2015 BASS Winning Pattern Baits & Gear

Entering the final day of competition at the Lake Toho Southern Open, Chad Morgenthaler said he was worried about being able to catch several anglers ahead of him in the standings. He entered day 3 in ninth place, eight-plus pounds off the lead, and figured it'd be quite a chore to overcome Floridians Brandon McMillan and Bobby Lane, who were first and third, respectively, after day 2. Maybe it's time people should start worrying about where Morgenthaler is on the leaderboard, especially in the Sunshine State. Thanks to catching the lone 20-pound bag (22-03) on the final day, Morgenthaler erased his sizable deficit and kicked off 2015 with his second win in Florida in 13 months. His three-day total of 52-07 was more than three pounds better than Lane's. After a lengthy practice session gave him a pretty solid idea of how the fish would react under various conditions, Morgenthaler decided that maximizing his fishing time in Lake Toho was the best strategy and it paid off with his first Open victory. He also won the Bassmaster Classic Wild Card at Lake Okeechobee in December 2013 that gained him entry into the 2014 Classic. "This is probably the sweetest one by far," he said of the win. "I felt like the Wild Card win was great and was important, but it was smaller field. Even though the competition was stiff, it wasn't a full-blown top end field. This was full 200-boat field with locals, a bunch of Elite guys and the best sticks in Florida and I was able to overcome it. It's rewarding all the way around." He also said grabbing the first ticket to the 2016 Bassmaster Classic a "game-changer" for him. "It eases your whole year and really makes you dangerous," he said. "I could go out and throw up some bombs if I'm not careful and if I go for the gusto at some places. You never know what tomorrow will bring so you might as well enjoy it."

After spending some time at Lake Hartwell, site of this year's Classic, before it went off limits on Jan. 1, Morgenthaler went straight to central Florida and got started on his Toho prep on the 3rd. For the following two weeks, he combed the entire Kissimmee Chain trying to determine where the best concentration of fish were and could be come tournament time. "Typically that doesn't help me," he said of the extended practice time. "It causes you to not fish your instincts, but it helped me because when that first cold front came through it gave me ample time to check everything on the system that could be a player. I was able to rule out a lot over that time frame so it was really worth it this time." Florida bass are notorious for getting lock jaw during even the slightest cold front and Morgenthaler said understanding that and figuring out where those go when the temperatures drop helped him immensely. "It's just really understanding what to look for and how to fish through the changes," he said. "I really look for that when I'm down there. I've had my butt kicked as much as I've been successful, but I have a good sense of where the fish are at and try to get into those meeting points and get them coming and going." He also knew the conditions were right for an all-out sight-fishing derby. "Seldom will that hold up for the duration," he said. "We had warm weather before practice and quite a bit of fish moved off the main lake and into those spawning areas. Then it cooled down and they pulled out and staged and when it warmed back up more fish came into those staging areas and stopped." He spent the first four days of practice on Kissimmee Lake, but couldn't catch more than 14 pounds a day. "In a tough tournament, that'd be surviving," he said. "I couldn't make it happen there." When he shifted focus to Toho, he had a couple strong days both quantity and quality wise. "It just looked better to me, plus I'd have more fishing time and there'd be less pressure," he said. "It was a sleeper."

Competition:

The first day of the tournament saw Morgenthaler made a bunch of adjustments based on the overcasts conditions. "The sun never showed up, but luckily I had a couple of stretches that produced that day," he said. "They didn't produce the rest of the event, but that's classic Florida. You have to keep moving until you find them." He didn't have his first keeper until 10:30 a.m., but after finding "one of those golden stretches," he boated 16 1/2 pounds in the next 90 minutes and wound up with 16-07 for the day. On day 2, he cut the time spent at his first spot as his confidence in it started to wane. It wasn't until the sun popped out around 1:30 that everything changed for him. "I just started wailing on them," he said. "It was like I was in a different tournament at that point. Between 1:30 and 5, I must've caught 45 fish. It was crazy." He said he targeted thicker vegetation once the sun broke through. "The sun put them there since they weren't on the spawning areas," he added. Morgenthaler's focus was targeting dense and isolated clumps of milfoil near spawning areas. He was flipping and punching a creature bait on 1 1/2- and 2-ounce weights.

"The wind laid down so I could see real well when the sun came out," he noted. "The clumps were about the size of the front deck of the boat, but they had to be close to spawning areas." He had 13-13 on day 2 and made the top-12 cut in ninth place with 30-04. The wind slacked off even more on the final day, allowing Morgenthaler to move further out on the main lake where he felt there were higher concentrations of fish. He opted to start on a different area than he did the first two days and he promptly caught three 4-pounders to set the tone. "That made me bear down even harder," he said. "What's nice about being in second or third or ninth is it's not yours to lose. It's yours to win. You fish more at ease and don't too excited with hooksets and all that. You're just more methodical and calm." Finding that comfort zone, even when he'd go 30 minutes between bites, was a big factor for Morgenthaler. "I figured those guys down in Kissimmee were fishing way too fast and were running against the clock," he added. Going right to his primary areas to start day 3 remind him of how Greg Hackney dominated last year's Elite Series event at Cayuga Lake. "After those cold fronts, those big fish tend to bite early on in the morning then slow down as the pressure starts to rise," he said. "Even though I was fishing vegetation, those big fish fire when the pressure is lower and then slow down during the day." Once the sun got up Saturday, he was able to target specific areas a little better and that allowed him to pick off a 7 1/2-pound kicker around 12:30. He was surprised his was the only 20-pound bag on day 3. "I was scared of Brandon and Bobby," he said. "I knew what Todd (Auten) was doing. He was fishing a different pattern altogether. It was not a surprise he was catching them when we had clouds and wind, but on the last day it flopped and it helped me and hurt him I think. When the sun got out that's when my fish bit.

Winning Pattern:

Morgenthaler said there were couple key elements to his success. First, being able to judge the fish when the cold front came through during the tournament was critical. The other was committing to staying in Toho. "The light came on for me on day 3," he said. "I was there when the last cold front came through and I'd figured out where they were going and what they were doing so I was ready when that weather repeated itself. I had to survive days 1 and 2 banking on knowing I could duplicate that from the week before. "Another thing that played to my strengths is nobody thought it could be won on Toho. On day 1, 145 (boats) locked down (out of Toho). I fished anywhere I wanted to go. Any time you have that it's like you're in a different tournament. I didn't burn time running and locking and I was able to get settled down and in the zone quicker." In terms of his presentation, he said he'd punch the bait through the grass, then let it sit on the bottom for a bit. He'd then lift it to the underside of the mat and pause it before letting it fall again. "I finally figured the cadence out," he said. "I had to leave it in there a long time. Sometimes I'd have to have do 15 to 20 up-and-downs before I'd get a bite."

Winning Gear:

Flipping/Punching gear: 7'11" extra-heavy Denali Jadewood J2 casting rod, Shimano Chronarch Ci4+ casting reel (7.6:1 gear ratio), 45-pound Gamma Torque braided line, 1 1/2- and 2-ounce Reins Tungsten slip sinker, 5/0 Gamakatsu heavy cover worm hook, 3.65" Missile Baits Baby D-Bomb (bruiser flash).

Main factor: "I'd have to say my persistence with being okay with how I was fishing. I felt like I was fishing the way I needed to fish to win. I was there to just try to win and I knew that to win it had to go my way fishing that way. When I get on the right flipping bite, I know I'll be in the top 10. I never gave up the faith even though I went long stretches without a bite. I had bad practice days, but I counted on it coming through for me when it mattered."

Performance edge: "The Wild Card last December was my first tournament out of my Phoenix 920. This was my first event out of my new 921 and I won it so I feel like if I can get a new boat for every tournament, I could win them all. I'm not sure Gary Clouse would go for that, though. Also, my Minn Kota (Fortrex) 112 was awesome in that grass. It got me into places I couldn't get with anything else. There were some places that were choked off and I was able to get in there."

Lake Toho Open Winning Pattern Bassfan 1/20/15 (Todd Ceisner)

James Elam admits he was a bit distracted last week. And maybe that was a good thing. With the Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Championship looming this week at Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin, an event Elam qualified for in his quest to secure his first Bassmaster Classic berth, he also had the Fort Gibson Lake Central Open, on a fishery that helped shape him as an angler, to occupy his mind. Turns out, multi-tasking suits the Oklahoma native well. Fresh off a Top-10 showing at the Lake St. Clair Elite Series, Elam punctuated what's been a breakout season with his first Bassmaster victory, overtaking FLW Tour standout Stetson Blaylock on Saturday with a final day-best 17-08 to finish with 46-03 and win by nearly 4 pounds. "It's a weird feeling," Elam said Sunday morning while making the drive to Door County, Wis. "It's really awesome because of all of the years you do all of this, it finally paid off." He recalled the last time Gibson hosted an Open in 2012 and how he went into that event fairly confident he could win, but sudden changes in the weather forced him to settle for 11th place. That finish, however, clinched his invitation to the Elite Series for 2013. After banking five checks across his first two seasons on the Elite Series, Elam matched that number this season alone and, thanks to his win last week, is locked in to compete at the Classic at Grand Lake near his hometown of Tulsa next March. "It's absolutely the biggest thing that could happen to me," he said. "I'd heard rumors about it coming back and you get to thinking, 'I need to make that,' then I saw the Opens were coming to Gibson. That's a big stage for sure. I'd like to catch them there, but right now I'll be happy to be there." When Elam secured the win, he didn't have to celebrate alone. He had a loud contingent of supporters on hand to mark the occasion. "All of my family and friends were there. It was crazy," he said. "I told them I was putting more into the AOY and that I wasn't going to sit and fret about Gibson. I was more focused on the AOY, but everyone had that attitude that I was going to win. "I had to change every single day, mostly locations and a little how I was fishing on day 2. Mostly, it was about changing locations and not getting set on something. I just had to keep moving."

Elam set aside one day to prep tackle for both Fort Gibson and the AOY event since he knew he'd be leaving right from the Open to head north. He spent 4 days on Fort Gibson, checking different sections of the lake each of the first 3 days and revisiting some productive areas on the final day before taking the day before the tournament off to rest up. "I practiced on the lower end on the first day and probably had 17 or 18 pounds worth of bites," he said. "After that I was like, 'Cool.' That area wasn't on like that at the last Open." He was keying on rock, mostly, in practice. "I could catch them out of 1 to 3 feet pretty good in the mid-lake, but I was not catching good-sized fish. All across the lake, they were keyed in on rocky stuff with the exception of the river. Any rocky that resembled softballs or basketballs was good and the more isolated the better." He concentrated the next couple days on the middle section of the lake - "The area I like the most," he said - and caught a steady diet of 2 1/2-pounders. He also spent some time on the upper end and in the river, which is typically a fallback plan for tournament anglers, including Elam. "I grew up fishing the river and I'm good there, but it wasn't happening," he said. "You need it to fish really good in a big tournament in case you need it as a plan B. It wasn't as good as it needed to be." He said prior to practice there was more current in the river as the lake level was falling, but once the water release stopped, so did the current and the fishing got tough as a result. He spent his final day on the lower end again and looked at other patterns that had worked in the past. "After that I knew what I was going to do," he said.

Competition:

Elam went out on day 1 with a fair bit of confidence based on his practice, plus his Elite Series points standings (29th) had him feeling a bit less pressure to come out of the Open with a victory in order to make the Classic. "I started on what I thought was my best place," he said. "It was the offshore side of a point with a rubble patch in 4 to 8 feet with six brush piles on it." He executed on seven of nine bites, all with a Texas-rigged 10-inch worm, but the two he lost were estimated to be in the 3 1/2-pound class. "That was a weird deal because it was an early bite," he said. "I didn't catch them all day long. That bite turned off around 9 a.m." He wound up with 13-00 to start, a decent start that had him in 25th place, but it left him thinking another similar bag or better on day 2 would probably put him in contention to make the Top-12 cut. "I knew if you can catch a limit 2 days in a row that's golden on that place," he said. "I wasn't too worried about 13 pounds. I figured if I could catch that again I'd be in the Top 12." He went back to the same spot to start day 2, but didn't get a bite in 2 hours of fishing. He ran to another spot with shallow rocks and put one keeper in the boat. He was heading down lake to another area when he saw a point that he'd wanted to fish on day 1 - there were boats on it three different times he drove by it - was unoccupied. "I set down there and caught a 3 1/2, then fished for a while and caught a 4-08," he said. "I fished a little more and then changed baits (a brush hog) and caught a couple more keepers." He later switched to a shakey-head and boated six more keepers. "I caught as much as I could there," he said. "I left there with an hour to go and I ran back to where I started and caught a 3 1/2 with 15 minutes left out of the brush. That was a good upgrade." He knew he could've caught a slew of keepers on various other baits, but he stuck with Texas-rigged plastics, a jig and the shaky head since those produced the better quality fish. "It's a weird lake the way it fishes that way," he said. "I haven't been anywhere else like it." His 15-11 effort on day 2 moved him into 2nd place and he trailed Blaylock by 2-11 entering the last day. He fished clean on the day 2 after losing two good fish at the boat on Thursday and his confidence was starting to grow based on his lengthy history at Gibson. "I knew there was a good chance some guys weren't going to catch them as good (on day 3)," he said. "It's hard to do this time of year on that lake so I knew there was an opportunity for me if I caught what I was capable of catching - 16 to 18 pounds. I knew if I did that I'd have a shot.

"By the last day, you start figuring out more stuff. If you look at a lot of the good guys that improve each day, they do that every tournament. Those are the guys who win. They're figuring out more and practicing each day and get better game plans for the next day. I tried to do same thing. It was easy to do on a place I know." With the AOY event still on his mind, he didn't feel near the pressure that Blaylock was likely feeling. "I didn't go out nervous and I think it was because I had that attitude," he said. "It took the pressure off and I just went out and caught them." The point that he fished on day 2 was his first stop on the final day, but it produced nothing in the hour he fished there. He picked up two good fish out of the brush at the spot he'd been starting on, but he started to sense he was running out of fish there. "I ran up to a different area of the lake and fished the stuff I got bit on, but didn't catch anything," he said. "I had one big bass spot up there - just a little insignificant deal that holds big ones. On about my 20th cast, I caught a 4 on a football jig and figured two more keepers and I'd win." Another 90 minutes went by without another bite. He stopped again on the point he started on, but a local was there and let Elam fish it as well, but he told Elam he'd caught eight fish there already. "I got there a little late, I guess," Elam joked. "I started fishing stuff I knew there could be fish on. It was almost like practicing again. That's where it helped to have a little bit of history." He caught a 3 1/2-pounder on a buzzbait around some rocks and a 2 1/2-pounder finished out what proved to be his best sack of the event. "It was a shorter day," he said. "It was a tougher weather day. I just happened to get some good bites. I also knew the type of day it was. It was so hard for people to catch them. We had two massive fronts come through lake came up a foot. It was just unstable conditions. "Things were different on day 3. Knowing where there was brush was key because they went into the wood. There's always one day post-front where they'll get in the wood and that was that day. It helped knowing that. I caught three that way." After he checked in at the ramp, he got a sense that the tournament was his to lose, which made the 45-minute drive to the Bass Pro Shops that much more enjoyable. "It was a cool fishing knowing I had the fish to win," he said. "I didn't tell anyone what I had. I've been there on the last day and not caught them. It's not cool."

Winning Pattern:

Every one of Elam's fish came out of 8 feet of water or less and the key was slowing down his presentations. "When I'd let it sink, every now and then they'd hit it on the way to the bottom," he said. "The deal was fishing it slow along the bottom. I had to retie often and watch my hook points. If someone else was doing what I was doing and went an hour without a bite, they might've bailed."

Winning Gear:

Worm gear: 7' medium-heavy unnamed casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. homemade worm weight, 4/0 Owner all-purpose worm hook, 10" Berkley PowerBait Power Worm (redbug). Elam said the weight he used is one his dad makes and it has a more rounded shape than a traditional worm weight. "It works really well in and around rock," he said.

Brush Hog gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, same weight, same hook, 6" Zoom Brush Hog (green-pumpkin blue). His football jig was a homemade 1/2-oz. head with a black/blue skirt and a Zoom Speed Craw in matching colors as a trailer.

Main factor: " I've fished that lake enough with my dad and everybody so I just know the place really well. Also, knowing that I had a good shot (of making the Classic) at the AOY event, I wasn't freaked out about it so I was able to fish well."

Performance edge: "My Phoenix boat has been great this year. I've had no problems with it and have not had a fish die. That was tough on those fish last week. We had heat indexes around 110. I also ran my HydroWave because I was shallow enough to where would do me some good."

Fort Gibson Winning Pattern BassFan 9/15/15 (Todd Ceisner)

About 10 minutes before he pulled his trolling motor out of the water for final time last Saturday, James Watson stopped on a point not far from check in. He was a ball of nervous energy as he counted down the final minutes of the Central Open at Table Rock Lake. From where he fished, he could see a hiking and bike trail up on shore and there were some people enjoying a bike ride by the water. Watson called out to them, wanting to share his excitement. "Hey! Hey," he hollered, getting their attention. "I'm going to the Bassmaster Classic," he screamed. The bicyclists didn't respond. "They looked at me like I was a crazy person," Watson said. "They started peddling faster." No matter, he just wanted to share his excitement with somebody. He'd taken a 4-pound lead into the final day at his home lake, but a slow morning had tempered his optimism. He stuck with his topwater strategy and it paid off with a 4-pounder in the last hour that gave him at least 15 pounds. He sensed, at that point, he'd be tough to beat.

His final-day stringer turned out to be 16-01, his heaviest of the event, and it gave him a 3-day total of 46-02, good for a 3 1/2-pound win over runner-up Jacob Wheeler, who caught 17 pounds or more on each of the final 2 days. Watson called this the biggest win of his fishing career because it also guaranteed him a spot in next year's Bassmaster Classic at Grand Lake, another lake he's very familiar with. He also won a PAA tournament at Table Rock in September 2013. "I'd like to win something away from the house," he said. "I've been close a few times, but I don't want to get pegged as a guy who can only catch 'em in the Ozarks. The greatest thing about these deals is all of your buddies calling afterward congratulating you. There's a lot of respect there." Watson said the win caps off what had been a tough year on the water after finishing 92nd in points on the FLW Tour. "This win is special because of the Classic," he said. "I needed it and my career needed it. I've had some highs and lows over the last 16 months and it weighs on you. I don't want to be laughed at or known as a one-hit wonder." He said he had no regrets about his decision-making and gave himself a 100 rating on execution for the tournament. "Not to be arrogant, but I did everything that I needed to do without spinning out," he said.

Watson spent time on the water the 7 days preceding the tournament, some with his fiance and some with best friend and fellow FLW Tour pro Robbie Dodson, who's as good as there is on any of the Ozark lakes. He found the water clarity to be a little cloudier than is usual for this time of year. He noticed that on the second day of practice when he had a lot of followers, but very few fish committing to his bait. With Dodson in his boat, Watson was able to cover water with a variety of topwater baits while Dodson threw a Luck E Strike G5 crankbait. "The first day we practiced in some dirtier water and we found a decent bite still in the bushes," Watson said, "but the water was falling hard and I knew it wouldn't be long before it was out of the bushes." They ran up the White River the following day and Watson stayed with the topwater while Dodson stuck with cranking. Watson stuck a couple fish in the 3-plus pound range. "What I caught the second 3-pounder, Robbie stopped me and said, 'You'd be an idiot to not keep those baits in your hands,'" Watson recalled. "He said, 'Think about the stops we've made and you've caught three over 3 pounds. If you catch 15 (pounds) a day, you'll run awy with this thing.' I couldn't have agreed more. "It also helps when you have two experienced anglers throwing different baits. We weren't eliminating water; we were eliminating unproductive size and the most productive size fish were caught on that Luck E Strike Frantic Frog." Watson was banking on getting seven or so bites a day and he had plenty of water to cover to achieve that. "Figure from the mouth of Long Creek to Beavertown and up the White, there's no way I could fish every stretch in 17 days let alone 3," he said. Another key for Watson was his ability to share information with fellow competitors Casey Scanlon, Kelly Power and Greg Ryan, all in an effort to make sure they didn't recycle water amongst themselves. "I don't back track a lot of water here, and I think a lot of guys do, but they don't have the home-field advantage like me," he said. "Talking with those guys, we madesure we didn't recycle each other's water."

Competition:

Coming out of his practice, Watson figured a cumulative weight in the 42-pound neighborhood would have a shot at the win, but he knew a good start was imperative. He boated eight keepers on day 1, which brought breezy conditions that he used to his advantage. "It was blowing pretty good everywhere around Kimberling City so I was staying in the wind with the Whopper Plopper," he said. "I got a couple bites within 30 minutes of throwing it. I caught two keepers on back-to-back casts and that told me they'd eat it." He added another keeper snapping a spoon around a boat dock and used a crankbait to account for his fifth fish. The key, though, was the Whopper Plopper, a bait that fellow pro Ish Monroe turned him onto. "I found it going through Ish's stuff when he was at my house a few years back," he said. "I've been using it every since, but I've never been in a big tournament here to take advantage of it. The key was having the confidence to throw it all day long." He said he'd position his boat in 6 to 8 feet of water and make 45-degree angle casts toward the bank. Most of the fish, he added, would gulp the bait in the 2-foot range. "I was looking for rocks and running water that looked good and kept my trolling motor on high and fished fast," he added. His 14-05 haul put him in the Top 5 to start and it gave him more assurance that his topwater decision was correct. The topwater bite continued to be hot on day 2, but he wound up catching four of his fish on the new Luck E Strike Frantic Frog (see photo below) and another with a finesse jig off a dock. "I wasted three hours flipping boat docks," he said. "That's what you're supposed to be doing this time of year and every time I saw a shallow front, I'd flip it. I guess I should've been skipping them." The Whopper Plopper didn't produce, but he managed to catch 15-14 to take a somewhat commanding 4-pound lead into the final day. His bag was anchored by a 4-12 largemouth that he caught off a stretch he'd never fished before, an area Dodson had told him was usually good, but frequently overlooked. He endured "an agonizing morning" on the final day, but stuck with his topwater game plan and was eventually rewarded with a 16-01 bag that sealed the win.

"I started out with the Whopper Plopper on a windy bank and caught a short fish, then one that was barely a keeper," he said. "I found some slick water and threw the toad for a while without a bite, but caught two keepers on that." At 12:30, he was still with three fish, two of which he wanted to cull at the first chance. "I was going around a dock to go down a stretch of bank and I turned to Mike Webb, who driving the camera boat and said, 'It's too late to call an audible now,'" Watson said. "I knew if I kept doing what I was doing, sooner or later I'd run into some bass." He admitted being tempted to throw jigs around floating docks or pick up the spoon, but he finally got the clue he needed to stick with his topwater arsenal. "I went back to the Whopper Plopper and found some windy banks and had two fish miss it," he said. "That was my clue and I never put it down the rest of the day." He caught a 3 1/2-pounder off the end of a main-lake point, then went back to where he'd caught his big fish on day 2 and caught another one of comparable size. He wound up with eight keepers on the day. "I made the same cast I made when I caught that 4-12," he said. "I knew that gave me 15 pounds, at least."

Winning Gear:

Topwater gear: 7'6" heavy-action Waft Iron Feather casting rod, Johnny Morris Signature Series Carbonlite casting reel (7:1 gear ratio), 50-pound Maxima braided line, 5" River2Sea Whopper Plopper (loon). Watson recalled winning the PAA event using 65-pound braid, but opted for 50-pound last week for better casting distance.

Toad gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, 5/0 Zoom Horny Toad hook, Luck E Strike Frantic Frog (black). The Frantic Frog is one of the new baits in Luck E Strike's Chris Lane Live Motion Signature Series.

Main factor: "Most people don't think you can catch shallow topwater fish with bright skies in early October there. My commitment to those two baits is what won me the tournament. Most people would've called an audible, but I knew better with that weather."

Performance edge: "My batteries, which are made by The Lithium Battery Company. Since I've switched over to them, they've been amazing. Their study has shown that you can stand on 100 (on the trolling motor) for 13 hours before it's dead. My batteries were as hot on the last cast as they were on the first cast all week."

Table Rock Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 10/6/15 (Todd Ceisner)

Oneida Lake has always been good to Randy Howell, but it's been a central player in some gut-wrenching moments in the veteran angler's career. Prior to last week's Northern Open at the Central New York fishery, Howell had racked up four Top-20 finishes at Oneida in B.A.S.S. competition, including a runner-up placement in the 2012 Elite Series event there. As close friend Brent Chapman nailed down the Angler of the Year award, Howell carried the tournament into the final day, but fell one fish shy of a limit on day 4, opening the door for Boyd Duckett to take the victory. The loss has hung over Howell ever since, even through his Bassmaster Classic triumph at Lake Guntersville in 2014. At Oneida last week, Howell entered the final day in 2nd place, nearly 2 pounds behind leader Kraig Kettlekamp. Duckett, ironically, was also in the mix, holding steady in 5th place. Howell spent the final day scrambling for bites after a shift in the wind turned off the smallmouth in the area where he'd been catching them with topwater baits the first 2 days. With minutes left before having to check in, Howell caught a 3-pound smallmouth to finish his limit, then caught another 3-pounder on his last cast - he checked in with 45 seconds to spare - to get him the weight he needed to overtake Kettlekamp. Ultimately, Howell's 3-day total of 49-02, including the 14-09 he caught Saturday, was enough to hold off 2014 Forrest Wood Cup champion Anthony Gagliardi, who finished 2nd with 48-10. It was a fitting, dramatic conclusion to Howell's quest to finally conquer Oneida. "Words can't even express how it feels to finally get that and make it happen," a weary Howell said Sunday night from the shore of the Chesapeake Bay, site of this week's Elite Series event. "After all of the years I've been close there like in 2012. That taught me a lot, but it haunted me and I wanted redemption. "I don't know why, but God seems to allow things to happen in such a dramatic fashion for me. Every big tournament I've won, it's always come down to a crazy, last-second decision deal." Despite weighing in smaller bags each day, his last-minute dramatics were enough to clinch his second Open win in as many years. "Being consistent there always outweighs big fish in the end," he said, "Finally that paid off this time for me. It was the toughest I'd ever seen the lake fish. I want to ride this momentum now. I'd been consistent most of the year other than Guntersville. Winning that second-chance tournament at (BASSFest) gave me some momentum and this picked me back up after the St. Lawrence River. I'd love to win an Elite Series event. That's still my No. 1 goal."

Howell was fresh off a 44th-place finish at the St. Lawrence River when he arrived in Brewerton, N.Y., to start practice for the Open. He initially wanted to tap into a smallmouth pattern, then figure out how to catch better largemouth later on. "I thought I could figure out how to catch 15 or 16 pounds of smallmouth in a day," he said. "When I got there, the smallmouth bite was as tough as nails. I had no clue, at that point, that I could have a great tournament, let alone win." He discovered what would prove to be his best spot in the fading daylight of last Tuesday. "It was about 8:30 and I was one of the last ones on the water," he said. "I was throwing a Livingston Walking Boss with the hooks cut off and covering water on some flats. I had one big one blow up on it and then a bunch of other fish blew up around it so I knew that spot had some fish. You never know if they're there permanently or just chasing bait."

Competition:

Howell was in the later flight on day 1 and caught a nice fish on his second spot with a walking bait. "The morning bite had pretty much quit, though," he said. "My co-angler then caught one on a dropshot so I stayed there. I was getting ready to leave it again and he caught another one. If I had not had a co-angler with me, I might've left that spot. His catching those two made me slow down and figure it out." He mixed a dropshot and Carolina rig to coax a flurry of bites that resulted in catching three fish between 3 1/2 and 4 pounds on almost consecutive casts. "It was one little spot about the size of my boat," he said. "I knew it was a good school and I milked out three more bites. I didn't want to catch much more because I didn't know what all was there. Once I caught my fifth, my smallest was a 3-pounder. I stuck around a little bit longer and caught a 3 3/4." Howell initially thought his stringer was in the 17-pound range, so it was a nice surprise when it weighed 18-09 and put him in 2nd behind Kettlekamp. He returned to the same area on day 2 and was able to capitalize on the early-morning topwater action. He caught three on walking baits and finished his limit with two fish caught on plastics. He had six bites all day, one fewer than day 1. "They shut down early again," he added. His 16-00 stringer on day 2 (all smallmouth again) was still good enough to hold onto 2nd behind Kettlekamp. Howell had high hopes for the morning of day 3. He figured with the field reduced to 12 boats, he'd had have carte blanche on the flats where the smallies roamed. It went his way, but only for a short while. "I get out there and on my first cast across the school, it was like the whole school blows up on my bait," he said. "As I was snapping the line to get it untangled, the smallest fish in the school gets it." He threw back over and over again, but could only coax one other bite. "I fished them four or five times with every bait I had," he said. "That was so frustrating. They were the same fish I caught the first 2 days. That east wind is the worst wind when smallmouth fishing on that lake. There's something about that wind that shuts down those fish on the flats."

One other cue that told him something was different - the birds that had virtually led him to the key areas on the first 2 days were nowhere to be found. He flipped a 1 1/2-pound largemouth out of some grass for his second fish, but was firmly in scramble mode at that point. "My partner was a local guy and he said the point on the island we were near was usually good so we pulled in there and it was pretty slick," Howell said. "Right as we put down, one blows up off the bow. I make one throw and the first fish missed it, but a 4-pound largemouth sucked it under." He had four fish in his livewell for the next few hours. He started doing the weight scenarios in his mind about what he'd need to unseat Kettlekamp. That last thing he wanted to do was to come in without a limit. "The last 2 hours were coming to an end and I still only had four fish," he said. "I scrambled all over. With 15 minutes left, I was running around looking for birds diving. We were almost back to the ramp. It was like a perfect storm. I saw fish breaking and there were already some other guys there. I thought this was going to be it." He fished for a few minutes, but couldn't get a bite, then he caught a 3-pound smallmouth on a 3-inch Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad rigged on a 1/4-ounce jighead. That gave him a limit, but he wanted to get rid of that 1 1/2-pounder. "I knew I needed one more to win and I kept seeing 3s and 4s jumping," he said. "Everyone was leaving to head in. I had everything strapped down, but then saw two birds diving about 75 feet out in front of me. I stood up and made one last cast. I let it sink and felt the tick and set the hook. I winched him in as fast as I could. It was another 3-pounder. "I threw back the little one and ran as hard as I could back to check-in. The clock on my electronics said 2:00:15 when I came off plane so I had 45 seconds to spare. That was the most dramatic finish I've ever had in my career. To win by 8 ounces because of that cull was amazing. Had I looked at the clock and been nervous about time and not made that cast, I wouldn't have won."

Winning Pattern:

Howell said the vast majority of the fish he caught came out of 10 to 15 feet of water and he spent time on a lot of old waypoints. "I have so many waypoints there," he said. "We spent 4 days there fun-fishing last summer in between events and I just love the way it fishes. It can be tough and finicky, but there's something I like about it that suits my strengths. I don't know why I've done better there than anywhere else. There's something about it I love - the way fish move and change. It makes for a fun challenge." He also noted that the fish keying on shad were a little easier to catch than those feeding on perch.

Winning Gear:

Topwater gear: 7'4" extra-heavy Daiwa Steez casting rod, Daiwa Tatula casting reel (8:1 gear ratio), 70-pound Daiwa Samurai braided line, Livingston Lures Walking Boss (pure bone shad and XXX shad), Heddon Super Spook (bone and chrome). Howell says he also uses the same rod for frogging and big worms and heavy jigs. The Walking Boss has a more subtle action and he used that in calmer conditions. He switched to the heavier Super Spook when the wave action picked up.

Dropshot gear: 7'3" medium-action Daiwa Zillion spinning rod, Daiwa Ballistic 3000 spinning reel, 20-pound Daiwa J-Braid braided line (main), 12-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line (12" leader), No. 1 Daiichi dropshot hook, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Shad-Shaped Worm (watermelon green-pumpkin laminate), 3/8-oz. Do-It Molds dropshot weight. Howell also mixed in a wacky-rigged Senko and caught a few of his day-1 fish on a Carolina rig, using a small-profile crawfish and a goby imitator, the latter of which fooled a 4-pounder.

Main factor: "My faith and determination and perseverance and will to win. I had the strongest will and desire that I've ever had. I don't know why, but it was just a memorable deal from 2012 when I lost there."

Performance edge: "My Lowrance HDS 12 was really a big key. I had to spend a couple hours on the phone with them in practice trying to get waypoints sorted out from old files. Everything was cluttered up, but they helped me get them sorted by colors to make those little sweet spots stand out. On a lake like that, it's the little, subtle stuff that makes the big difference. There's no telling how many people fish over these spots."

Oneida Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 8/11/15 (Todd Ceisner)

When Thomas Martens watched television coverage of this year's Bassmaster Classic with his 9- and 7-year-old sons, he told the boys, "Someday daddy's going to be up there (on the Classic stage)." He couldn't have imagined that his self-fulfilling prophecy would become reality just 1 year later. Martens (no relation to Aaron), a practicing physician from the Austin, Texas area, won Saturday's abbreviated Bassmaster Classic Fish-Off by staging a huge rally in the day's second 4-hour session. He brought four fish to the scale that combined to weigh nearly 23 pounds, giving him a 28-14 total for the day. His performance earned him the final berth in the 2016 Classic, which will take place in early March at Oklahoma's Grand Lake. Now he'll have to rearrange his patient schedule so he can get to Grand for some pre-practice before the lake goes off-limits on Jan. 1. "I've never been there, but from what I hear, it fishes a lot like my home lake (Travis)," he said. "There's a lot of floating docks and a lot of rock. "That's nice to know, but I still need to spend some time there so I'll know what I'm looking at when I go back."

Martens had never been to Guntersville before arriving at the beginning of last week. His partner for the Bassmaster Team Championship, former Elite Series pro Dean Alexander, visited shortly before Thanksgiving and got onto a couple of things that they could use as a foundation for that portion of the event. They focused on grass humps for 2 days, but failed to catch much in the way of numbers and saw nothing that exceeded 2 1/2 pounds. Then late on the final practice day, Martens connected with a 7-pounder on a 7-inch Basstrix swimbait. "That gave me the confidence to throw that bait in the tournament," he said. "When you don't catch anything on a swimbait, it's hard to keep throwing it." They checked out a bridge on Brown's Creek that same day that was harboring a huge number of baitfish. They knew it would be fished by many of their competitors, along with a lot of local crappie anglers but there was just too much bass food available there to write it off.

Competition:

Martens and Alexander, who were representing the Texas B.A.S.S. Nation, finished as the runners-up in the Team Championship to Michigan's Christopher Risner and Timothy Eaton as they compiled 46-10 over 2 days. Their best fish came from the bridge in Brown's Creek. The Classic Fish-Off, featuring the six competitors who comprised the Top 3 teams fishing individually, was originally scheduled to be a 2-day affair. However, since day 2 of the Team Championship was canceled due to fog, it was shortened to a single day with two sessions that included both morning and afternoon weigh-ins. Martens allowed Alexander to take his pick of locales at the bridge to begin the Fish-Off, and Alexander selected a place near the bank that dropped off to a depth of 16 feet. That spot was unproductive, however, as the Tennessee Valley Authority didn't pull current on the weekend. Alexander departed at about 10 o'clock to try for some grass-oriented fish, and Martens moved in. He worked a jig extremely slowly and hooked two good ones, but both pulled off.

He decided he'd pull out the 7-inch swimbait and throw it for the rest of the day, hoping to pick up at least a few quality bites. He moved to the center of the bridge, to the lone passageway that wasn't occupied by a crappie anglers, and popped a 4-pounder and a 2 from 30 feet of water just minutes before he had to leave for the first weigh-in. He started the second session facing a 6 3/4-pound deficit to Louisiana's Nickolas LeBrun, but had been slightly encouraged when LeBrun mentioned at the weigh-in that he was probably out of fish. He returned to the same passageway that had produced his two morning fish, but couldn't entice any more bites. Then he moved around the bridge, to the back side, and loaded up. He boated a fish that exceeded 5 pounds almost immediately, followed by two more at 30-minute intervals. He missed one of similar size that he figured might cost him a chance at victory, but then picked up his fourth one with 30 minutes to go. "I thought I had a chance after that, but (winning) was unexpected," he said. "I've fished against that kid (LeBrun) on Sam Rayburn and I knew he was good. "All in all, the whole thing was just a great experience."

Winning Pattern:

Martens said that making the proper cast with the swimbait from underneath the bridge was exceedingly difficult. "I had to throw a 3/4-ounce head with a swimbait that probably weighed 3 ounces about 40 yards into an 8-foot area," he said. "It couldn't hit the ceiling and it had to come down soft. "I'd spool out line and then slow-roll it. There were two places where they'd hit it - just beyond the shade marker and right at the end."

Winning Gear:

Swimbait gear: 7' heavy-action Falcon Cara rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (5:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar Yellow Label fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce Revenge swimbait head, 7" Basstrix swimbait (ayu).

Main factor: "Knowing what type of fish were around that bridge and having confidence in that swimbait. With those type of fish, you only need four or five bites."

Performance edge: "That 17-pound Yellow Label line was a key on the final day - the water had definitely cleared up so I didn't want to throw 20, and 15 wasn't quite stout enough."

Classic Fish-Off Winning Pattern BassFan 12/15/15 (John Johnson)

Whitney Stephens knew he'd fished well on day 3 of last week's Lake Erie Bassmaster Northern Open, but he didn't think he'd done enough to win. "I felt like I'd probably stay around 3rd place," said the 33-year-old from Waverly, Ohio, who'd begun the day in that position. "I really didn't think I had it, but I wasn't disappointed - I knew I'd left everything on the water." As it turned out, his 20-05 stringer was enough to push him to the top of the final standings sheet and garner him a berth in next year's Bassmaster Classic. With a 65-01 total, he prevailed over runner-up Jeff Lugar by a little more than half a pound. Stephens, who co-owns a small chain of automated carwashes with his father and brother, had competed in 15 previous Northern Opens dating back to 2003, with a top finish of 19th. He lists the Ohio River as his home water, but he has a great deal of experience on Erie, having fished there since childhood on vacations with his family. He was never lower than 5th place in this one and moved up two spots with each succeeding weigh-in. His final-day stringer was his lightest of the event, but he took advantage of slip-ups by veterans Derek Remitz and Pete Gluszek, who'd failed to box limits after starting day 3 in the Nos. 1 and 2 positions, respectively.

Stephens' original plan was to practice from Sunday through Wednesday (the day before the start of the event), but the weather forecast threw a monkey wrench into that. "It was calling for really rough water from Saturday through Monday, so I talked a friend into going out with me the prior Wednesday and Thursday," he said. "The lake was flat and we got to run a lot of water, and those were really important days. "When I got back out on Tuesday, I found the area where I started on day 1, and I spent the rest of that day expanding on what I'd found on the 2 previous days. The fishing was better than it had been the prior week. here was a lot more bait present - a lot of shad balls and schools of perch - and the smallmouth were just gorging on them." He focused on the always-fertile waters in the vicinity of Pelee Island, focusing on the 23- to 28-foot depth range. "I was just running contour lines, looking for anything that broke the current. That could be a seam of rocks or just a 2-foot rise off the bottom. I'd locate them with the Side Imaging on my Lowrance and if they had bait, they had fish." He ended up with a series of nine locales, but he never got to fish one that he considered among the best during the tournament. "Jason Root sat on that one for all 3 days, and he ended up finishing 3rd."

Competition:

Stephens, who employed dropshot rigs utilizing three different baits throughout the derby, had the vast majority of his weight by 11 o'clock on day 1. "I caught them really good, and by about noon I started to lay off," he said. "It got to the point where I felt like I was burning some fish (that he might need later). "I tried some stuff that was out of the ordinary, trying to catch a 5-pounder, but that never happened." He was surprised by the 25 1/2-pound sack caught by day-1 leader David Reault and the 24 1/4 that Remitz took to the scale, so he leaned on his fish a bit harder on day 2. "I had a long day - I wasn't due in until 4:45, and by 1 or 2 o'clock I had over 22 pounds on my Rapala scale. After that I basically went practicing and I found an area that was crucial for day 3. "It was a place I hadn't checked (during practice) and they were biting good there. I caught a 4 1/4 there that gave me an extra quarter-pound." He was in 3rd place when the final day got under way. He opted to start on the place that he rated as the least-promising and work his way toward the place he'd discovered late on day 2. He didn't catch anything at his first stop and didn't mark any fish on his graph, either. He picked up one at his second locale, and then proceeded to boat about 30 more over the next 5 hours. "We'd had a northeast wind for the first 2 days, but on day 3 it was blowing 15 to 20 knots out of the east. That changed the current, and once I figured out how they were setting up, I could pull up and catch as many as I wanted. It was really good. "I was scratching and clawing for every bass I could catch because I felt like I was behind all day. I just kept fishing for the next bite and I stayed for 5 minutes longer than I'd given myself (the run back to the launch took about an hour). The last one I caught was a nice one and my leader was pretty much gone, so I just said, 'I'm done.'''

Winning Gear:

Dropshot gear: 6'9" medium-heavy Kistler All Purpose spinning rod, Shimano Stradic 3000 spinning reel, 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line (main line and 12- to 15-inch leader), size 12 Owner Micro Hyper barrel swivel, size 1 Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot hook, 1/2-ounce VMC tungsten dropshot weight, Z-Man Jerk ShadZ (smoky shad), Jackall Cross Tail Shad (black weenie) or Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm (green-pumpkin).

He used a 1/2-ounce homemade lead cylindrical weight on days 1 and 2. "I was running low on them, so I asked Jacob Wheeler if he had any and he gave me some of the VMCs. I really liked that tungsten - it's a lot more dense and I could see it a lot better on the graph."

Main factor: "Knowing when to leave one school and go to another. I never sat in one place for too long."

Performance edge: "I run the 2015 Skeeter FXi with a Yamaha SHO and it's the ultimate rough-water ride. Also, my Lowrance units were real crucial for knowing right where I needed to be and being able to get right back on those places."

Lake Erie Open Winning Pattern BassFan 9/28/15 (John Johnson)

Record-breaking cold. Plummeting water temperatures. A massive lake smack full of bass in a state of flux as a result of the arctic blast. Everything about this year's Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell seemed to line up against the anglers to make it one of the most grueling Classics in the 45-year history of the tournament. The pressure and intensity of the event is one thing when conditions are prime and the fish are chewing, but it may be a while before this particular Classic is surpassed in terms of the unique variables the competitors had to deal with on the water. Ice on rod guides, ice on reels, frozen livewells, boats frozen to trailers - things bass anglers typically don't have to deal with on a regular basis - were just some of the headache-inducers the Classic qualifiers encountered during the event. For Casey Ashley, a three-time Elite Series winner who also won an FLW Tour event at Hartwell early last March, he had to deal with all of that plus the burden and expectations that come with being the hometown favorite. Ashley displayed an unflappable confidence all through the event and, in fact, believes the ever-changing weather conditions - temperature ranged from a low of 10 on Friday to a high of 55 on Sunday - worked in his favor. When the stakes were at their peak on Sunday, Ashley had made-to-order conditions for his under-spin pattern in the form of clouds and off-and-on rain. The low-light conditions were prime for him to target fish hanging on a creek channel edge near Party Island. "I knew the first day I had an area with a good many fish in it and they were the right size," he said. "Did I think I could win out of that? No, but I knew I could go in there and get a solid limit to start with and then I'd have a chance to go run my deal with a jig fishing docks the rest of the day. After two days, that checked up very short so (Sunday) with it being so overcast and raining, that is the day you want to pick to throw that fish head. The weather played into my hands big time."

He posted solid weights of 15-03 and 14-11, respectively, across the first two days and faced a deficit of less than two pounds to day-2 leader Takahiro Omori entering the final day. His 20-02 stringer Sunday was the biggest among the 25 finalists and gave him the biggest win of his career and he did it by focusing on two areas not far from the Green Pond Landing launch ramp. Even he was surprised the Classic was won basically off one spot. "I would've never dreamed that there were that many fish there," he said. "I actually found those fish in practice on a jigging spoon right out in that timber after that cold snap. They were out in 44 or 45 feet and I was fishing them vertically jigging. I've spent a lot of time in both of those places. I've just never caught that many like that. "I pulled up there the first morning of the tournament and I love to throw that blade runner. It's what I do. I'll always start with that. It doesn't matter where I'm at. I eased up over top of those fish and saw that they were suspended and moved out on the flat out of the trees and I went to work on 'em. Pretty much everything I weighed came from there and I left them biting thinking I could do better somewhere else. I'd have burned like three gallons of gas if I'd have started there all week and been better off." Just six months after fellow Palmetto Stater Anthony Gagliardi prevailed amid the pressure of having the Forrest Wood Cup at his home lake (Murray), Ashley followed suit with his fifth career tour victory in his backyard. "As far as doing anything different, I played sports all through high school and I've always been a calm guy," he said. "In the bottom of the ninth when we need a hit to score a run, I'm not going to say I was a great athlete, but I always seemed to shine through when the pressure's on. I don't get rattled all that easily. I can tell you with all the hype and everybody expecting me to win and wanting me to do good, I wanted to do good, too, but all that talk doesn't catch fish. They're not going to jump in my boat because I'm the hometown boy. I knew I had a job to do and that's what I did."

Ashley said prep work for this Classic started roughly six years ago after Alton Jones took the win at the 2008 Classic at Hartwell. Ashley was still getting his footing as a tour pro back then and finished 17th in that Classic. "We had such a big turnout here in 2008 and I was pretty sure that sometime in my career the Classic would come back to Hartwell," he said. "I started (practicing) then. This was the tournament I wanted back very bad. I was young then and didn't know how to handle everything. It's been a long time coming. "Before Jan. 1, I got to spend a lot of time on the lake. I'm not going to lie to you, I've got good friends and they can dang sure catch 'em here and they can probably catch them better than anybody who fished this tournament, even me. I've had the opportunity to fish with some great fishermen and they've taught me a lot about the lake." In December, prior to the off-limits period, he checked on areas during the week "when nobody else was here." "I was hoping the lake level would stay where it's at," he said. "The lake level changes every year. That's why fishermen from around here are so versatile. We get a different lake every year. Certain areas are different depending on water level. Coming into this tournament, I'd have bet this trophy that it'd be won shallow, fishing docks with a jig." That played right into his wheelhouse as that's one of the tactics he employed to win the FLW Tour event last year. It held up on the first day of the pre-tournament practice period - he had 30 bites on a jig that day - and his confidence soared. With the jig/dock pattern seemingly locked in, he started searching for secondary plans. He used his electronics to scan some channel edges near the mouths of creeks where the bottom came off a flat and dropped in to 40 feet. "I'd already fished so many places and you waste so much time fishing so I just started idling places and if you can mark them here with your big motor running, there's a lot of 'em there because they don't like that in this clear water," he said.

Competition:

When the start of day 1 was pushed back 90 minutes due to the cold, Ashley didn't flinch. Other competitors winced, though, as they knew they wouldn't be able to capitalize on the fish that were feeding on herring around sunrise. "I've never fished in a tournament this cold like it was the first day," he said. "Not having any experience, I didn't really know any better. I did spray de-icer in all of my lids where they shut. The one thing I didn't think about was my livewells and that little bit of water in the bottom was frozen solid. My livewells wouldn't work the first morning of the tournament. I had to go out in the middle of the lake and do donuts backwards to get water to flow through there and thaw it out." Ashley immediately went to the area near Party Island and began fan casting with a horse head under-spin jig his father made with a Zoom Super Fluke Junior on it. He'd let it hit bottom and then slowly crawl it back to the boat. "It's small and compact," he said. "The way I fish it was a lot different than how a lot of guys fished it. A lot of guys use it for suspended fish. They'll throw it out and as soon as it hits the water, they start their retrieve. I do that, too, when the fish are up high, but I like to fish it on the bottom where a lot of guys would like to throw a jig over get over top of them and vertical fish them. I like to make long casts and work it painfully slow. "The first day when it was so icy, I had to dip my rod in the water twice during each cast to keep the ice off. That's how slow I had to fish it. The reason I do that is the water is so clear and when you get over top of those fish, even though they're in 40 feet of water, you're not going to catch many of them. They realize pretty quickly what's happening and they scatter. If you can stay off of them, you're apt to catch more." He didn't catch a ton of fish, but he laid a good foundation with 15-03. He caught his limit there and then went looking for upgrades with his jig around docks, but that pattern faded with the sub-freezing temperatures that knocked water temperatures down 5 to 7 degrees since practice. "I never had a bite doing what I did in the tournament in practice," he said. "I checked a lot of that stuff. That's just what that cold front did to the fish."

On day 2, with a full day to fish, Ashley went right back to the channel edge and bagged 14-11 to move up to fifth place, just 1-13 behind Takahiro Omori. Because the water was clear where he was, he said it was critical to not give the fish a clue that he was there. "In the tournament, when I'd go into those places, I'd stop way before I'd get to the fish and go in on my trolling motor and cut the back (Lowrance) unit off," he said. "I always keep my front graph on because at least that tells me - when you're fishing so deep and I'm making long casts that tells me where the fish are positioned, whether they're on the bottom or up high. That lets me know what I need to do with my bait. I always run my front unit." After seeing the forecast for the final day and knowing the cloud cover would allow him to work over those fish along the creek channel, he decided to scrap his plan to run docks later in the day in search of upgrades. "We had a lot of sun in practice last weekend and it pushed those fish out in the timber," he said. "Then we had that cold front and that little bit of wind we had, and they drifted back up on that flat." The 3-pound caliber fish he was catching the first two days suddenly became 4-pounders and he culled throughout the day Sunday to get to 20 pounds, and by 7:30 Sunday night, he was the newest member of the Classic champions club. "When I loaded my boat Sunday (at the ramp) and it was over and it was out of my hands, I was a nervous wreck," he said. "I knew I had to catch a big bag, and the weather was textbook for me. It all came together, and I could just see it getting closer and closer and closer." He became just the third angler to win the Classic in his home state.

Bassmaster Classic Winning Pattern Bassfan 2/24/15 (Todd Ceisner)