Slow The Key For Hirosky

Photo: Bassmaster.com Paul Hirosky fished "painstakingly slow," but always hit a quick bag-booster spot on the way back in.

Hirosky's daily limits trumped Bondy's by 14, 5 and 7 ounces, respectively, and his 55-06, 3-day total earned him his first BASS victory by a 1-10 margin.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

If only one word were used to describe Hirosky's 3 practice days, "phenomenal" wouldn't be an overstatement. He slammed Erie's famous smallmouth population to the tune of a 20-pound limit each day. On 1 day, his five best topped 22.

Every angler who paid an entry fee - and even a bunch more who chickened out - knew that the tournament would be won with smallmouths. The bronzebacks were in the transition to their summer pattern and the good fish were on rocky structure in 25 to 35 feet of water.

Hirosky ignored the most obvious humps because he knew they'd get beaten up. Instead, he graphed the bottom in less-popular areas to find subtle breaklines and bumps that indicated the presence of rocks.

He was on the lake before first light each day. "I was idling around in the dark so I could see the rocks before the wind came up and chopped up the surface," he said. "It meant getting out there really early, but I thought it was the best way to maximize my time."

His twin brother, Bob, also discovered a spot last month just a mile or so from the Sandusky, Ohio weigh-in site. The spot held good fish and Hirosky came to refer to it as his "ace in the hole." He honored a promise to Bob to work it for at least a few minutes each day on his way in. The spot eventually played a role in his victory.

Competition

Day 1: 5, 19-07
Day 2: 5, 16-12 (10, 36-03)
Day 3: 5, 19-03 (15, 55-06)

Because of his desire to stay away from the masses, Hirosky targeted spots that didn't hold as many fish as some other locales. He knew they held good fish, though, and his plan was to set steel into the jaw of every fish he could.

That meant fishing slowly – very slowly. Or in his words, "painstakingly slow." And he knew the wind, which often turns the Ohio portion of the lake into a sea of 3-foot whitecaps, would have to remain relatively calm for his ultra-slow pattern to work. It stiffened up to 7 to 10 mph after about 11:30 each day, but he'd already done his most important work by then.

A dropshot rig that featured a Poor Boys Goby accounted for most of his fish in the earlier, calmer hours. When the breeze arrived, he switched to tubes offered up on homemade jigheads. All of his fish came from 24 to 30 feet of water and his presentation was vertical - directly over the side of the boat.

He worked his structure so precisely that several of the fish he caught were isolated smallmouths he'd seen on his electronics unit. "Probably half of my fish were less than a foot off the bottom," he said. "I'd see them on the sonar, I'd drop the bait down there, then boom."

The "ace in the hole" location provided bag-boosters on each of the first 2 days. On the final day, he lost one there that he estimated at close to 5 pounds and figured that had cost him the victory.

As it turned out, the five he already had were more than enough.

Winning Gear Notes

> Dropshot gear: 7' medium-heavy St. Croix rod, Shimano Spirex spinning reel (5.2:1), 8-pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce Mojo Pineapple Down Shot weight, 1/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, 4-inch Poor Boys Goby (Texas-rigged).

> He said the slender profile of the Mojo weight was critical because it didn't get hung up in the rocks.

> Tube gear: Same rod, reel and line, 5/16- and 3/8-ounce homemade jigheads with 1/0 and 2/0 Gamakatsu Aberdeen-style jig hooks (black and red), 3 1/2-inch Bass Pro Shops Tender Tube (chartreuse) and 4-inch Xtreme Bass Tackle Great Lakes Craw (green/orange-red metal-flake).

> He used black hooks with the Tender Tube and red hooks with the Great Lakes Craw.

Notable

> Main factor in his success – "Working the bait very slowly. Whether it was the tube or the dropshot, working slowly was the key to getting the bigger bites."

> Hirosky, a 35-year-old pharmacist from Guys Mills, Pa., is taking a leave of absence from his job in an attempt to finish among the Top 30 in the 3-event Northern Open series, which would qualify him for next year's Bassmaster Tour. He'll leave for Plattsburgh, N.Y. this week to practice for the second event, set for Aug. 11-13 on Lake Champlain.

> Both he and his twin brother speak with the hint of a British accent, but nobody has any idea where they got it. "My parents don't have it and nobody else in our family has it," he said. "A fan came up to me (after one of the weigh-ins) and asked where I was from. I told her, 'Pittsburgh.' She said, 'No, where are you from originally?' I said, 'Pittsburgh.' I don't think she believed me."