BASS Mississippi River Winning Baits, Gear & Patterns

On a fishery as vast as the upper Mississippi River, maybe one out of every 10 professional anglers will find locations that harbor winning-quality fish that they can have pretty much to themselves over the course of a multi-day tournament. Of that 10 percent, maybe probably less than half will fully capitalize on a great area's potential Ð the remainder will leave too early, show up too late, miss key bites, employ the wrong techniques, etc. That's just the nature of the game, and it's why the pros always say that to win an event at that level, just about everything has to go right for the entire week.

Todd Faircloth had one of those weeks at the Bassmaster Elite Series derby staged out of La Crosse, Wis. The veteran from Texas snatched the lead on day 2 and held it the rest of the way on a fishery that's teeming with eager-to-bite 2-pounders but somewhat short on larger specimens, which made bag weights ridiculously tight throughout the 98-angler field. He took a 7-ounce lead into the final day and sacked 14 1/2 pounds for a 1-04 margin over runner-up Cliff Pace. It was his third career Elite Series victory and first since 2008. On the first day of practice, Faircloth found the area in Pool 8 he'd begin each competition day on. "I was just running down the river and I came to a big grass flat Ð the biggest one I'd seen so far," he said. "I kind of idled in and started looking around, and I saw some openings over by an island. "I caught a couple real quick, and then I started expanding on it a little bit. There was a cut in the grass and I kept following it and kept getting bit, and there was a big hole at the end and I got several bites in there. I knew that was going to be my starting place."

The flat was just a short distance off the main channel, and the water on the innermost side was considerably cleaner than most of the river (the Mississippi was running high and off-color for this time of year due to recent rains to the north). "One of the big deals was it had current coming through it. I got half of my weigh-in fish from there." His other significant spot was the mouth of a small bay Ð the back portions of which were popular among several fellow competitors. "There was a big grass flat that ran out with ditches on both sides. The outside edge was dirty, but if you went inside, right where the water color started to transition was the key place. The water there was 3 to 5 feet deep, whereas in the starting spot it was 1 to 2 feet." He described the vegetation as a mixture of milfoil and hydrilla, along with "some type of cabbage-looking stuff" and some duckweed. "It seemed like the matted stuff where the duckweed created a canopy was the best. I caught some punching there, and also some on top." He found that he could bring fish to the surface with a frog and a shad-imitation topwater with frog-style hooks. For punching, he used a creature bait under a 1 1/4-ounce weight. He also picked up a few fish on competition days on a swim-jig and a fluke-style bait.

Competition:

Faircloth caught a 15-pound sack on day 1 to position himself among the leaders, just a pound and a half back of early pace-setter Kyle Fox. He then made his big move on day 2 with a stringer that was the second-best of the tournament, and he held the top spot the rest of the way. He had a limit by 8:15, and one of those fish was a 5-03. That bruiser equaled one caught by 3rd-place finisher Terry Butcher as the biggest of the event. He had almost no company on either of his best areas on any of the 4 days. "On the second day Rick Morris came in and fished a little bit," he said. "We talked at the weigh-in and he was very courteous in letting me have it the rest of the tournament." Weights were down across the board on day 3, which featured gray skies and intermittent thundershowers. He began that day with a 12-ounce advantage and was still up by 7 ounces when it was over despite not boating a fish that weighed more than 3 1/4 pounds. The early part of the final day went well for him as he had a decent sack by 10:00, but his action slowed down dramatically at that point. He'd thought the return of the sun would enhance his mid-day punching bite, but that didn't occur. After continually rotating through several locales, including some that he hadn't fished yet during the tournament, he returned to his primary late-day with a half-hour to go and flipped up a 3-pounder. That fish replaced one that was a little over 2 pounds and it's likely that he wouldn't have held off Pace without it.

Winning Gear:

Frog gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Castaway Skeleton Series rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 50-pound Spiderwire Ultracast braided line, unnamed hollow-belly frog (white). Punching gear: 7'6" heavy-action Castaway Skeleton Series flipping stick, same reel and line, unnamed 1 1/4-ounce weight, unnamed 4/0 round-bend hook, 4" Yamamoto Kreature (black/blue). He clipped the wings off the Kreatrue so that it would penetrate the vegetation more easily. He threw the shad-imitating topwater (shad color) on the same gear as the frog. He said he doesn't know the name or manufacturer of the bait. His swim-jig was a 1/4-ounce All-Terrain Tackle model trailed by a Yamamoto single-tail grub (both green-pumpkin). The fluke-type offering was a Yamamoto D Shad (junebug) attached to a 4/0 round-bend hook that was ti to 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon.

Main factor: "I think it was the areas. I had two really good spots and I was able to expand on the second one a little bit on day 2 when I had the big stringer. I started exploring around and found a couple key stretches that paid big dividends on the last 2 days."

Performance edge: "My Skeeter/Yamaha always plays a big role, but I'd also have to say the line, rods and reels. I was pulling those fish out of some really heavy stuff."

Cliff Pace logged his second runner-up finish in as many events. He spent a lot more time along the main-river channel than the other top finishers, and the result was a lot more smallmouths Ð he weighed at least two bronzebacks each day and four on the final day when his 16-01 stringer was the best in the field. He didn't attempt to work through big numbers of fish, as most of the field did. He was interested only in the ones that would make a difference in his sacks. "I did a lot of cranking out in the current and I caught some in the grass on a frog," he said. "I also had a little outside pattern in deeper water, and I used a Carolina rig for that. "Different baits produced different numbers (of fish) on different days. (On day 4) I caught most of them on the crankbait, but the biggest ones came on the Carolina rig.

He spent the first 3 days in Pool 8 (the launch pool) before taking a gamble and locking upstream to Pool 7 to begin day 4 on a place he'd found during practice. When that didn't produce, he locked back down and caught his day-best bag. "I fished about 25 spots each day Ð places that were just a little inside of the main-river current. The water was rising about 4 inches a day and the current was getting stronger and stronger, and it was concentrating the fish on the edge. It took all the fish that were on a 100-yard bank and put them on a 20-yard stretch where there was still current, but not as much. "I fished grass, wood and rock, but it was more about finding the little bit of slower current next to the fast current. Then whatever (cover) was in that area, they would use. They had to be on whatever was there."

Cranking gear: 7' medium-heavy Castaway Skeleton Series rod, unnamed casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 15-pound Hi-Seas 100% fluorocarbon line, Jackall Aska 60 SR (crawfish).

Frog gear: 7'3" heavy-action Castaway Grass Master Braid rod, unnamed casting reel (6.4:1), 65-pound Hi-Seas Grand Slam braided line, Jackall Iobee Frog (black).

Carolina-rig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Castaway Skeleton Series flipping stick, 15-pound Hi-Seas 100% fluorcarbon (main line and 3-foot leader), unnamed 3/4-ounce weight, plastic bead, 4/0 Gamakatsu round-bend hook, V&M Super Finesse worm (black grape).

Main factor: "Having a lot of small, isolated places to fish instead of just one area. A lot of guys just found one place, and then after 2 or 3 days of them and other guys beating it up, it got a lot harder to get a quality bite."

Peformance edge: "I'd say the Hi-Seas line. I caught some big smallmouths out of horrendous cover in that current and I never broke a fish off all week."

Terry Butcher was the only Top-12 finisher who locked each day. He focused on a single stretch in Pool 7 that was laden with various types of grass. "Some of it was milfoil, or duckweed matted over milfoil, and one area was just slime," he said. "The slime area was nasty and there was nothing under it Ð just a few pads mixed in that held it up. That was the best patch I had as far as quality." He said there were about 20 anglers out of the original field of 98 who locked up on the first 2 days, but he had no competition on the quarter-mile stretch where he spent the whole tournament. He averaged more than 2 dozen keepers a day and boated 35 on the final day. He caught 16 of his 20 weigh-in fish on a frog (four of his five each day) and the others on a spinnerbait.

Frog gear: 6'10" heavy-action Wohali rod, Ardent XS1000 casting reel (6:1 ratio), 50-pound PowerPro braided line, Booyah Pad Crasher (black or bullfrog).

Spinnerbait gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Wohali rod, Ardent Edge casting reel (6:1 ratio), same line, 1/2-ounce Booyah spinnerbait (white with silver willow-leaf main blade and smaller orange Colorado blade).

Main factor: "Having that little stretch to myself."

Performance edge: "The Power-Poles came in real handy. I could put them down and sit there and catch 10 or 15 fish off one place."

Jamie Horton notched the best finish of his rookie campaign primarily on the strength of his day-2 bag, which was the biggest of the tournament. It came together when he spotted a couple of mayflies in the air and then pinned down the site of a huge hatch Ð about a dozen nearby rock jetties. His grass action was centered on the back side of milfoil stands where the duckweed and scum on the top had survived the constant pounding from the wind. The fish were holding within a foot or 2 of the edge of the milfoil. "On the last day I noticed some mats that hadn't been there all week, and when I went over there to look it was all (spent) mayflies," he said. "The fish would come right through them and bust that frog. He caught all of his weigh-in fish from Pool 8 and 19 were enticed by the frog. The other, a 3 1/2-pounder, bit a Dirty Jig Tackle swim-jig. "I usually couldn't get bit for the first hour until the sun came up. The rain (on day 3) really hurt me."

Frog gear: 7' extra-heavy Carrot Stix Wild casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel (7:1 ratio), 60-pound Berkley Trilene Big Game line, Booyah Pad Crasher (black/red or pearl belly/green back).

Main factor: "Seeing the flies."

Performance edge: "The Trilene Big Game line. You really put your line to the test up here with all the northern pike."

While just about everyone else was pounding the shallows, Aaron Martens was off by himself catching shad-oriented fish in 10 to 15 feet of water from the Black River tributary in the launch pool. There wasn't a patch of grass in the vicinity. His primary locale was a narrow channel that ran for about 150 yards before culminating in a pond at the back end. "It was a really good spot," he said. "There was a lot of bait in there and a lot of fish and it had a sandy bottom." He might've been the only angler to throw a dropshot all week. His other main bait was a flutter spoon Ð another offering that certainly didn't see a lot of action from his fellow competitors. He appeared to be a major threat to win after sacking more than 16 pounds on day 3, but he thinks the giant mayfly hatch that occurred that night caused his fish to become suspended and difficult to catch on day 4 as bugs constantly fell from the trees.

Dropshot gear: 6'10" Megabass Orochi X4 Aaron Martens Limited rod, Shimano Stella spinning reel, 7- or 8-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 1/8 or 3/16-ounce dropshot weight, 4/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 6" Roboworm Fat Worm (Aaron's magic or MMIII). He also fished the worms wacky-style on a 1/0 Gamakatsu dropshot hook.

Spoon gear: 7'11" medium-heavy Megabass Orochi X4 Seven Eleven rod, Shimano Metanium DC casting reel, 16-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, unnamed 5" flutter spoon (chrome).

Main factor: "The spot in general and the gizzard shad that were coming through."

Performance edge: "I pushed my Phoenix 921 boat and my Mercury 250 motor long and hard and they were very good to me."

Mississippi River Winning Pattern Bassfan 6/26/12 (John Johnson)

Mississippi Patterns 2-5 Bassfan 6/27/12 (John Johnson)