Justin Atkins' Pattern, Baits & Gear
It took Atkins a while to eliminate other patterns such as brush and running the bank, but he thinks had he had the area he found to himself he may have been able to capture a second straight Cup. "I went up before cutoff, but found nothing I liked," he said. "I looked for brush and rode around to see what looked like what. I was also there in May for a Berkley photo shoot and there were a bunch of wolfpackers running the bank. When I went back before cutoff, I knew it wasn't the deal. In practice, I spent an hour going down the bank and knew that wasn't the deal. I knew I needed to be offshore." He invested some time trying to figure out the standing timber fish.
"If I found them there, I'd have them to myself," he said. "I couldn't get that figured out." Next on his checklist was brush piles, a pattern he enjoys, but Ouachita and him didn't get along in that regard. "I love to brush pile fish, but I stayed so hung up on those piles there and I don't know what it was, but I kept getting hung up and quit because I was getting so ticked off," he added.
He spent a half day up each fork on the western end of the lake during official practice and it wasn't until the middle of day 2 that he discovered the ledge scenario in the back of the south fork. "The fish were set up where the current hits places directly," he said. "Noticed a ditch swing where it made a 90-degree bend and saw fish there. I made a cast and caught one. "That arm was definitely more stained than the others and that made it a better arm altogether. I knew that arm had some flow or whether it was from them drawing the lake down, but the fish were set up perfectly where a school should be."
Atkins said the ledges were predominantly in 15 to 18 feet and he said there were about a half-dozen spots where he marked bass in similar scenarios. "I got a clue real quick by checking something that looked right," he said. "Nothing is ever by chance, so I went from there." Atkins was the last boat out on day 1 and never got in a favorable rotation until the end of the day. "I got left with seconds all day long," he said. "When everybody left, I was able to make magic happen." He plugged along until he had 9-14, which had him in 10th.
He relied on three different presentations throughout the tournament: a Neko-rig, a spoon and a version of the Wing Ding a friend of his makes. He threw the latter when fish came up schooling. "I'd throw it out and reel as fast as possible to keep it on top," he said. "Other times, I'd throw it out and they'd get it on the initial sink. It's just something we use at Ross Barnett and in central Mississippi. Any time I'm at a lake where they school, I have them in the boat. I had them at Murray last year, but they were eating a 7-inch topwater there so I didn't need them. I liked it because the bait they were eating was so small, plus it's heavy so you can throw it a long way." As the fishing pressure increased in the area over the course of the tournament, Atkins had to move around frequently to re-locate the smaller schools, which were a mix of largemouth and spots. "The traffic made it a lot tougher," he said. "Those fish would get real boat-shy."
Gear:
Spoon gear: 7'10" medium-heavy Abu Garcia Ike Delay Series casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line, unnamed 4" spoon (hammered metal),
He replaced the hook on the spoon with a size 1 Berkley Fusion 19 treble hook.
Neko rig gear: 7' medium-action Abu Garcia Fantasista Premier spinning rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier 30 spinning reel, 8-pound Berkley Fireline Ultra 8 superline, 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line (leader), 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, nail-weighted 7" Berkley PowerBait Fatty Bottom Hopper (red bug).
The version of the Wing ding Atkins threw is made by a friend of his. It was a 3/4-oz. model and he tied a #6 Berkley Fusion 19 treble on the line with a bobber stop pinned to the head.
He also mixed in a Berkley PowerBait Rib Toad (ghost watermelon) rigged on 5/0 Fusion 19 EWG superline worm hook.
Main factor: "Fishing off the bank is where I'm most comfortable. Just knowing that's where you can win because it's so hard to win going down the bank."
Performance edge: "My Humminbird Mega Imaging. I've done really well in August and September finding fish when everybody else wasn't looking offshore. Lake Murray (last year) and this year and the BFL at Barnett last year, I credit my success to my electronics. I believe in them a lot."
FLW Tour Forrest Woods Cup at Lake Ouachita Winning Pattern BassFan 8/16/18 (Todd Ceisner)
