Dave Lefebre Wins FLW Tour Lewis Smith Lake

Dave Lefebre said there were some competitors at the Smith Lake FLW Tour last week, including some finalists, who were unaware that blueback herring had established themselves as part of the forage base in the lake. He wasn't one of them. In fact, he made a key discovery about the herring on the first day of the event that ultimately played a role in his winning game plan. Once he identified a few pockets where the bait fish were spawning, it helped him get dialed in on where some bigger largemouths hung out in the afternoon and created the back end of a solid 1-2 punch that started with him targeting schools of spotted bass in the mornings. His 65-05 winning weight, fueled by an impressive 19-05 haul on the final day, exceeded the expectations of many, but it was representative of how good the fishing has gotten at the deep mountain reservoir. Lefebre, who finished 16th at the 2013 Tour event at Smith, lost a bunch of fish earlier in the event that he presumed was going to cost him a shot at winning. He persevered and overcame an 8 1/2-pound deficit on Sunday to post his first win since 2012. "Every single time I win a tournament, I lose a ton of fish," he said. "They say you need a perfect day to win one of these. I'll never win like that. I was weighing in less than half of what I should've every day. This should've been easy."

Lefebre called his practice "pretty good," but was quick to point out he made the same assessment about his practice at Lake Toho and he wound up xx there. "It's like I told my wife, 'I feel pretty good about this one, but you know how that goes,'" he joked. He had a good vibe after catching around 24 pounds or largemouth flipping bushes on the first day when it rained non-stop. He backed that up with 17 to 18 pounds each of the next two days. "I started seeing some big fish move up the last two days," he said. He also located a couple schools of spots, one over 80 to 120 feet of water and the other in around 40. "I found those while running to the back of a creek looking for bushes to flip," he said. "I just saw a dimple on the water and put down and idled around and sat for a few minutes and then one blew up. I thought it was a striper so I kept waiting and another one blew up. I figured, 'What the heck? It's practice. Let's catch a striper.' I made a couple throws and caught a 5-pound spot." He came out of practice prepared to have a jig rod in his hand most of the time. "I figured two things could happen - either I'd catch a giant limit of spots or flip bushes and catch them that way, " he said. "Every rod on my deck for day 1 was a jig and I wound up never getting a bite on a jig."

Competition:

Lefebre started off the event with a 14 1/2-pound bag, which put him in 23rd place, however, it was the discovery he made about the herring that turned the tide for him to open the event. "I didn't know it until the first day, but there were certain pockets where the herring would spawn real close to shore in the mornings," he said. "They were rare, but I eventually found five pockets that had them. I was still expanding on the final day, but they were around buck brush and bushes and there had to be some big, round rocks or boulders under water. "It was so cool because nobody seems to know on what or where they spawn." He didn't have a bite until 11 and, "it wasn't like I had to flip for two hours to figure out they weren't going to bite," he said. "I got there, looked at the water and instantly knew I had to figure out a way to catch fish. I went from four rods on the deck to 17 within an hour. I just kept pulling stuff out." He eventually went after the schools of spots with a Fish Head Spin in the early morning, then spent a couple hours trying to locate new areas where the herring were spawning. He focused most of his time in Rock Creek. "As the days went on, especially on Saturday, I was spending that dead time looking for spawning herring," he added. "They didn't spawn until 8 or 8:30 every day. It never happened early so that gave me enough time to catch some spots and run those pockets looking for spawners." He said he couldn't a bite while fishing where the herring were spawning like someone might if shad were in the midst of a spawn. "By Saturday, I would go back later in the day to where those herring were spawning and that's where the big largemouth were," he added.

He had a good day Friday with 15-14 to make the Top-20 cut in 12th place, but had numerous big fish get off, including one he figured was over 7 pounds. His co-angler that day was Hoyt Tidwell, who usually practices with Andy Morgan and won the co-angler title at Smith in 2013. Lefebre said Tidwell told him he'd never seen so many big fish in one area in his life. "There were countless fish from 5 1/2 to 7 pounds in there," Lefebre said. He nearly caught a double on a Rapala wakebait as moments after a 4-pounder hit the bait, he noticed a bigger fish following along. Lefebre slowed his retrieve in hopes the other fish would grab one of the treble hooks, but he eventually just landed the 4-pounder. He moved into 7th on Saturday with a 15-10 stringer following the same game plan of fishing for spots early on, then biding his time before going after the largemouth. "On Saturday, I really capitalized on it," he said. He had some bedding fish pinpointed that he could've fished for Sunday, but with his confidence growing in what he'd been doing he opted to stay with his plan. Facing an 8 1/2-pound deficit, he figured he'd need in excess of 20 pounds to put a scare into the leaders. He worked over the shallower school of spots in the morning and by 2 o'clock he had between 15 and 16 pounds in the boat. That's when he encountered another pair of fish that both wanted his bait. It was the same scenario that he experience Friday, only this time Lefebre managed to get the second (bigger) fish to eat his bait. The 10 pounds of fish he netted equaled a 4-plus pound upgrade and took him over the 19-pound mark. His final-day stringer was the largest of the day by nearly 5 pounds.

Winning Pattern:

When targeting the spots with the Fish Head Spin, he was making long casts, but wasn't letting it fall very far. "I'd let it get down maybe 5 feet at the most," he said. "I was fishing it with the rod tip up. It wasn't really a steady retrieve. It was more of a reel, reel and snap. I thought it was a little late for them to be eating a Fish Head with the water temperature being what it was." He fished out of a borrowed boat for the second straight event, but the one he used at Smith was actually one of his old tournament boats. The gentleman he sold it to was kind enough to allow Lefebre to use it for the week. As the tournament got under way, Lefebre wasn't sure which direction he was going in as far as what tackle to bring. "I don't usually like to take a lot of stuff, but I had 20 Plano boxes in the boat on day 1," he said. "One of the keys was I really had to adjust and mess around in that clear water. Instead of just staying alive with spotted bass, I wanted to see if I could get some of those bigger largemouths to bite." Prior to settling on the Rapala wakebait, he went through numerous types of baits in an attempt to trigger the largemouths to commit. "I tried a walking bait, a popper, a Texas-rigged fluke, a shaky-head and a Senko," he said. "The wakebait is subtle. I tied it on at the right time. It was one of those deals where I couldn't get a bit on anything else. I even tried a Horny Toad and then went to the wakebait. I had one follow it on my third or fourth cast and then I caught one on it."

Winning Gear:

Wakebait gear: 7'1" medium-heavy 13 Fishing Envy Black casting rod, 13 Fishing Concept E casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 30-pound Sufix 832 Advanced Superline, Rapala BX Waking Minnow (blueback herring). He also mixed in a Bomber Long A to give the fish a different look as the water cleared up. To mimic the blueback herring around the largemouth, Lefebre wanted a big bait since the herring he was seeing weren't small by any means. "Some of those suckers were 10 inches long," he said. "They're big and they'd spawn in a ball. There'd be thousands of them in a circle doing their thing." He opted for the 5 1/4-inch BX Waking Minnow because he could make long casts with it and working it was simple. "It was a no-brainer," he said. "You don't need the perfect line or rod or reel or have to know the perfect cadence for it to work. And you can throw it a mile."

Underspin jig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy 13 Fishing Omen Black casting rod, same reel, 12-pound Sufix Castable Invisiline 100% Fluorocarbon line, 1/2 oz. Sworming Hornet Fish Head Spin (albino), Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits D Shad (blue pearl, white). He had better success with the blue pearl D Shad when it was sunny. When it was cloudy and windy, he switched to the white.

Main Factor: "It was having a totally open mind and attitude and not panicking. I think I did panic, but adjusted to my panic on day 1 when the water cleared up and I realized I couldn't flip. Being able to figure them out was a big key."

Performance Edge: "Ever since Power-Pole came out with their 10-foot models, I've had them on the my boat. The boat I used this week had 10-footers on it and when I'd get to where I was fishing, I'd put them down in 15 feet of water and when they touched, that's where I would start catching them. I could sit in one spot and being able to be still and quiet was really important. Another big edge I had was the moss back lenses in my Solar Bat sunglasses. It was critical to see those big fish from very far away so I could make the perfect cast and trigger the bites."

Lewis Smith Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 3/31/15 (Todd Ceisner)

Clark Wendlandt was focused primarily on big fish and at Smith Lake, that can sometimes be a challenge. Last week, however, he was able to catch above-average fish on a consistent basis by focusing on two main areas that gave him access to spotted bass as well as largemouths that had moved in to spawn. "I caught them around all kinds of cover - logs, bluff rocks, regular banks, docks," he said. "I caught them everywhere." He also weighed in five fish caught off beds, but that pattern grew more daunting as the water continued to rise. "I didn't mark it, but it sure looked like the water came up 2 1/2 to 3 feet during the tournament and those bedders kept getting deeper and it was harder to see them," he said. In practice, he was focused on covering as much water as possible and wound up pinpointing 15 bedding fish that he deemed might be catchable once the tournament began. "I only caught one on day 1 that I knew where it was so the ones I knew about were no good to me," he added. "I had some good bites (in practice). These fish were wanting to spawn and they were staging. I don't know if I had an unbelievable practice, but I found an area I liked. A lot of the battle is having confidence in those areas and I did." He pitched white and natural-colored tubes to fish around beds and also threw a jerkbait, mainly on day 2 when the conditions got cloudy and breezy. He added in a 1/4-oz. white swimjig as well. "Each day I changed a little bit and adapted as best I could," he said. "Those two cold nights (Friday and Saturday) really shut down new ones coming in. If new ones had kept coming, I could've done well. There were just fewer fish on the beds. "If the cold front hadn't come through, the weights may not have been all that different, but I would've caught 'em because it was conducive to what I was doing."

Swimjig gear: 7'1" medium-heavy Cabela's Tournament ZX swimjig/spinnerbait casting rod, Verano casting reel, 20-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid line, 1/4-oz. 4x4 Jigs swimjig (white), Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer (pearl blue shad).

Jerkbait gear: 6'9" medium-action Cabela's Tournament ZX jerkbait/topwater casting rod, Cabela's Tournament ZX casting reel, 10-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid line, Yo-Zuri 3DB Series jerkbait (prism shad), Rapala Shadow Rap (albino shiner).

Sight-fishing gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Cabela's Tournament ZX jig/worm casting rod, same reel as jerkbait, 17-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid line, 1/4-oz. unnamed tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Owner Wide Gap Plus worm hook, 4" unnamed tube (white and green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "Deciding to fish for suspended fish instead of fish that were on the bottom."

Performance edge: "Those Cabela's rods are fantastic. I like how they feel and they make casting really easy."

Smith Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/1/15 (Todd Ceisner)

Jason Reyes missed the equivalent of a day of practice for Smith Lake, but it didn't seem to hamper his performance come tournament time. He practiced Sunday and part of Monday before flying back to Houston in order to coach his son's t-ball team that night. He returned to Alabama on Tuesday in time to get another half-day on the water. "What I figured out real quick was that I could catch some fish on 45-degree transition banks with rocks," he said. On day 1, while throwing a swimbait around docks, he noticed some fish nearby breaking the surface over deeper water. He turned his attention to those fish and rode them to his best ever finish in a Tour event. "It was just a fortunate deal around noon that day, I saw them blowing up and started fishing for them and that got me dialed in," he added. "On day 2, I started on them and cracked them pretty good." He caught 18-04 last Friday to make the Top-20 cut in 8th place. He spent his whole tournament on the lower end of the lake and caught his fish on a small swimbait rigged on a small lead head. He was targeting spotted bass chasing schools of blueback herring. "I don't understand the whole herring thing so I was trying to learn on the job," he said. "Once I saw one choke up a herring, I switched to a bigger size bait. They were a lot bigger than I had imagined. "I'd make a long cats and count it down to 10 or 12 feet and use a super slow retrieve," he added. "You hear so much about herring and a swimbait and I went with it. I know fish got caught behind me on a jerkbait, but that's not my forte. The swimbait was a better fit for me." He had multiple pockets inside a 4-mile stretch of water and he just worked back and forth throughout the day. "A couple of the pockets they were out over deep water," he said. "In between, I mixed in docks and rocks."

Swimbait gear: 7'1" medium-action G. Loomis GLX 852 casting rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel, 6-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/8- and 3/16-oz. unnamed jig heads, 2.8" and 3.3" Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbaits. He also had a swimbait rigged up on a G. Loomis NRX 822 spinning rod paired with a Shimano Stella spinning reel.

Main factor: "Just fishing in a good clean mental state and leaving everything wide open and adapting to the daily conditions. To me, coming in with positive attitude was key. I had some momentum coming from Toho as well. I really believe fishing is 95 percent mental and the other is skill and ability."

Performance edge: "I think my HydroWave played a big role is keeping those schooling fish going. I had it on 30-second loop on the frenzy shad setting. When I'd pull in and drop the trolling motor and look over see nothing going on, then all of a sudden you'd see one raise, I knew it was working. If it puts one bass in the livewell that makes the difference, then it's worth it."

Smith Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/1/15 (Todd Ceisner)

Tracy Adams worked on a few different patterns in practice, but eventually settled on sight-fishing and targeting deep docks with a wacky worm during the tournament. "I fished in the river the first day of practice and caught some little ones," he said. "Then I threw a jerkbait and caught several, maybe 20 to 25, but they were all little ones. On the second day, I went looking for bedding fish and found a few after a while. I spent the rest of practice seeing what I could find that way. "As it turned out, I may have hurt myself doing that because I caught five of them and culled all but two the first day of the tournament." Adams eventually weighed in half of his tournament fish off beds and the rest of his fish fell for a wacky worm skipped in and around docks. "The deal with the wacky worm just happened during tournament," he said. "That's when it usually works the best. The deeper docks seemed to be better in like 40 feet of water. Most of them have more than that. The shallow ones had no fish on them. I think what they were doing is moving to the docks and suspending and then move in to spawn." He'd make five to six skips to each dock and wait for the Zoom Trick Worm to "do its thing," he said. "It's like throwing out a bobber and letting it sit there. "What hurt was the cold weather. Those fish moved in, but no other new fish moved in after them. What was there stayed, but there was no new stuff coming." As far as what particular pockets appealed to him and matched his pattern, he quipped, "The next one."

Sight-fishing gear: 7' medium-heavy Cashion Fishing Rods casting rod, Pro Qualifier casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 20-pound XPS fluorocarbon line, 5/16-oz. XPS tungsten flipping weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu offset worm hook, Zoom Centipede (watermelon seed). When working on fish he could see, Adams would pitch the bait past the fish and work it back close to the bed. "It just depended on the fish," he said. "I'd work some fast and other slow."

Wacky gear: 6'6" medium-action Cashion Fishing Rods spinning rod, Pro Qualifier spinning reel, 6-pound XPS fluorocarbon line, 1/16-oz. Jackall Weedless Wacky Jig Head, Zoom Trick Worm (watermelon seed).

Main factor: "Just being patient with that wacky worm. It was a slow go for sure."

Performance edge: "My Nitro boat and Mercury performed flawlessly all week."

Smith Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/1/15 (Todd Ceisner)

Scott Martin had a score to settle with Smith Lake this year after placing 93rd there in 2013. He came away satisfied with a Top-5 showing last week by fishing how he likes to fish - targeting shallow-water largemouths. He initially got on some schools of deeper spotted bass in practice, but those thinned out during the tournament. By noon on the first day of practice, he started seeing a few fish around the bank. When he noticed no one else was looking for bedding fish, he started to expand on it. "On Monday, I devoted more time looking for them and found a better bunch," he said. "It just progressed each day from there. I was committed to find as many as I could find. I had a hard time catching them any other way. I couldn't catch them off docks or just going down the bank." He figured he could find enough bedders to make the Top-20 cut, which he did, and with the weekend cold front coming, he'd figure it out from there. He caught 18-06 to start the tournament and added 12-09 on day 2. "I exclusively sight-fished for largemouths on days 1 and 2," he said. "I just didn't get any big females. There were more fish up there on day 2, but I couldn't get them to react." When the cold front started to set in on Saturday, he opted to go back to the deeper spots from practice. He caught a 4 1/2-pound spot doing that and from there he bounced back and forth between pockets where remaining bedders were and the spots. "In the tournament, those schooling fish basically left," he said. "There were a few there, but not near the numbers from practiced. I used that new Garmin Panoptix to scan around and I saw this big blob 60 feet out and 20 feet deep, so I took a swimbait and threw it out that way. I started reeling through that area and I catch that 4-09. It was ridiculous. I lost four other fish there on Saturday. They were just short-striking it."

Sight-fishing gear: 7' heavy-action Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series casting rod, Okuma Komodo casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 20-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. unnamed tungsten flipping weight, 4/0 Lazer TroKar TK130 flipping hook, Bruiser Baits Crazy Craw (green-pumpkin), Bruiser Baits Hog (green-pumpkin), Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw (white).

Swimbait gear: 7'11" medium-heavy Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series casting rod, Okuma Helios TCS casting reel, 8-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed jig head, Bruiser Baits Baby Swimmer (blue midnight). He also caught a key 3-pounder drop-shotting the Baby Swimmer on the final day. "I couldn't get them to eat a worm," he noted.

Main factor: "Knowing that I could go out and do what I love to do and I didn't have to stress out about if my area will hold up. I felt like the whole lake was going to be productive."

Performance edge: "The new Panoptix from Garmin was key. It allowed me to catch fish I otherwise wouldn't have caught. Also, people think of Smith Lake and think they'd never have a need for Power-Poles. Without a doubt, I wouldn't have caught half the fish I caught without my Power-Poles. With the wind blowing, they paid for themselves this week."

Smith Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/1/15 (Todd Ceisner)