in a football field-sized area – he fished for them all 3 days no matter what the weather did.

His main lure was a Yum Dinger (Senko-type bait) rigged on a ball-head jig. "I threw it on baitcasting equipment," he said. "I was fishing so deep that I needed that hooksetting power on the fish. Spinning rods just didn't have the backbone for it."

> Deep-jigging gear: 7' medium-heavy Quarrow rod, Shimano Chronarch reel, 10-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon ("fluorocarbon sinks and is more sensitive than regular mono because there's less stretch in the line"), 1/2- and 3/8-ounce ball-head jigs, 4-inch Yum Dinger (watermelon). He also fished these soft-plastics: Yum Gonzo Grub and Yum Megatube (both in green pumpkin or watermelon), and an Erie Darter, which he described as a locally-made "pointed paddle-tail-like grub" in watermelon/gold flake and watermelon/red flake.

Notable

> Main factor in his success – "Going deep because I had no boats near me at all during the tournament."

> He noted that on the calmer day (day 2), fellow tour pro Pete Gluszek (who finished 7th) came out to the same area, but yielded it to Scalish. "He was really good about it," Scalish said.

> Scalish's sponsors include: OSI Pro Series (sealants, adhesives and caulks, in Mentor, Ohio), Triton Boats, Yamaha, Pradco (Silver Thread, Bomber, Yum, Booyah), Quarrow and the Rodmaker Shoppe (Strongsville, Ohio).