Jake Whitaker's Pattern, Baits & Gear

Rookie Jake Whitaker's first visit to the Sabine was a productive trip as he recorded his best finish to date. After starting his career with two lower-pack finishes, he's gotten progressively better over the last three and is now up to 45th on the points list. Like Roy, he was making a long run up the Neches River. He divvied up his area with quite a few other competitors over the first 2 days, then just three or four on day 3 after the cut to the top 50. With only 12 anglers remaining on Sunday, he had it all to himself. "I'm a shallow-water guy and it was a place that looked good on the maps and stuff," he said. "It was the first place I started on in practice. I stuck it out and it ended up being even better than I thought it would."

His best spot within the area was a backwater pond that covered only a couple of acres. It was lined with cypress trees and featured a few small cuts. He pulled a 4 3/4-pounder out of one of the cuts on day 3. Most of his better fish were enticed by a frog and almost all came from 2 feet of water or less. He caught a few on a crankbait and one on a flipping stick. He handled six to eight keeper fish each day. "I wasn't catching the numbers that some guys were, but I was getting some better bites."

Gear:

Frog gear: 7'3" heavy-action ALX IKOS Series rod, Lew's BB1 Speed Spool casting reel (8:1 ratio), 65-pound PowerPro braided line, SPRO Bronzeye Poppin' Frog 60 (white or killer gill).

"I had a black frog on in practice," he said, "but on the first day of the tournament they were just slapping at it so I switched to white. (On day 4) I had a couple fish puke up small bluegill in my livewell, so I changed to killer gill."

Cranking gear: 7' medium-action ALX IKOS Series Hustler rod, same reel (6.4:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 6th Sense Crush 50X (chartreuse/black back).

He caught his flipping fish on a Strike King Rage Bug (black/blue).

Main factor: "Finding a place where I could get a bigger bite. There were a lot of 7- or 8-pound bags weighed and if you could catch a 3- or 4-pounder you could get to 10 pounds or more and separate yourself. I was able to get a couple of those bites each day on that frog."

Performance edge: "My boat was very important for making that 45-mile run and with those rods I was able to make casts back into the cypress knees and then get the fish out of there."

Bass Elite Tour Sabine River Patterns 2-5 BassFan 6/13/18 (John Johnson)