FLW 2013 Winning Patterns

Prior to the opener of the Texas EverStart Series schedule at Lake Amistad, Austin Terry hadn't done much fishing over the winter. He'd been busy working as a hunting guide in south Texas and his initial day of practice 5 days before competition was his first day on the water in about 2 months. It helps that he considers Amistad his home waters, so he didn't have a whole lot of catching up to do. He left that part to the rest of the field. After averaging better than 22 1/2 pounds over the first 2 days, the 21-year-old carried a 5-01 cushion into the final day. Despite a slower bite on day 3, he sacked 13-13 to close out the victory with a 59-03 total, a tick under 2 pounds better than runner-up Keith Combs. "I came into this tournament with the intention of winning it," he said after referencing his 9th-place result in last year's Amistad EverStart. "I wasn't going to go out there and fish dumb, though. I was going to fish smart and try to make the Top 10 and go from there. That was my goal." He said it's easily the biggest win of his life. "It's definitely No. 1 by quite a bit," he said. "All of those Top 10s don't really compare to winning one because there's such a big gap from say a 5th to a 1st." Considering he's set to make his FLW Tour debut in less than 2 weeks at Lake Okeechobee, the victory has enhanced his confidence - and wallet - heading into the next phase of his fishing career. "Winning it and going right into the Tour, it gives me a huge boost of confidence that I can go compete with any of those guys and it can happen," he said. "It helps, too, knowing I can go into the Tour knowing I don't have to draw a check at every single event, but that's still going to be my goal. I'm going to fish it like I need one in every tournament."

Terry hadn't fished a tournament since last year's EverStart Championship at the Ouachita River and he put in about a week of on-the-water prep at Amistad. His initial focus was to formulate a pattern he could use across a lot of water that would allow him to catch limits of 3-pounders instead of fish in the 2- to 2 1/2-pound class. Only then would he start the hunt for a kicker fish, which Amistad is known for. "A 5- or 6-pounder went a long way last week," he said. "Normally, you need five of those. It was pretty tough to keep on them and get one a day." Early on in practice, catching numbers wasn't a problem as he got bit throwing a square-bill crankbait around points and drains that had some shallow grass and subtle drops nearby. However, drought conditions in the region continue to drag the water level down and he feared come tournament time, he'd have to find something else. He spent some time out deep, thinking some bigger fish could be had with a deep-diving crank or a football jig on some ledges, but he couldn't generate much either way. "I went back shallow to what I'm used to and comfortable with and I knew there wasn't a lot of good stuff up shallow and everyone was going to find it, but that's where I'm comfortable on that lake," he said. "I stuck with the bait I knew would work and kept fishing and figured them out in some areas." With the water temperature climbing about a degree a day, he sensed that a wave of fish could start moving up to start their spawning ritual, so he refocused his efforts on the drains and points with the key being those that had some wood mixed in with shallow grass. "They didn't need to have a steep drop, but they couldn't be too flat," he said. "It just needed a little drop and preferably a couple sticks left in the shallow grass. There seemed to be fish on a lot of them."

Competition:

The tournament opened under overcast skies with some fog hanging over the lake, conditions that hadn't been seen throughout practice. Terry opted to hunt for a solid limit early on with his square-bill pattern, but the area that he'd been catching 3-pounders in during practice only kicked out 2-pounders or smaller on day 1. He only had two fish by 10 a.m., the biggest being a 3-pounder. He still had plenty of spots to run to if needed and with a 4:30 check-in, enough time to do it. Around 10:30, while working the square-bill over a ledge, he stuck one close to 9 pounds that accounted for nearly half of his day-1 weight. "From there I just started looking for solid keepers because I knew they'd make a big difference," he said. He made a move to an area downlake and upgraded several times on a swimjig in shallow grass before backing off the area in an effort to preserve it. "In all of these drains in this little cove there'd be some grass in the very, very back of them," he added. "There'd only be about a foot of water, 2 if we were lucky. The mouth of the cove was only about 10. As soon as the jig hit the water, I'd start burning it back and hold my rod straight up. Almost every one, you'd be able to sense when they were going to bite." From there, he picked up a swimbait, one of his confidence baits at Amistad, and caught a 3 and several others like it which gave him a clue that some better quality fish might be starting the move toward the bank. "I was seeing some good ones and a couple of them were starting to bite," he said. "The water temperature was up close to 60 and I was seeing more wolf packs and some bigger fish, even a couple real big 'uns." His 19-05 day-1 stringer had him in 7th place.

In the morning on day 2, he ran through the same spots from day 1 and got the same results - just average-sized keepers, but no kicker. He made the move to the cove downlake a little earlier than he had on the first day, thinking they might bite better under the fog. He threw the swimbait and swimjig around for a good while, but only got two bites. Once the sun broke through about 1:30, however, the feeding bell sounded and the action picked up. "It was like a whole bunch of them started moving up," he said. "I saw even more that day." He had a limit of cookie-cutter 3-pounders, but he was fearful it wasn't going to be enough to make the Top-10 cut. "I'd been burning the swimjig on the surface and it seemed like the faster I reeled it, I think it just triggered the fish into more of a reaction bite," he said. He moved into a bigger pocket where he'd marked several fish and after not getting bit up shallow with the swimjig, he swung his boat around and picked up his swimbait and threw out toward the mouth of the pocket. "I made a couple of casts and started coming down the bank, throwing down the edge of the drain," he said. "I'd been slow-rolling it, but then I remembered how they were biting the swimjig when I'd burn it back so I tried that on my next cast." It resulted in a 6 1/2-pounder that inhaled the swimbait. He was confident then he had enough to make the cut. As he continued to work through the area, he went back to slow-rolling the swimbait, but wasn't getting bit. Around 2:30, he moved into another pocket and did as he had before - swung the boat around so he could cast his way out of the cut. Just two casts later, while burning it back to the boat, he felt a decent thump. "It was one of those bites where when you set the hook, you hope you got it," he said. "Sometimes, they'll get it, but they go for another inhale and if you don't wait for that second thump you're pulling it out of them while they're trying to get it that second time. I made sure I waited because I'd caught so many. I set it as hard as I could." The fish made a beeline toward the middle of the drain, where it was only 6 or 7 feet deep. After a good tussle, he was able to get it to the boat and in the net. It was the kicker he was looking for - a 10-pounder that anchored his 26-01 sack, the tournament's heaviest stringer, and pushed him into the lead with 1 day remaining. "I didn't realize it was that big. I though it was another 7-pounder," he said.

Things toughened up on the final day, but he was still confident he could close out the win knowing he had a 5-pound cushion. "I was so pumped after weighing in on day 2 and seeing what I saw on day 2," he said, adding that he eyed multiple other fish in the 9-pound range cruising the shallows. "I knew that if the weather got right, I could possible catch a bigger bag. "As nervous as you think you'd be and seeing I had a 5-pound lead, I knew that wasn't a lot on that lake, but the way it's been fishing I knew having a 5-pound lead, I was confident I could catch 15 because catching 20 pounds was very hard to catch last week." The 10-pounders didn't show themselves on day 3, but his 13-13 limit was more than enough to seal the win. He caught all of his fish out of 2 feet of water. "I had so many wolf packs of fish and spots all around the lake that I knew I could just pull up to a point and fish it and then move to the next one if I needed to," he said.

Winning Pattern:

Despite the drought conditions and water release, the warmer weather that brought the water temps up helped Terry key in on those pockets that led into the spawning coves. He started seeing beds being made on day 2 and that told him some bigger fish would be on their way to the shallows. When throwing the swimjig, he would cast across the points and rip it through the grass. "In the very backs of the pockets where the grass came out, I'd throw right up to the edge of it and keep it right over the top of it," he said. "There wasn't a whole lot in there. It couldn't be on the bottom. It had to have little patches where they had something they could get under and hide."

Winning Gear:

Swimjig gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Falcon Mike McClelland Signature Series Cara Swimjig rod, Lew's Speed Spool casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Revenge Baits swimjig (bluegill and white), Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer (Spanish fly and white trash). He trimmed a little bit of the head off the Skinny Dipper to cut down on short strikes. He went with the bluegill under cloud cover and switched to white under sunny skies.

Swimbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Falcon Cara casting rod, Lew's Speed Spool casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), same line, 1/0 Owner Stinger treble hook, 6" Jerry Rago Baits Skeet Reese SKT Swimmer (shad).

Crankbait gear: 6'10" heavy-action Falcon BuCoo Micro Pitchin' Stick, same reel as swimbait, 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Fury Lures F-4 Phantom square-bill crankbait (shellcracker and sexy shad).

Main factor: "I'd say just fishing all those little drains on Amistad. I've learned from one of the main guides there (Ray Hanselman) over the last year and I learned a bunch about how the fish set up. Also, that swimjig is my confidence bait on that lake. One of the main things I learned last year was no matter how your day's going, especially on Amistad, at any time you could hit a spot in 2 feet of water and catch 25 pounds real quick."

Performance edge: "My Falcon Rods. The BuCoo Series is a lot lighter rod with the split grip. I like them for more of the reaction baits. They seem to have a more parabolic bend to them and the rod can absorb a lot, but then all of a sudden, they hit the backbone and you can boat-flip 7- and 8-pounders."

By Todd Ceisner BassFan Editor

TW Staff

Denny Brauer may have retired from tour-level competition, but that was more of a lifestyle choice rather than an inability to compete at the sport's top level. The 64-year-old continues to prove that he's highly capable of putting a whipping on a field of younger competitors. His latest conquest came last week at the Toledo Bend Texas EverStart, where he amassed a 56-08 total over 3 days to earn his first FLW victory in his 40th event with that organization. He took over the lead on day 2 and closed out the win with a 17-pound sack on the final day. His margin over runner-up Dustin Grice was a little under 3 pounds. Here's how he did it. Brauer, who now resides in Del Rio, Texas, after spending the bulk of his long career living in Missouri, said that practice for the Toledo Bend event became largely irrelevant when the area was hit with heavy rain and wind in the days leading up to it. He spent a day and a half exploring the northern end, but didn't find much that held his interest. He stayed in the southern part on another day and got two bites off of a stretch of docks, and those ended up being the keys to his eventual victory. "I had a couple of other deals working," he said. "There were some deep, grassy points where I could get some football-jig bites in 25 feet of water. I tried that for an hour on day 1 and didn't get a bite, so I went right back to the boat docks and keyed in on them for the rest of the tournament."

Competition:

Brauer still wasn't completely settled on a gameplan when the field took to the water on day 1. The docks where he'd gotten the bites in practice were nearby the launch in Hemphill, Texas, so he opted to start there. He made a pitch to a grassy area between two rows of docks and connected with a 6-11 that took big-bass honors. That fish, combined with four average speciments, allowed him to end the day in 3rd place, slightly more than 3 pounds off of Grice's 20-02 pace. Day 2 got off to an inauspicious start, but it got better as it wore on. "I re-ran the stretch where I'd caught them the first day and didn't get any bites," he said. "When that happened, I knew I had to expand. "I eventually kept hunting and pecking on one stretch that was loaded up. I probably caught 15 keepers, and I had three big ones (in the 5- to 6-pound class) that allowed me to piece together a good bag." He went to bed with a lead of better than 2 1/2 pounds over Grice. A storm front then moved in overnight and made things a bit tougher for everybody on a windy final day. He said the fish were "tentative and hard to hook" on day 3. Nonetheless, he managed to boat nine keepers, and the five he averaged nearly 3 1/2 pounds apiece. He was pretty comfortable with what his livewell contained as he headed back to the launch for the final weigh-in. "I'd started out almost 3 pounds ahead of the guy in 2nd and about 9 over the guy in 3rd, so I really felt it was between me and one other guy. I knew he'd have to have a 20-pound bag and that's very possible on that lake, but the way the wind and the other conditions were, I thought I had a pretty good chance."

Winning Gear:

Flipping/pitching gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Ardent Denny Brauer Signature Series rod, Ardent F-700 casting reel (6:1 ratio), 25-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Stike King Denny Brauer Premier Pro Model jig (black/blue), Strike King Rage Craw trailer (black/blue fleck).

Main factor: "I was doing something that not too many other people were doing and I was also keying on the right docks. There were some that the fish were using as contact points coming into the spawning areas, and the sunny days we had pushed them up under the docks. Of the 3 days, it was sunny about 80 percent of the time."

Performance edge: "I'd say it was the new Ardent flipping stick. The bites were pretty tentative and soft all 3 days and a lot of times it was extremely hard to determine when you were even getting a bite or not. The sensitivity of that rod really did make a difference."

By John Johnson Senior BassFan Editor

TW Staff

The calls have started already. Even before James McMullen could finish the 13-hour drive home and start to savor a truly remarkable accomplishment in his young competitive fishing career, questions started to roll in about his victory at the Lake Guntersville Southeast EverStart. "How'd you do it?" "Where'd ya catch 'em at?" Certainly, a tournament victory at the Triple-A level is a fine achievement at any lake, but when you conquer a fishery that's due to host next year's Bassmaster Classic at roughly the same time on the calendar, it's going to draw plenty of attention and inquiries, his Pennsylvania address notwithstanding. "The guy I went down with," McMullen said Sunday, "he knows a couple of guys and they were hitting him up already." There really wasn't much to be hit up about. McMullen's account of his 3-day assault on the pre-spawn females at Guntersville was pretty cut and dry. He caught every ounce of the 86-07 he weighed over 3 days on an umbrella rig, something that BassFans are unlikely to see in the Classic next February unless B.A.S.S. changes its tack on the issue. Of course, location was just as crucial to his victory. He located a semi-backwater area off a major creek arm and once he navigated through a culvert, he was in the promised land. His stringers got heavier as the tournament wore on and he was able to fend off a group of competitors who know the lake as well as anyone. His winning total was just a little more than 2 pounds better than runner-up Alex Davis, who won the Guntersville EverStart last May. He also beat Guntersville resident and FLW Tour pro Justin Lucas, who finished 3rd. Robert Boyd, who won an EverStart at Guntersville in February 2011, wound up 4th. "I saw this one on the schedule and figured I had to do it," he said. "Guntersville in February - I knew it'd be a slugfest. It means a lot. I knew there are always some (Tour) guys in the EverStarts, but I didn't know about the local guys down there. It seemed like, besides me, they were all near the top."

McMillan, a 37-year-old HVAC installer from Quakertown, Pa., started fishing tournaments 3 years ago around southeastern Pennsylvania, most notably at Lake Nockamixon, a 1,400-acre lake where a four-fish limit for 20 pounds is considered a giant stringer. He'd never been to Guntersville before last month, but he fished the BFL there the week prior to the EverStart and finished 18th with 17-06. In the days leading up to the EverStart, he looked at main-lake structure off shore, but when he didn't see the quantities of fish he'd hoped for, he changed up his focus. "We checked a lot of the main-river humps, right off the channel and weren't really finding a concentration of fish so we went shallow and found a whole stack of them," he said, "and it held up all week." He caught some fish on a jig, but once he got on the umbrella-rig bite, "they were hitting that rig so good, I didn't want to put it down," he said. The fish holding in the area he located were suspended about halfway up in about 8 to 10 feet of water. The spot was helped by the presence of plentiful baitfish. He tried to duplicate the pattern in other areas of the lake, but couldn't find the sheer volume of quality. "We went into Mink Creek, but it was all loaded with males and it didn't have the bait that this creek had," he said.

Competition:

With weather conditions - air temps in the 30s with occasional snow flurries - not a whole lot different than up north, McMullen got into his primary area first thing in the morning with the goal of squeezing out a limit. "I didn't know they'd all be 6-pounders," he said. "I actually went all the way around it and was just about to leave when I caught a 6 and one that was almost 7 on back-to-back casts. I spun around and finished out my limit." He had the spot to himself and backed off the area once his livewell was full 2 hours prior to his check-in time. "They pulled some water the night before the tournament and that may have grouped the fish up a little tighter than they had been," he said. "In that particular area, the water was down 18 inches and they had backed out and weren't as spread out." He was 2nd after day 1 with 28-04, trailing only Chad Aaron, who caught 30-06. "I thought I had a chance after the first day," he said. "All of the fish I was catching were fresh, right off the river. You could see it in the color and their eyes weren't even adjusted to it. With all the bait that was in there, I knew they were going to keep coming. I just had that feeling. The fact that I left them alone after I had my limit really helped." Despite having several other boats in the area with him on day 2, he had an even better morning than the previous day. "It was probably the best day of the week," he said. His co-angler had a limit by 9:30 and he was done peppering the spot at 11. His 28-13 stringer kept him in 2nd and pared the deficit to Aaron down to 10 ounces entering the final day. His hope for day 3 was to maintain his pace from days 1 and 2 and see if the other anglers around him in the standings could keep up. When he stuck his two biggest fish of the day within 10 minutes of each other before 8 a.m., he knew he'd be in contention down to the end. "I was hoping for another 28 pounds and figured I could get that easily because I didn't really pressure them too much," he said. "If I got beat, then I got beat. Between the two of them it was 15 pounds so I figured I just needed a bunch of 4-pounders and it would give me what I needed." He did exactly that, and then some, coming up with 29-06 to close out the victory with an astonishing 86-07 total.

Winning Pattern:

Prior to fishing Guntersville, McMullen had had limited experience throwing an umbrella rig. Now, he's a big believer in it. "Absolutely. How can you not be," he said. "The weights were insane and it was consistent every day. I'd done it a couple times around (home) with no success whatsoever." He said he was casting it as far as he could and made sure to keep it off the bottom with a steady, brisk retrieve. "When it clouded it over, you slowed it down a little bit," he noted. "A lot of guys I noticed were reeling so slow that they were getting snagged a lot and weren't getting the bites. I didn't get snagged once all week and there was wood all over the area. I was reeling pretty fast. "When the sun was out, you had to almost burn it back or they wouldn't hit it, as crazy as that sounds." He felt another key was turning his electronics off and going into stealth mode on day 2 when he had company. "I just kind of floated around," he added. "I wasn't real hard on the trolling motor at all."

Winning Gear:

Umbrella rig gear: 7'9" heavy-action Shimano Crucial umbrella rig rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (6.5:1 ratio), 50-pound Sufix 832 Advanced Superline, 5-wire Yellow Hammer Spinnerbait Rig, 3/16-oz. Revenge Swimbait Hedz XL jigs (shad), 3.8" Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbait (black shad). He tried throwing white swimbaits, but couldn't get bit in his key area.

Main factor: "Leaving the fish after I had a limit so I didn't pressure them."

Performance edge: "The (Shimano) rod-and-reel setup I had was perfect for throwing what I was throwing."

Lake Guntersville EverStart Winning Pattern Bassfan 3/5/13 (Todd Ceisner)

Shinichi Fukae admits that he's not a big fan of umbrella rigs. However, he knows in the ever-evolving world of pro bass fishing, other competitors are using it to their advantage where the conditions call for it. "This is my job so I need to use it," he said. As someone who fishes predominantly FLW Tour events, he's seen how well it can work up close. He was there at Lake Guntersville back in October 2011 when Paul Elias unleashed it on previously-finicky suspended fish ganged up 20 feet down over 30 to 35 feet of water. With a prespawn scenario facing the 99-boat field at the Douglas Lake PAA last week, the umbrella rig (Tennessee allows a version with three hooks) was the technique of choice for just about everyone, especially those near the top of the leaderboard, including Fukae. The key fish weren't as deep, although there were bruisers scattered all through the water column. He targeted rocky points, of which there are hundreds around Douglas, and capitalized on the few bites he got to notch his first PAA victory with 67.73 pounds over 3 days. While others weighed plumper bags, particularly on day 1, he was one of just two anglers to bring in 20 pounds each day of the event - runner-up Andy Morgan was the other - and he was rewarded for his consistency with his first win in 3 years. "This lake is so amazing because more than 10 people caught 20 pounds or more the first 2 days," he said through his wife Miyu, who helps translate his Japanse. "I've never seen that type of weight in this type of lake. The quality of fish here is really good and it's not a really big lake. The heft of his stringers steadily increased each day and he closed out the week with a 23.16-pound effort that topped the other 14 finalists and allowed him to fend off Morgan. Douglas is a distinctive fishery in that it's loaded with chunky largemouth and trophy-class smallmouth all the while undergoing annual drawdowns in the fall and fill-ups in the spring. The water was on the rise this week and a segment of bass were on the move toward the bank for their annual spawning ritual. Prior to the lake going off limits, Fukae spent 5 days at Douglas riding around and learning what it had to offer as he'd never been to the impoundment on the French Broad River in eastern Tennessee. Seeing the lake in its drawn-down state allowed him to get a feel for the areas that might hold fish once the water started to come up. Conditions earlier last week made for a tough practice as wind, sleet and snow let the anglers know that winter wasn't quite ready to hand the reigns over to spring. Undeterred, Fukae braved the elements and spent 3 long days on the water.

Competition:

Fukae brought in a respectable 22.02 pounds that had him in 6th place on day 1, but that effort was greatly overshadowed by the 27- and 28-pound bags reeled in by Timmy Horton, Ott DeFoe and Brian Snowden. He got about 12 bites and thought the day-long sunshine charged up the fish after several days of cold, overcast conditions. While Horton and others struggled on day 2 and fell out of contention, he improved his weight by nearly a half pound to climb into 2nd, a little more than 4 1/2 pounds shy of DeFoe, who seemed like an even-money bet to close out the victory on his home lake. Fukae had marked about two dozen spots that he felt he could catch fish off of, but focused most of his time on five key spots that seemed to hold the bigger specimens. The common bond among the spots was they were nearby rocky points and the fish he caught came out of 5 to 15 feet of water. "Timing was a big deal this week," he said. "I had to leave my key spots at times to let them rest. The timing of when I'd leave and when I'd go back was crucial." Entering the final day, he was hoping for another sunny spell, but he had to wait until the afternoon for the clouds to break up. By then, however, he'd already done the bulk of his damage as he caught a final day-best 23.16. Meanwhile, DeFoe managed just two keepers and opened the door for Fukae. It was his first win since he claimed the Lake Champlain Eastern FLW Series tournament in 2010. He also has two FLW Tour wins to his credit, but none since April 2006 when he won at Beaver Lake. His previous-best PAA finish was 4th at Lake Norman in August 2010, a tournament he led after 2 days.

Winning Gear:

Umbrella rig gear: 7'6" extra-heavy Megabass Black Jungle casting rod, Shimano Antares HS casting reel (7.4:1 ratio), 50-pound YGK Black Dyneema braided line, 5-wire Megabass Spark Rig (Wakasagi), 1/4-ounce Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits jigheads (white), 4" Megabass Spark Shad (albino) or 4" Fish Arrow Flash J Shad (pro blue silver). He rigged 4" swimbaits on the three active jigheads and 3" versions on the two dummy wires, essentially making it a three-bait rig to comply with Tennessee regulations.

Main factor: "One of my policies about being on the water as much as I can worked out. Fishing before the cutoff gave me an advantage since the water level was lower and I could see some submerged stuff. Also, during practice last week, I was out there from sunrise to sunset all 3 days despite the miserable weather and it paid off."

Performance edge: "To cast the umbrella rig all week long, I needed very light, but strong rods such as the Megabass Black Jungle series rods. Also, casting that rig further was one of the keys for me and my Shimano reels allowed me do that without any issues."

Douglas Lake PAA Winning Pattern Bassfan 4/2/13 (Todd Ceisner)

Like everyone else who competed in last week's Clear Lake Western EverStart, Jody Jordan knew it would take a lot of weight to win. But 27 pounds a day? Jordan, a 42-year-old who'd fished just one prior event at the triple-A level, hit that number as he amassed an 81-01 total over 3 days. He needed just about every ounce of it, too, as his winning margin over day-2 leader Jason Borofka was a mere 2 ounces. "I think going in, 25 or 26 (pounds) a day were the numbers I had in my head," he said. "But the way the lake's fished this fall and all through the summer, it's turned out bigger bags than I've ever seen. "Typically during the fall, 20 pounds is a good day and 25 is really good. Only once in a while do you see 28." Jordan exceeded 28 on each of the final 2 days to advance from 10th to 3rd to 1st in the standings. The victory, which netted him nearly $29,000 in cash and a new Ranger boat package, was easily the biggest of his career. Here are some the specifics of how he went about achieving it.

Jordan was receiving mixed messages from the lake, the largest natural body of still water that resides entirely within California, as the EverStart approached. He caught a 36-pound bag (which included a 10-pounder, an 8 and a 7) about 2 weeks before the start of the derby, but only one fish a week later as a powerful north wind swept across the surface. "My confidence got a little rattled there," he said. "The lake goes through a transitional period every year when the nights get cold and we have those big-wind days and the water temperature on the lake drops not just on the surface, but through the whole water column. I think it puts the fish in shock and it takes them about a week to acclimate to it. "Things slowly improved after that (one-fish) day. The weather stabilized and high pressure blew in with the north wind, and the fishing got better and better." He caught 25 and 24 pounds, respectively, on the 2 days prior to the start of the event. "I was only getting about seven bites a day, but they were the right ones. I didn't catch any giants, but I had five that were over 4 pounds on both of those days, and I had three or four spots that I knew I was going to fish that I didn't want to touch. "The only thing that kind of made me nervous was that out of the 15 fish I caught in practice, 11 were hooked on the outside of the face. I felt like I was just getting them to react Ð they weren't eating or they would've clamped down. It was either going to get tougher or better. It usually gets better under conditions like that, but you never really know." His main approach was to throw reaction baits (a deep-diving crankbait, a lipless crankbait and a swimbait) to fish in 10 to 20 feet of water. He mixed in a jig every now and then as a change of pace.

Competition:

Jordan went into the tournament with the mindset that he needed to put three quality fish in his livewell each day before the sun had fully risen, and then grind out a couple more through the remainder of the day. As it turned out, most of his key bites came after the noon hour. He caught nothing at his first four stops on day 1, then covered that milk run again and caught a 3 3/4-pounder that settled his nerves a little bit. His co-angler boated a couple of decent fish with a dropshot, so Jordan picked up a spinning rod and fished it for about 20 minutes, catching a barely legal keeper and a couple of shorts. "I finally said, 'I've got to put this thing away. This is not how I'm going to win this tournament,''' he said. He then moved to an area where he'd spend the remainder of the event - a place adjacent to a steep wall. He said it's an extremely popular locale and he was surprised to find only two boats in the vicinity. He quickly caught a 5-pounder from near the bank on the rattlebait, and then moved about 150 yards down the wall to a cranking spot that had been productive in practice. He popped a 6-14 on his second cast with the deep-diver, and added a 5 and a near-4 shortly thereafter.

"My day went from bad to good in 45 minutes. I could tell there was a school there and they were the right fish." He shared the area for the rest of the derby with Billy Hines (the eventual 10th-place finisher) and Zack Thompson (who ended up 24th). He said they worked well with each other throughout both days and there was never the hint of a conflict. He rotated through his quartet of baits on day 2 and eventually dialed in the perfect swimbait cast. He used it to produce a 7-pounder, a 5 and a 4 1/2, and then he cranked up another 7. His sack moved him to within 3 pounds of the lead, with just two competitors in front of him. He took all but six rods out of his boat for the final day. Three that remained had crankbaits attached, two had swimbaits and one had a rattlebait. The first fish he caught was extremely long and skinny and he initially pegged it as a 5-pounder with an 8-pounder's head (it was actually a 6 1/2). He got a 7 on the swimbait and the other three he took to the scale averaged 5 pounds apiece. He knew he'd fared well, but didn't think he'd done enough to win. "I was pretty happy because I felt like I wasn't going to slip from 3rd place," he said. "I thought the number (he needed) was 31 or 32 pounds, and I was honestly just hoping for 2nd. "(Borofka) had a poker face all the way through the weigh-in while he was sitting on the hot seat, and then after I weighed my fish his expression changed, and that was the first time when I thought I might've had a chance."

Winning Gear:

Cranking gear: 7'6" Lamiglas or 7'9" Phenix medium-heavy glass rod, Shimano Curado casting reel (5:1 ratio), 12- or 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Strike King 10 XD (chartreuse shad). He used two other custom-painted 10 XDs, but declined to reveal those colors as he hopes the baits will be productive again in this weekend's American Bass Anglers regional event.

Swimbait gear: 7'11" medium-heavy G. Loomis 953 rod, same reel (7:1 ratio), 20-pound P-Line Halo fluorocarbon, 8" Huddleston Deluxe Rainbow Trout.

Rattlebait gear: 7' medium action Lamiglas rod, same reel (7:1 ratio), 17-pound P-Line Halo fluorocarbon, Lucky Craft LV 500 (crawdad).

Main factor: "I think it was sticking to my gameplan with the deep rock and knowing that's where the big fish would be at this time of year."

Performance edge: "That swimbait. It's 7 years old and I caught my first 'Hud' fish on it and also my personal best (a 14-pounder from nearby Lake Berryessa). I'm retiring it - I'm going to have it framed and put it on my wall."

Clear Lake EverStart Winning Pattern Bassfan 10/16/13 (John Johnson)

One would think with as much experience and success Keith Combs has had at Lake Conroe that he would know exactly where he wants to fish and when to hit particular spots over the course of a day. While he does have a GPS unit full of waypoints on the southeast Texas lake, he didn't follow a script at all last week at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic. He moved when his gut told him to move. He threw an assortment of baits and generally junk-fished his way to a second TTBC crown. He gained 7 1/2 pounds of separation from the field after averaging more than 23 1/2 pounds through the first 2 days, then closed out the victory with a 15-pound bag on Sunday that made it a 12 1/2-pound blowout. His winning total was 62-02. Runner-up John Murray was only other angler to break 50 pounds. "Nothing was scripted," Combs said. "Even on the morning of the last day when we launched, I didn't know where to go. I have my favorite places, but I pretty much fished whatever came to mind. If I had three spots close together, I hit them all. I just fished what felt right under those conditions. On the final day, I fished whatever the wind was blowing on. That helped a lot." What also helped him was his commitment to stay off shore and wait out the big bites with precision casts of a crankbait or a big worm, while most of the field eventually couldn't resist the pull of the boat docks toward the bank. "With this lake, there's some main lake structure and they practice it, but it's so hard to get a bite," he said. "Those boat docks keep sucking people in. You can catch one up there, but it's hard to consistently catch a big one. "I do like to catch them cranking and the kind of lakes I've had success on are places that have big fish. I have to credit all the years I spent in south Texas as a guide. You're targeting big fish all the time down there. Targeting 7-pounders is not the same as targeting 3- or 4-pounders like we do at most of the places we go on tour. Conroe has those big fish and I feel like I'm more apt to commit to fishing a big-fish pattern because I feel like I have a handle on those places that can produce 30-pound bags."

Combs missed the first day of official practice as he was traveling from the Elite Series All-Star event in Michigan. He was still able to put in two full days and he also took part in the pro-am event the day before the tournament got started. He immediately noticed some differences from 2011 when the lake was down 7 feet below normal pool. "We were here a month later then than we were this year and the fish were on creek channels," he said. "I spent some time on those this year, but they seemed to more out on the main lake. The deepest fish I caught this week was 16 feet so there's still a lot of fish in summer time mode out there." He did start to pick apart a spot he found during last year's TTBC and felt like it really set up good this year. "I didn't catch any fish on it last year, but I caught three off of it on day 2 this year and a 8-pounder in practice," he said. "It was actually two different spots - two high spots on a flat and someone had put some fresh brush there. It may have been green, but you can tell with a crankbait." He knew it wouldn't be an all-cranking deal and he had some areas where he could entice bites with a big worm and also spots where he could flip a jig. "The fact that we've been here in September before, which is a good time to catch good ones in Texas, has been a blessing," he said.

Competition:

Combs couldn't have asked for a better start to the tournament. Over the course of the first 2 days, he didn't hang one crankbait, which is a considerable accomplishment on lake that's notorious for swallowing up plugs. He had productive mornings both days junk-fishing around, but made sure to be precise with his casts to specific off-shore structure. "They went perfect," he said. "And it wasn't just because I was catching the right fish. This lake is bad about snagging up. It's nothing to get hung up 30 times and lose 20 plugs a day. I didn't hung up once through the first 2 days." After posting 24 1/2 pounds on day 1, including a 6 1/2-pounder, he assumed he'd have some company on his areas the next day, but that wasn't the case. In fact, there were no crowding issues the rest of the way. "All of my spots were open and everybody was very courteous," he said. "If they were in the area and saw me coming, they'd say, 'Oh, sorry. Let me get out of here.' You couldn't ask for 2 better days on the water." It's not uncommon to go several hours between bites at Conroe and Combs wasn't immune to dry spells. He made up for them by landing everything he yanked on. "I didn't lose anything all week," he said. The final day brought the first significant change in conditions as clouds and a stiff north wind settled over the lake for much of the morning. His good fortune started with getting hung started to run out, which is a bigger deal than some would think.

"The fish here always bite on the first cast so it's a big deal," he said. "If I can crank through a brush pile and hang it, sometimes I'll break it off or it'll come free. If I don't get a real clean path with a good deflection or I hang it, it's a done deal. They won't bite. "I had one hole with a couple of humps and another similar spot where it was a big deal to make those critical casts." His big fish on day 3 came off an old house foundation. A good keeper on Saturday was caught off a sunken boat. He credits his electronics, specifically Humminbird's new 360 Imaging Bow Mount, for getting a better view of the structure he fished. "There's so much stuff in this lake," he said. "It doesn't matter what it is. If it's in the same depth range as the fish, make a cast. You never know."

Winning Pattern:

While he caught several fish off brush piles, Combs noted the bottom had to have some contour to it. "I couldn't catch them off brush on a flat," he said. When he fished shallow, he targeted breakwalls with rock on them or docks with specific wood nearby. "My best shallow spot was an area that was dredged out for a breakwall on the back off a flat," he said. "I caught a 4-04 there on Friday and caught two keepers on Sunday there."

Winning Gear:

Crankbait gear: 7' medium-heavy Power Tackle Paragon crankbait rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, various Strike King crankbaits (shad patterns or sexy shad). His key fish on day 2 came on a Strike King 5XD (powder blue back chartreuse). When he cranked shallow cover, he threw a Strike King KVD 1.5 square-bill (black back chartreuse), swapping the stock hooks with Owner Stinger ST-36 trebles.

Worm gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Power Tackle Paragon casting rod, same reel, 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Strike King tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Owner worm hook, 10" Strike King Rage Recon worm (plum).

Jig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Power Tackle Paragon flipping rod, same reel, same line as worm, 1/2-oz. Strike King Hack Attack heavy cover jig (Okeechobee craw), Strike King Rage Tail chunk (Okeechobee Craw).

Main factor: "Just being confident enough to stay out there. I believe the fish to win would be caught further off shore and not along the bank. I fished a lot of spots and I really feel like field had a lot of spots on this lake given a lot of the guys have fished here multiple times at this time of year. It was very hard to stay out there when you sometimes go 3 hours without a bite, but I'm glad I did."

Performance edge: "My Humminbird 360 Imaging Bow Mount is the real deal. What Side Imaging did a few years to the way we fish, this is fixing to do the same. It's the next big deal. I've had it on my boat since just after ICAST and I said right away that somebody will win a national event because of it. I caught a 7-pounder on Saturday off the side of what I was fishing because I saw it on my 360. A lot of the places I fished I had found over the years. It may have been one isolated brush pile or something. I learned a lot with it. This was my first full week that I got to fish nothing but structure. That thing is slick. You might be fishing one brush pile and find two more while you're there. It was a big benefit this week."

Lake Conroe TTBC Winning Pattern Bassfan 10/8/13 (Todd Ceisner)