Practice Paid Off For Hughes

Photo: Bassmaster.com Howard Hughes employed finesse tactics to win the Shasta Bassmaster Western Open.

"I haven't had a lot of tournaments recently, so I've been able to practice 3 or 4 days a week for the past month," the 60-year-old resident of Redding, Calif. said. "These patterns I found, you had to have the time – there was no way to discover them quickly. I had to go so slowly to catch these fish."

A limit of keepers was no problem – more than 90 percent of the field caught one each day, primarily on dropshot rigs, and all 35 anglers pulled off the feat on the final day. By "these fish," he meant specimens that weighed more than a pound and a half. That type can be elusive on the big Northern California canyon reservoir.

He bumped 2-day leader Fred Roumbanis from the top spot on the final day to claim his biggest career win. Here's how he did it.

Practice

Hughes found several stetches along bluffs that were productive on his frequent forays to Shasta over the previous few weeks. They were between 50 and 100 yards long and all were distinguished by a key component: transition.

"They had to have what I call a change," he said. "Anywhere there was a mixture of sand or rock or dirt, where the wall transitioned to a point, was a real magnet.

"Then I'd just sit there and work that spot over for 30 to 45 minutes. I knew there were a lot of the better fish in there, the ones that went 1-10 or 1-12. I was confident I could get five of those each day."

He found he could entice them to bite with a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko, and they'd occasionally take a 6-inch shad-pattern worm.

"There were shad in the area and the bass would eventually start chasing them," he said. "They (the bass) would show up and disappear, and show up and disappear. Generally, if you worked over the whole area and kept your line wet, you'd end up bumping into them fairly consistently."

Competition

Day 1: 5, 8-00
Day 2: 5, 12-14 (10, 20-14)
Day 3: 5, 10-08 (15, 31-06)

The 99-angler field enjoyed (or, in some cases, lamented) sunny skies and mild breezes on all 3 days. Because his pattern was predicated on fishing so slowly, Hughes was in the former group. "The wind really laid down, and that was phenomenal luck for me," he said. "If it'd been windy, I still could've caught fish and I might've been in the Top 30, but I wouldn't have won."

His ordinary 8-pound bag on day 1 would have been considerably better had he not lost a 2 1/2-pounder at the boat. "I brought him to the boat too fast," he said. "He wasn't played out enough and his lip wouldn't open. So I reached over and tried to belly him, and all of a sudden, he was gone."

His 12-14 sack on day 2, the biggest of the day, featured a 4-01 spotted bass and a 2-07 smallmouth. He caught the smallmouth on his final stop, just 10 minutes before the end of fishing time. "What a break that was," he said.

He caught a 2-13 spot right away on day 3 and had a limit by 8:30. He culled up four times over the rest of the day.

Were his age and experience (25 years in tournaments) a factor? "I don't think so much my age, because I've always been pretty methodical," he said. "There are some guys who just wouldn't have had the patience to pull this off."

Winning Gear Notes

> Dropshot gear: 7'0" medium-action Fenwick HMG rod, Abu-Garcia Cardinal 774 center-drag spinning reel, 8-pound Berkley Trilene XL line, size 2 Gamakatsu dropshot hook, wacky-rigged 5-inch Yamomoto Senko (green pumpkin/black).

Notable

> Main factor in his success – "Less wind. That plays right into a finesse pattern. If it'd been windy, I'd have had to change everything."

> He tried a swimbait for about 2 1/2 hours on day 2, but never got a bite.

> He said he didn't catch a fish deeper than 15 feet.