Skeet Reese extended his blazing start to the season with his fourth consecutive Top-5 finish. It was his first foray to Pickwick and he locked up to Lake Wilson each day. He was on top of a sardine-tight leaderboard after day 3, but the Wilson trip put him under some tough constraints when day 4 was cut nearly in half.
How did he decide on Wilson? He took the advice of a friend who drives his rig around the eastern part of the country (he flies home to California between tournaments). "He was the only guy I talked to who'd ever been on the lake and he said the fishing was easier there," Reese said. "The fish were easier to read, so to speak, and they were easier to pinpoint. So I just started there and let things progress." A football jig was his primary weapon.
Jig gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Wright & McGill Skeet Reese signature Tessera jig/worm rod, Abu Garcia Revo Skeet Reese casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce unnamed football jig (green-pumpkin), 3" Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).
He caught one of his bigger fish on a swimbait (the Rago SKT Swimmer that he used to win at Smith Mountain Lake 2 weeks prior) and one on a Berkley PowerBait Shaky Worm (green-pumpkin). Main Factor: "For me, it was literally a matter of busting my butt and grinding it out every minute of every day."
Performance Edge: The 3" Chigger Craw is the bomb on a football jig."
Pickwick Patterns 2-5 May 5, 2010. Bassfan.com (http://www.bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=3602).
Rick Morris spent the entire tournament fishing offshore and worked his way through dozens of bites each day to come up with a mid- to high-teens bag.
"I never went shallow, even in practice," he said. "I knew at least half the field was going to do that and I wanted to get away from everybody. "I practiced on so many ledges and drops that as other people started to get on some of them, I had extra ones. I wound up using five or six and I had at least 20." He kept his boat in 25 to 30 feet of water and caught fish from the 10- to 20-foot depth range. They all bit a football-head jig.
Jig gear: 7'11" RPM Custom Okeechobee Special rod, Pflueger President casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce War Eagle football jig (green-pumpkin), Prowler Flappin' Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).
Main Factor: "I knew before I showed up that I was going to fish drops and throw football jigs."
Performance Edge:"I had an advantage with that long rod making casts into the wind and I didn't get as much of a bow in my line, which was really important."
Steve Kennedy came in with more experience on Pickwick than the vast majority of the field and he stuck with places that had produced for him in the past. The Horseshoe was foremost among those, but he also bounced around to numerous isolated spots in a quest for one quality bite off of each.
"I've never won one there, but I've done real well in the past - I was 3rd in an EverStart (now FLW American Fishing Series) and 2nd in the Corporate Cup. Every time I fish the same places - this is going all the way back to fishing BFLs. I found those fish practicing for a BFL Regional."
"They're basically just current breaks that might hold two or three fish," he said of his off-the-beaten-path areas. "It could be wood, rocks, bridge pilings or wing walls of the dam. "Even though I'm getting better, I'm still getting beat. But I'm learning a little more each time." A jig was his main numbers bait, but a swimbait was tops for quality.
Jig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Kistler Helium LTA rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce homemade, mop-style jig, unnamed trailer (green-pumpkin).
Swimbait gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Kislter Helium LTA rod, same reel and line, 6" unnamed swimbait (gizzard shad).
He weighed one fish on day 1 that bit a Kinami Flash.
Main Factor:"Experience on that water was by far the biggest thing."
Performance Edge:"I love those 7 1/2-foot, one-piece rods. They just feel great."
Like 3rd-place finisher Steve Kennedy, a few other Top-12 qualifiers and a bunch of entrants who didn't make it to the fourth day, he fished most of the tournament in a large area near the launch called the Horseshoe.
"I spent a lot of time in a lot of different areas in practice, but the quality that was in there was why I chose it," he said. "I knew it was a community hole 2 years ago (when he competed in the PAA Corporate Cup at Pickwick). "I was keying in on small rockpiles and some other things that were just little current breaks." He weighed all smallmouths on days 1 and 3 and mixed bags on days 2 and 4. But no matter the color of the fish, they were all enticed by a football-head jig.
Jig gear: 7'3" heavy-action CastAway Skeleton rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 16-pound Hi-Seas 100% fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce V&M football jig (green-pumpkin), unnamed twintail grub trailer (green-pumpkin).
Main Factor:"I think fishing with a bigger bait than a lot of guys were using attracted some better-quality bites. It would also go to the bottom immediately and I didn't have to play around with it, and I could throw it a great distance."
Performance Edge:"Probably the line, and the reason I say that is I was fishing in an extreme environment with nasty, sharp rocks all over the place. I didn't break any fish off during the week and that really helped."
With nasty weather looming, BASS officials shortened the competition day to five hours in order to escape the brunt of the inclement weather. While some competitors who were making longer runs were adversely affected, Short, who totaled 75-1 over four days, adapted to the parameters and boated the vast majority of his weight less than two hours into the day, effectively ending the tournament.
"I kept telling myself throughout the week just to think of Pickwick like a river," said Short, who took his first Elite victory on the Mississippi River. "I was discouraged after Saturday because I just couldn't figure out how to get them to bite. But I landed my biggest fish early today (Sunday) and I knew it would be my day then."
Much of the stuff that Short had practiced on in his backwater area was high and dry. But he's a river fisherman at his core and knew what he needed to do. "I put all the jig stuff away, knowing it wasn't going to work," he said. "I'd seen that situation before when we've had floodwaters on the Arkansas River, and the fish pull straight out to the first piece of cover." That was the cypress trees. He tied on a WEC E1 crankbait and went to work around their flooded trunks.
Just how right did things go for him? Twice he got his crankbait hung up on wood, and both times a fish removed it for him. Both of those fish ended up in the boat, one was a 6-pounder (he had two in that class for the day). "It's not unusual to have one bite when you pop a bait loose, but these fish actually took it off the tree. I must have been living right."
Cranking gear: 6'6" medium/moderate St. Croix Premier glass rod, Ardent XS 1000 casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 15- or 17-pound Vicious fluorocarbon line, WEC E1 crankbait (chartreuse classic or chartreuse/black).
Main Factor: "Probably just persistence. I had the belief that the winning fish were in that area and I just stuck with it."
Performance Edge: "I'd say the rod. I was making short, underhanded roll casts to get the bait up underneath the cypress limbs and the shorter rod really helped. And not only did it help me put the bait right against the tree, but when I hooked one close the boat I had all the confidence that I'd be able to get it in."
Short and Sweet May 5, 2010. Doug Grassian, Bassmaster.com (http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=5155892).
Pickwick Elite Series Winning Pattern May 4, 2010. Bassfan.com (http://www.bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=3601).
2010 Kentucky Lake Winning Baits & Patterns
2010 Clarks Hill Winning Baits & Patterns
2010 Lake Guntersville Winning Baits & Patterns
2010 Pickwick Lake Winning Baits & Patterns
2010 Smith Mountain Lake Blue Ridge Brawl Winning Baits
2010 Clear Lake Golden State Shootout Winning Baits
2010 Trokar Duel in the Delta Winning Baits
2010 Bassmaster Classic Winning Baits