Norfork

If Randall Tharp were to visit Lake Norfork to go fun-fishing, he'd tie on a jig and go down some rocky banks, target the stair-step rocks and crevices in between. That's easy for him to say - that's exactly how he fished all 4 days en route to winning his first Elite Series tournament last week at Bull Shoals Lake and Norfork. While others had different patterns and baits pegged for each lake, the Florida resident stuck with what he's comfortable (and effective) with and that simple approach allowed him to tally 61-10 over 4 days to collect his fourth career B.A.S.S. win and third tour-level triumph. "Sometimes I fish a technique where I don't enjoy catching them that way, but it works," he said. "If I were to go fun-fishing here, I'd pick up my flipping stick and go down the bank. It's my favorite way to fish." At all three events so far, he's been able to have success targeting and catching fish in manners he's comfortable with and the result is a 16-point lead in the Angler of the Year race a third of the way through the season. "I hadn't seen either of these lakes before other than being on Bull Shoals for Ranger (Boats) test drives," Tharp said. "I'd never made a cast there. I didn't figure it would be hard to get a good bag because we caught them at a good time with them spawning. I knew they'd be on the bank. I figured I'd catch some, but this tournament is the last one I would've picked on the schedule and told you I had a chance to win."

Tharp said he paid close attention to what went down at the Beaver Lake FLW Tour, which concluded just as he and his Elite Series competitors were beginning their practice at Bull Shoals and Norfork. He cashed checks in three of the five FLW Tour events he competed in at Beaver between 2009-14 and he figured he could pick up a few clues based on how the Beaver Lake event played out. What's more is he and Scott Canterbury, who won this year's tournament at Beaver, tend to attack that lake in a similar fashion - focusing on shallow-water targets with a jig more often than not. "I paid attention to Beaver Lake," Tharp said. "It gave me some kind of idea of what was going on and to be perfectly honest, Scott and I fished alike whenever we fished Beaver." But Tharp didn't start thinking the jig would be his main weapon until the third day of practice, which he spent at Bull Shoals. He spent the first day at Norfork and caught 15 pounds worth of smallmouth on a wacky rig, a VMC Rugby Head and a shaky-head. He went to Bull Shoals the following day, but had no success trying the same array of baits. On the third day of practice, he returned to Bull Shoals and started to take note of where fish were bedding, but had a frustrating time. "I couldn't even catch the bedding fish," he said. Around 3 p.m. that day, he regrouped and made a run toward Diamond City where East and West Sugarloaf creeks empty into the White River. "There were some creeks up there with channel-swing banks and I knew that's how Scott won at Beaver," he said. "On my first stop, the third pitch a big one ate my jig. I ran 50 gallons of gas out of my boat until dark that day marking all of the creeks with swings like that." He went back to Norfork for the final day and tried to expand on what he'd found at Bull Shoals. "The first place I stopped, I had a big one get it," he said. "I had three creeks on each lake. All of them had colored water and the right stuff. I basically spent the entire event in one creek at each lake."

Competition:

What most deemed as a day they were trying to survive in order to position themselves to make a run at a top-50 berth on day 2 at Bull Shoals, the opening day of the tournament turned into a memorable experience for Tharp. After enduring nearly a 2-hour fog delay, he proceeded to have one of the most fun days he's ever had on the water at Norfork as he sorted through an estimated 50 keepers to total 15-08, good enough for 5th place. He picked apart areas in Bennett's Bayou and by day's end, he couldn't wait to (hopefully) get back for the final day when only 12 competitors would be left. Day 2 saw the tournament shift to Bull Shoals and he caught his lightest bag of the event (13-02) while moving between three different creeks. With the water in the bushes, he opted to target bluff banks and channel swings. He caught some fish around wood, but didn't focus solely on bushes or buck brush like others did. On day 3, he committed to one creek and got away from the steeper banks and started to hone in on flooded bushes. He made a pass down what he thought was his best channel swing and didn't get a bite. The first bush he came to produced a 2-pounder and from there, he kept an open mind and put his jig near any cover that he came across. It resulted in a 16-04 bag that pushed him into the lead by 6 ounces over Chris Zaldain, who was committed to a dropshot pattern in bushes at Bull Shoals. "I started Sunday in the same spot I fished Thursday and got bit regularly all day long," he said. "I fished that stretch twice and on my second pass I caught big ones. It was a place I literally found on the map." He described his best stretches as stair-step rock bluffs, where fish would be setting up to spawn either on the rocks on in the crevices in between them. "Most of the time, I kept the boat over 10 to 12 or 15 to 20 feet and all of the fish came from 6 inches to 4 feet," he said. "Most of the big ones, I'm guessing, were up in about 2 feet." His last fish on Sunday, which proved to be the winning fish, came from a spot that caught his eye. "It was a perfect white spot on a shelf near a dark crevice," he said. "I was just pitching to those types of targets - ledges or dark spots. I was trying to visualize where they'd be spawning or laying."

Winning Gear:

Jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Halo Fishing Twilite Series casting rod, Team Lew's Pro Magnesium Speed Spool casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/2- and 5/8-oz. 4x4 Bass Jigs Randall Tharp Signature Series flipping jig (golden craw), Zoom Big Salty Chunk trailer (green-pumpkin).

A key adjustment for Tharp was going from the 1/2 oz to 5/8-oz. jig toward the end of day 2. His last fish that day was his best one and he stuck with the heavier version the rest of the way because the faster fall rate seemed to trigger more bites.

Main factor: "Being stubborn as hell. After I got those bites in practice on that jig, I told myself that with those fish laying on beds all over the place, my best chance to beat the sight-fishing guys was to do what I'm good at it and that's the flipping stick. That's the coolest thing about tournament fishing. There's no right or wrong way to do things. You do what's best for you and when you do that, you become a better fisherman."

Performance edge: "Right now, I have an unbelievable amount of confidence in my equipment. I haven't had that in a long time. I feel like I have the best boat and motor and rods and reels. I feel like I'm representing the right companies right now."

Winyah Bay Winning Pattern BassFan 4/26/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Skeet Reese fished at two different speeds last week - Bull Shoals Slow and Norfork Fast. His damage at Bull Shoals was done flipping a craw/creature bait in bushes and buck brush while a swimbait/crankbait combo is what he relied on at Norfork. "Even though these lakes are so close together, they fished completely different for me," Reese told Davy Hite for Bassmaster.com's First Look. He caught most of his fish Thursday winding a square-bill crankbait. He said on stage during Sunday's weigh-in that he tapped into the flipping bite at Bull Shoals on the first day of practice. It produced 12 1/2 pounds on Friday, but he changed areas Saturday and came in with a tournament-best 19-02 to move into 3rd entering the final day. "The areas I thought I'd catch them, I couldn't catch them," he said on stage. "On Saturday, I went to water I'd never seen before in my life and just ran a pattern flipping shallow. "I just cracked their heads and it was so fun. I grew up learning from Dee Thomas, the godfather of flipping, fishing out in California. I feel comfortable with flipping stick in my hand. That's how I grew up. When you flip up into a foot of water, it's so shallow you think there can't be a fish up there. There's one little root or a tiny piece of shade and then something comes out and crushes it." His game plan for Sunday was to fish farther out in the main creeks that he had on Thursday. "I saw something at the end of the day Thursday that told me the fish might be further out than I thought," Reese told Hite. "The bigger fish were coming more toward the main lake." He caught a few keepers cranking, then switched to the swimbait for the rest of the day. When the wind picked up later in the morning so did his catch rate and he momentarily moved into the lead after one particular flurry. "(Chris) Zaldain and I worked together some this week and I knew he was on a similar pattern, but didn't know where he was," Reese said. At one point Sunday, they encountered each other and Reese opted to cede the area to Zaldain and ran to a different spot. "I realized the fish were on steeper banks so I tried to find wind-blown rocky banks," he said. It was fun. When they hit either bait, they just crushed it."

Flipping gear: 8' heavy-action Wright & McGill Skeet Reese Victory Pro Carbon Flip/Pitch rod, Wright & McGill Skeet Reese Victory Pro Carbon casting reel (7.9:1 gear ratio), 25-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed tungsten worm weight, 5/0 Laser TroKar flipping hook, Berkley Havoc Pit Boss (green-pumpkin).

Swimbait gear: 7'4" heavy-action Wright & McGill Skeet Reese Victory Pro Carbon Jig/Big Worm rod, Wright & McGill Skeet Reese Victory Pro Carbon casting reel (7.9:1 gear ratio), 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line, 5/0 Laser TroKar weighted (1/4 oz.) swimbait hook, 6" Berkley PowerBait Hollow Belly (out of production). Reese opted for the high-speed reel to compensate for how fast he was moving down the bank. He tried to keep the swimbait down 2 to 4 feet under the surface.

Crankbait gear: 6'8" medium-action Wright & McGill Skeet Reese S-Glass casting rod, same reel (6.4:1 ratio), 15-pound Berkley Trilene Big Game monofilament line, Lucky Craft 3.5 square-bill crankbait.

Bull Shoals/Norfork 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/27/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Zaldain had a definitive game plan for each lake and he stayed true to them throughout the event to collect his second straight top-10 finish and matching his career-best result in a full-field Elite Series tournament. Through three events, he's 3rd in the Angler of the Year standings. "This is by far the swiftest start I've had to a season," he said. "Historically, I've gotten off to a slow start, but this is the best I've come up with. I know it's early to think about it, but I have to take advantage of it. It's all about decisions on the water. I know my practice for Wheeler will be short, but I have a ton of confidence now." He built his practice to mimic the format of the tournament - one day at Norfork, two at Bull Shoals and the final day back at Norfork. "After practice, I was more fired up for the Bull Shoals pattern because I'd found that dropshot spawning pattern in the bushes," he said. "I had an average practice at Norfork with mostly winding baits - spinnerbaits and swimbaits."

He started to get dialed in on Norfork's bigger fish on day 1 of the event. "I was farther out into the main lake from the creek I was in," he said. "It seemed like the bigger fish were closer to the clearer water. At that point, my stokage level shifted to Norfork and my game plan then was to hang out for the meat of the tournament at Bull Shoals." He mined the buck brush at Bull Shoals for more than 28 pounds over the middle two days, doing all of his damage with a hand-poured 6-inch worm rigged on a dropshot with a 6- to 8-inch dropper leader. He did a masterful job on Friday during the Bassmaster Live coverage as the other anglers with cameras were well out of cell range. That left Zaldain as the featured pro and he openly shared with viewers all of the details of what he was doing. On Sunday, he went out facing a 6-ounce deficit and relied on the 6-inch swimbait that got his juices going on Thursday. He back to the same creek and made casts parallel and tight to channel-swing banks with some wind blowing on them. Some of the other leaders like Randall Tharp and Matt Herren were in the same creek arm, but were more toward the back. "I was in the front third closer to the clearer water," he said. "I'd put my boat right on the bank almost and I'd be sometimes fishing up hill on those points. I couldn't ask for more. I put myself in a position to win. I caught a decent bag so I'm happy with top-3 without a doubt."

Swimbait gear: 7'2" heavy-action Megabass Orochi XX Perfect Pitch casting rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (7.4:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 6" Megabass Magdraft swimbait (white back shad).

Dropshot gear: 7'5" medium-heavy Megabass Orochi XX Extreme Mission casting rod, same reel, same line, 2/0 Laser TroKar finesse worm hook, 6" Roboworm Fat (margarita multilator), 1/4-oz. unnamed dropshot weight.

Main factor: "Practicing hard on both lakes and establishing strong patterns on both lakes and coming up with game plan off the water and sticking to it. I kept it simple, to the point where I almost wrote it down."

Performance edge: "That 15-pound InvizX line. I was flipping that dropshot in bushes and pulling 4-pounders out of brush. The next day I was throwing a swimbait around boulders and rocks catching 4s. It's the most versatile line I've ever used."

Bull Shoals/Norfork 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/27/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Matt Herren was one of four anglers in the top 5 who went into Sunday hoping to lock up his first Elite Series win. He led after day 1 and bounced back after a disappointing day on Friday to get back in contention. Ultimately, he fell 3 pounds short. "You hate to get that close and not finish the deal," he said. "I knew I had to have a tremendous day and everybody in front of me had to stumble. "I screwed up on Friday," he added. "If I could relive Friday, I would do it differently. You cannot have a hiccup like that in these deals. I just got hung up trying to catch bed fish when I should've just gone fishing." His 1-2 punch was a wacky-rigged finesse worm followed up by a 3/8-oz. jig and chunk trailer. He caught a 6-01 brute on Thursday at Norfork on the wacky rig. "That's what I wanted to do at Bull Shoals," he said. "I had a good bite on wacky rig and was mixing it up with spawning fish. "The curveball was the water fell in my area and the buck brush got real shallow. I thought with all of the bushes, it would pull them out. Instead of going north when I struggled, I sat there and looked at a 4-pounder É they were laying everywhere on the bank. I couldn't get any of them to go." He opted to not mess with bedding fish on Saturday and went north on Bull Shoals to find more flooded bushes that he worked over with the jig. "I focused on steeper channel swing banks," he noted. "On Thursday, a lot of fish were spawning and where I was in the back of that creek they spawning on those swings. "We hit it with a perfect moon phase for the fish to spawn, but the falling water (at Bull Shoals) had the fish acting funny."

Jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Kistler Z-Bone casting rod, Ardent Elite casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Santone Lures M Series flipping jig (river bream or green-pumpkin), Reaction Innovations Petite Twerk trailer (green-pumpkin), unnamed chunk trailer (root beer).

Finesse gear: 7' medium-heavy Kistler Z-Bone spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 16-pound unnamed braided line, 8-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line (leader), 2/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 4.5" Reaction Innovations Pocket Rocket (dirty wizard or green-pumpkin purple swirl).

Main factor: "Recognizing a pattern and duplicating it."

Performance edge: "My Humminbird electronics and Lakemaster mapping was really good for these two lakes. For the pattern I was on for the channel swings it was huge."

Bull Shoals/Norfork 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/27/16 (Todd Ceisner)

For Bill Lowen, with the opportunity to get spun out at two lakes last week, he wanted to put himself in a position to keep things simple. He wanted to build a good foundation on day 1 at Norfork and then place all of his focus on the following two days at Bull Shoals. He tried to find areas of dirty water on both lakes in practice. "At Bull Shoals, I had to run forever, but at Norfork, I didn't have to go that far," he said. "My whole mindset was to figure out enough to survive on Norfork. I didn't want to overthink it. I wanted to get out of there on day 1 in a good position and figured 13 or 14 pounds would be good. I felt confident I could do that." He bagged 13-10 to accomplish his goal. He flipped a tube around wood on mud flats and worked a jig along shallow bluff banks. Most of his fish came out of 4 to 6 feet of water. At Bull Shoals, he targeted flooded bushes and bluff banks where fish were setting up to spawn. "Those deals have notches in them," he said. "On Bull Shoals, you can see into them. There's a bed in every little notch. You can blind cast and catch bedders that way." His 17-04 bag on day 2 put him in a tie for the lead with Zaldain heading into the weekend, but his 12-12 bag on Saturday knocked him back a few spots. On the final day, he went through where he'd fished Thursday. "I missed a shad spawn that I didn't know was going on," he said. "I caught two keepers real quick, but then a lot of short fish. I wish I'd figured out the shad spawn earlier so I could key on it. Overall it was a fun week."

Jig gear 7'6" heavy-action Castaway Taranis casting rod, Team Lew's Pro Magnesium casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 15-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Lure Parts Online Brush Puppy Jig (root beer/brown/orange), unnamed chunk trailer (matching color).

Flipping gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 3/16-oz. Reins Tungsten worm weigh, 4/0 Mustad Grip Pin EWG worm hook, 4" Tightlines UV Bill Lowen Flippin Tube (black/blue).

Main factor: "Putting myself in my comfort zone. I always fish better that way and I try to put myself in that situation whenever I can."

Performance edge: "It was a combination of everything - good boat, good motor, good electronics. I was making long runs at Bull Shoals and knowing your equipment will get you there and back is a big plus."

Bull Shoals/Norfork 2-5 Patterns BassFan 4/27/16 (Todd Ceisner)