Keith Combs' Pattern, Baits & Gear

Keith Combs spent almost off of his practice time in deep water and caught a strong bag out there with a dropshot rig on day 1 of the event. However, midway through day 2, he realized he'd have to run an audible. "Based on last year, I thought it would be won out deep and I didn't fish shallow very much at all in practice," he said. "I had a shallow area where I'd caught a few last year and I went there one time, but it wasn't happening in there.

"I think I made a really good call about halfway through the second day," he said. "I had a couple of good fish, but it became apparent that what I'd found out deep wasn't going to be enough to do anything Ð even get to the third day. That's when I picked up a jerkbait and a (Strike King 5XD crankbait) and started covering a tremendous amount of water. If you threw enough times and covered water fast enough you'd get a few good bites." He said his fish were pretty much equally distributed between the dropshot, jerkbait and crankbait and he also picked up a few on a tube.

Gear:

Dropshot gear: 7'3" medium-action Shimano Zodias rod, Shimano Stella 2500 spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line (main line, hi-vis yello), 10-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon (12' leader), 1/2-ounce Strike King Tour Grade tungsten weight, 2/0 Owner Mosquito Hook, 2.75" Strike King 3X ElazTech Baby Z Too soft jerkbait (Arkansas shiner).

Jerkbait gear: 6'10" medium-action Shimano Zodias rod, Shimano Curado DC casting reel (7.4:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Strike King KVD Deep Jerkbait.

Cranking gear: 7' medium-action Shimano Curado fiberglass composite rod, same reel and line as jerkbait, Strike King 5XD or 6XD (yellow perch).

Bass Elite Tour St. Lawrence 2-5 Patterns BassFan 8/21/19 (John Johnson)