Cory Johnston's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Cory Johnston logged his third consecutive Top-10 finish to move from outside the 2021 Bassmaster Classic cutline (40th place) to 13th in the Angler of the Year standings. He didn't have to burn much gas to do it, spending the vast majority of his time within a 5-mile radius in the Metro Park area. He ended up with a total that was half a pound less than winner Bill Weidler's. He targeted sand flats with isolated grass in 16 to 21 feet of water. He rotated through half a dozen locations, but there were three that produced well above the others and two of those he had entirely to himself. "It was just a matter of getting in the right areas and grinding it out," he said. "The real key was the Garmin LiveScope - without that you're basically at a huge disadvantage. I saw about 90 percent of the fish (on his graph) way out and I could cast to them before they were under the boat.
"You could find a group of fish that would be there one day, but the next day they were gone. I had to keep covering water until I came across a group of them." He located a sunken barrel that seemed to be a smallmouth magnet. There were five hanging around it on day 1 and he picked off each one of them, and he found two there the next morning and caught them both. All of his fish came on a dropshot rig utilizing various baits.
Gear:
Dropshot gear: 7' medium-light Daiwa Tatula Elite Cody Meyer Dropshot rod, size 3000 Daiwa Exist spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid (main line), 8-pound Seguar Tatsu fluorocarbon (10' leader), 3/8-ounce Woo Tungsten teardrop-style weight, size 1 Gamakatsu Aaron Martens TGW Drop Shot hook, Strike King Baby Z-Too (shad colors), Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm (green-pumpkin) or Berkley MaxScent Flatnose Minnow (green-pumpkin).
Bassmaster Elite Lake St. Clair 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 8/26/20 (John Johnson)
