Miles Burghoff's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Like Matthee, Burghoff is in a position to look back on the tournament and wonder, 'What if?' What if he caught two - heck, even one - more fish on day 2? Still, it was another stellar showing for the rookie who's now second in Angler of the Year points behind Terry Bolton. "At the start of the year, I made no results-related goals like winning AOY, making the Cup or winning," he said. "The only one I wanted was Rookie of the Year because you only get one chance at that. My goal was to make sure I don't leave anything on the table and work hard at every event and let the results speak for themselves." He came away from Grand pleased with how he broke the lake down. "What hurt me was day 2 with just three fish," Burghoff said. "I didn't realize how few fish had moved up. I went through the same areas that I went through day 1 and didn't run new water with my spinnerbait pattern. That's what hurt me. I couldn't go through old areas and catch them."
In practice, he realized that fish were accessible up shallow. He had a 14-pound day with a square-bill and spinnerbait to start practice. "That keyed me in on the region of the lake I wanted to fish," he said. "When I got zero bites the next two days, I knew that's where I needed to focus." He found most of the fish were relating to docks. He caught a few on straight banks, but "when those fish move up to spawn, they like to be around docks even without a post to be next to," he said.
Early on, he opted to concentrate on a series of creeks and pockets on the north shore in the mid lake area. "I chose those because we'd have a north wind at some point that would hurt the south shore," he said. By day 3, he was targeting "less obvious stuff," such as the areas behind long docks that didn't have access to it from either side. He fished short pockets as well and that's what produced the bulk of his day-3 weight. "The common denominator was a somewhat 45-degree bank and the back end of the dock needed five feet of water under it," he said. "They were in the back half of the creeks, but not all the way to the back."
Gear:
Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Fitzgerald Fishing Vursa Series casting rod, Fitzgerald Fishing Stunner casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 17-pound Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Z-Man Fishing Sling BladeZ spinnerbait (white), Z-Man Fishing MinnowZ trailer (pearl).
Burghoff modified the spinnerbait by removing the stock willow blades and replacing them with a single size 5 gold Colorado blade.
Cranking gear: 7' medium-heavy Fitzgerald Fishing Vursa Series casting rod, same reel, same line (14-pound), Strike King KVD HC 1.5 square-bill crankbait (brown craw).
Burghoff swapped the stock hooks for size 4 Hayabusa TBL 930 trebles.
