2010 Bassmaster Classic Winning Baits

Iaconelli fished the first 2 days in Beeswax, and then ran all over the lake on day 3 in the quest for a huge bag that would propel him to the top. To him, there was no difference between 2nd place and 6th.

He was the only Top 6 finisher who didn't catch the majority of his fish for the tournament on a rattlebait. He said that 9 or 10 were enticed by a Berkley Powerbait Ripple Shad grub. Among those was a 6-11 brute.

"I was swimming it real slow, then let it sink to the bottom, and then start swimming it real slow again," he said. "When it contacted something, I'd give it a snap with my wrist." He also worked his rattlebait in a similar fashion. "There was no kind of burning going on or anything like that."

Brent Chapmans 6'6" Short Mag Skeet Reese Teesera rod gave him an extra edge.

"it's a composite glass rod and it really keeps them hooked good. I only lost a couple of fish all week. When you're using moving baits with treble hooks, it for sure makes a big difference."

Kriet fished the ridge in an elongated horseshoe pattern, going down one side to the end and then swinging back up the other. He kept his boat far enough away from the structure that he had to make his longest possible cast to reach the other side and bring the rattlebait down and across it. Most of his fish came from water that was 3 1/2 to 5 feet deep.

Casts on which the bait traveled directly down the ridge were ineffective, it had to go across at an angle. "I had about three lines where I made the exact same cast and caught about 90 percent of my fish," he said. He said he fished the bait slowly, almost like a jig. He'd let it get hung up in the grass and then ease it out. "I was really dialed in on how to catch those fish," he said. "Almost every one that bit my bait swallowed it and I usually had to use the pliers to get it out."

He said he caught the vast majority of his weighin fish on a 1/2-ounce Yo Zuri lipless crank that had been hand-painted Rayburn red. He caught a few on the final day on a 1/2-ounce white Sebile Flatt Shad. "By the end of the last day they'd started to hit that white Sebile a little better."

Brent Chapman likewise spent his time in Beeswax and likewise threw a rattlebait. But as the tournament progressed he switched to an XCalibur One Knocker, then to a Rapala DT6.

With the Beeswax fish so pressured, his thought process was to first use a loud rattelbait, then a bait with a more subdued rattle, then a bait with no rattle at all. "The fish had so many rattling things going by them I wanted something more subtle," he said. "I caught all my fish the last day on that DT6."

He said his boat was generally over 5 to 8 feet of water and he was working his bait parallel to the grass edge in 4 to 6 feet. "Ticking the grass was important," he noted. "You wanted to stay in contact with the grass. The first day, it didn't seem like it mattered as much, but the last 2 days it really changed and it seemed like you had to work harder to get bites."

Alabama's Russ Lane is intimately familiar will all of the lakes on the Coosa chain, which includes Lay. His final-day bag was bigger than any in the tournament other than VanDam's 19 1/2-pound book-enders.

Everything he weighed on the first 2 days came out of Beeswax, but he shifted his focus to Spring Creek for day 3. Spring had been dead during practice, but his experience on the lake told him it wouldn't stay that way if the water continued to warm, and his hunch was correct. "It's a flat creek and it's a little clearer in there," he said. "Around here, the clear water doesn't warm up as quick as the dirty water does."

"Treble-hook lures are known for losing bass," he noted. "I'd been working for years to try to figure out ways to increase the number of bass I land with crankbaits of all sizes. I finally got Mustad to build the hook I wanted. It's extra short, so you can fit large hooks on a smaller bait without tangling. I used two No. 2s on the Red Eye and two 4 pounders that I caught in the back I landed them."

Todd Faircloth fished across the creek from Kriet on a stretch that either might have been able to win on if they'd had it all to themselves. He focused on the ends of a couple of drains and some points and flats that had grass coming out from the bank.

"The thicker the grass was, the better," he said. "And coontail was definitely the best grass." Most of his fish came on a Sebile Flatt Shad, but he also caught a couple on a Senko. "I was pumping the Flatt Shad, fishing it almost like a worm. That was critical."

VanDam threw a Strike King RedEye Shad rattlebait in gold and gold sexy shad all 3 days of competition. As he previously described when he won the Toho Elite Series, the Red Eye Shad shimmies when it falls, something he feels no other rattlebait does. He got most of his strikes by bumping or ticking cover, jerking the bait away from it, then letting it flutter to bottom.

"A lipless bait is great in cold water. The water (this year) was in the low 40s to start, but (on day 3) it got to about 50 in there, a benefit of the grass in the area. There's lots of gizzard shad in there, but the shad kill wasn't as bad in Beeswax as it was everywhere else. So the fish were a little more active, and each day that it warmed, more fish wanted to move back. The creek has a lot of fish in it. It's the only major creek that has real good grass, and trust me, I searched the back of every break and pocket. There's only two other creeks with coontail, and I'm sure there's fish in those places too."

About bait choice, he said: "The key is to rip the bait out of the rocks and stumps, when it hits something, let that bait flutter down. The Red Eye Shad, what it does is what no other bait on the market that I've seen (does), and it was designed that way. It has a shimmy to it. When it drops in the water, it's perfectly balanced and it shimmies as it falls to bottom. That's the one thing (the bass) can't stand.

"I got 99% of my bites after it hit something, then I'd rip the bait and let it flutter down. I've won a lot of money with that bait. I have a ton of confidence in it. It's a great coldwater bait. It's the main reason for the win that I had here, without a doubt."

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