Justin Cooper Wins MLF BPT Stage One - Lake Conroe

Making his Bass Pro Tour debut, Louisiana pro Colby Miller nearly pulled off the win. Miller followed a similar approach as many in the Top 10, opting to use his forward-facing sonar first before hitting the bank for the rest of the day. "It was mainly just 'Scoping each morning with a jighead minnow, fishing various minnows with a 1/4-ounce head to keep it moving slow and just ahead of the fish," Miller said. "Then, I'd throw a Berkley (PowerBait) MaxScent Magnum Hit Worm in green pumpkin on a Neko rig and a shad-colored lipless crankbait later in the grass for the rest of the day.'

While a jighead and minnow were a top weapon for Jacob Wall, he caught fish on various baits ranging from jerkbaits to a Carolina rig and even a swimbait skipped under docks. He also caught a bass on a wacky rig and one on a bed during the tournament - it was a total effort to earn his high finish. "I started each morning throwing a jerkbait and a 3.75-inch Duckett Fishing Sway Minnow on a 1/8-ounce Dirty Jigs Guppy Head jighead," he said. "Each day was a little different, and you had to figure out how to get them to bite."

Alton Jones Jr. experimented with his forward-facing sonar usage, opting to use it during different periods throughout the week. "I was shaking a minnow like everyone else with a Deps Sakamata Shad and RAID Fish Roller, but outside my 'Scope period, I caught most of my weight with my Power-Poles down in one spot that was a small drain with hydrilla and eelgrass mixed," he said. "I started to get dialed into a few shallow spots, and they kept reloading. Later in the event, it was a lipless crankbait, but I was catching them on a vibrating jig for the first two days."

Jacob Wheeler had a similar plan as most of the Top 10, but bucked the trend and ran away from the crowds the final two days. Instead of fishing community holes he went south. Using both a Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow and Freeloader on VMC jigheads of various makes and sizes, Wheeler had several minnows ready at all times. "I would change it based on how deep the fish were, how close they were to the boat, and how shallow it was," he said. "I had rigged up a hodgepodge of different baits, colors, and jigheads." When not using forward-facing sonar, Wheeler covered ground quickly, targeting a variety of vegetation with a 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer ChatterBait with a Freeloader on the back. Both were the green pumpkin shad color.

Also making his BPT debut, Jake Lawrence showcased his excellent forward-facing skills with a jighead minnow while spending the rest of the day shallow with moving baits. His minnow was a Yamamoto Scope Shad in both 3- and 4-inch sizes and various shad patterns. Afterward, Lawrence went shallow and fished in both Caney Creek and the Lake Paula area of Conroe. "I would fish a vibrating jig and a 1/4-ounce Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap on fish relating to secondary points with grass, whether it was eelgrass or hydrilla," he said. "Both were good; they just had to have deep water adjacent to them."

Drew Gill showed off his excellent forward-facing skills but caught them shallow without the technology, too, including an 8-2 on the last day. "The fish were suspended in timber, chasing bait around in a creek channel," he said. "Most of those fish were singles and high in the water column, so you had to fly around pretty fast and throw a 4-inch minnow on a 3/16-ounce jighead at them. That's what worked the first few days, but it wasn't happening the last day. I think it was just because of the pressure all week, and I had to abandon that and use a Neko rig on some shallow sandy areas where the fish were getting ready to move into spawn during my forward-facing sonar period to catch them." His Neko rig fish were caught with a Big Bite Baits Nekorama in matte green pumpkin with a 1/8-ounce nail weight. Gill also employed several moving baits during the week, including a shallow diving crankbait, vibrating jig, and lipless crankbait around shallow vegetation. The lipless crankbait was the 3/16-ounce Mini Bill Lewis Hammer Trap in purple nurple.

Zack Birge secured yet another Bass Pro Tour Top 10 by using forward-facing sonar early and staying around grass the rest of the day. Birge fished his minnow on an Alpha Angler Wrench rod and utilized 10-pound Yo-Zuri SuperBraid with a 10-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon leader. After the period, he headed for the hydrilla and picked up a Yo-Zuri RattlÕn Vibe lipless crankbait in crawfish and shad patterns. He fished his lipless on an Alpha Angler Mag Rebound rod with 16-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon.

Nick LeBrun breezed through the Qualifying Rounds and skipped directly to the final day after catching the top weight Š 60 bass for 135-2 over the first two days. "During my forward-facing sonar period, I used several different colors of the Yamamoto Scope Shad on a little ball head and fished it on 12-pound Sunline SX1 braid and 8-pound FC Sniper fluorocarbon," he said. "I used 3/16- to 3/8-ounce jigheads depending on the fishÕs depth." "ThereÕd be holes in the grass that were about the size of the hood of your truck, and they would bite it right when your bait came over the hole," he said. "I stayed Power-Poled down, and sometimes youÕd catch more than one in each hole in the grass. I fished the vibrating jig on a 7-feet, 4-inch TFO Taction medium-heavy rod and 16-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon."

After spending the first three days of the tournament using forward-facing sonar in the first period, Justin Lucas rolled the dice and saved it for the last period on the final day. "I used a jighead minnow, and then when I wasn't using forward-facing sonar, I was targeting the edges of hydrilla," he said. "It was all 2 to 5 feet of water in little drains. I caught them with either a Berkley Frittside 5 in candy apple red and Kentucky blue and a 4-inch Berkley PowerBait Hollow Belly Swimbait in the hitch color fishing around hydrilla."