Chris Lane's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Chris Lane had never before thrown a Dahlberg Whopper Plopper, now marketed by River2Sea, before coming to Toledo Bend.
"My neighbor (in Guntersville, Ala.) gave me two of them and asked me if I wanted to try them," he said. "I told him that I'd heard about them and I'd love to try them. I brought them over here and the first strike I had, halfway through the first practice day, was a fish that weighed 10 to 12 pounds. I had it all the way to the boat - I wanted to get a picture of it - but it got off. That's when I realized I needed to put new hooks on them.
"I liked the way it worked. I'd been throwing a buzzbait before and had some come up behind it and blow up on it and not get it. I didn't get a whole lot of bites on the Whopper Plopper, but the ones I did get were all in the 5-pound class."
He threw it for a couple of hours the next day without success, then crossed to the other side of the lake and connected with an 8-pounder. He then removed the hooks and continued to throw it throughout practice.
"I did have to learn how to fish it. I threw it on the points with scattered grass with a steady retrieve - not fast and not slow.
"It's kind of a hard way to fish. I'd get that thing hung up in the grass on a long cast and I'd have to rip it out. My wrist and hands are sore, but I have no regrets."
He also caught some weigh-in fish on a Zara Spook and flipped up a few with a Luck-E-Strike Drop Dead Craw. He picked up a lone 4 1/2-pounder on a white Snag Proof frog.
Topwater gear: 7'4" medium-heavy titanium rod, casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 50-pound Stren Braid, River2Sea Dahlberg Whopper Plopper (white) or Zara Spook (white).
Flipping gear: Same rod, reel and line, 1/2-ounce weight, 4/0 Lazer TroKar flipping hook, Luck-E-Strike Drop Dead Craw (Okeechobee craw).
Main factor: "I just kind of followed what the fish were doing throughout the week."
Performance edge: "The Stren braided line, hands down. I was making the hardest, longest casts I could and catching giant fish, and my hooksets were good. I've been using it since before I was sponsored by Stren and it's the best braided line, period."
