Competition:
McCall was pretty excited to have a limit in his livewell by 10 o'clock on day 1. "The deal for awhile here had been getting five bites one day, then 10 the next, then five again the day after that," he said. "I was able to cull a couple of times on that first day and I caught my last one at about 12:30." He might've had an opportunity to boost his total a bit in the afternoon, but the conditions were getting to him. The air temperature had dropped into the 30s and the wind was blowing from the northeast at 15 to 20 mph. "I had four pairs of gloves in the boat and after all of them got wet, I was pretty miserable. I'm normally real aggressive, but I fished pretty conservatively the rest of that day and from 12:30 on, I didn't catch a fish. "I should've done what I normally do, but I was really cold for that last hour and a half." He was in 8th place when competition resumed following the canceled day, a full 7 pounds behind day-1 pacesetter Ray Hanselman. However, Hanselman was one of several leaders (Yelas and Nixon included) who either blanked or caught a lone keeper on the final day, opening the door for McCall to catapult to the top. "I went out with the same philosophy I've had since the first of January - make a million casts and hope by the end of the day I've got five. I really didn't know if they'd bite that day." From a weather perspective, the day dawned chilly, but turned out relatively nice. The water temperature was 44 degrees at launch time, but quickly warmed to 48. He again did the majority of his damage with the 'Trap, but also picked up a couple of decent fish on a crankbait and a 4-pounder on a jig. "My team partner found that crankbait bank about 3 weeks ago. It's just one little area that the fish are using for some reason and I was fortunate to get a few bites off it." On his way back to the launch, he figured he'd done enough to give himself a shot at his second Rayovac victory (he also prevailed at Rayburn in 2006). "It's been getting harder to win here shallow; the deep guys are normally going to beat you. But the water was real cloudy and kind of dirty all over the lake on that last day, and I think that played into my hands. The deep guys couldn't catch them."
Winning Gear:
Rattlebait gear: Unnamed 7' heavy-action rod, unnamed casting reel (6:1 ratio), unnamed 17-pound fluorocarbon line, Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap (various colors, all with some shade of gold, white or red).
Cranking gear: Unnamed 7' medium-heavy rod, unnamed casting reel (5:1 ratio), unnamed 12-pound fluorocarbon line, 6th Sense Crush (chrome shad).
The jig he used to pull a 4-pounder from a brush pile was a 3/4-ounce Santone football-head (pinto beans and carrots) with a Gambler Flappy Daddy trailer (bluegrass).
Main factor: "The No. 1 thing was changing my philosophy from always trying to be in too much of a hurry. I made myself relax and slow down and fish thoroughly."
Performance edge: "My Legend/Evinrude. That boat runs so fast and rides so smooth and for all the running around I did, that Evinrude's a fantastic motor with a lot of power."
Rayburn Rayovac Winning Pattern Bassfan 1/28/14 (John Johnson)