Brandon Lester's Pattern, Baits & Gear
"I was making a 30-mile run toward (Lake Ontario) and I feel like that was a key for me. A lot of the big ones this week were caught right in that area." He had a school of quality fish that was highly cooperative in the early hours on 3 of the 4 days. The one day they weren't (day 3) resulted in a substandard stringer of less than 20 pounds. Viewers of B.A.S.S. Live watched him lose a giant smallmouth next to his boat midway through the final day that almost certainly would've given him enough weight to win.
Gear:
Dropshot gear: 6'9" medium-heavy MHX dropshot rod, unnamed 2500-size spinning reel, 10-pound Vicious braided line (main line), 8-pound Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon (10-12' leader), size 4 Mustad Titan X Wacky/Neko Rig hook, X-Zone Lures Slammer (green pumpkin/purple flake), 1/2-ounce bell-shaped dropshot weight.
Main factor: "Deciding to fish a different part of the river this time."
Performance edge: "The Raymarine electronics were a big, big key. I used SideVision to look for isolated rocks on the humps and Chirp Sonar up front on the trolling motor so I could see fish and drop down to them. Then my whole system of the rod, hook and line kept me from losing a lot of fish. Smallmouth can be hard to land, but the big one (on day 4) was the only one I lost all week."
Bassmaster Elite Series St. Lawrence 2-5 Patterns BassFan 8/29/18 (John Johnson)
