Lee Livesay Wins 2021 Bassmaster Elite At Lake Fork

Three fish in the 9-pound class. Another a near-8 and the "runt" pushing 7 1/2.

Even for a guy who's caught hundreds of bass like those from Lake Fork, the massive final-day stringer that Lee Livesay compiled to win the recent Bassmaster Elite Series event was a dream-like haul.

"It was just surreal," said the well-known Fork guide from Longview, Texas who won his second Elite Series derby in a span of just over 6 months (he also triumphed last October at Lake Chickamauga) with a 4-day total of 112-05. "Nothing ever goes like it's supposed to, but every single variable went exactly right.

"To have family, friends and sponsors there and a gigantic bag caught almost all on topwater, it was just amazing."

The 42-03 bag more than compensated for Livesay's lackluster day 2, which saw him weigh just 17-14. His other two sacks registered 25-06 and 26-14 in the catch-weigh-immediate release format necessitated by the lake's slot limit.

He outdistanced Patrick Walters, the day-1 leader and the winner of last year's tournament at Fork, by exactly 10 pounds.

Bait Species Switch

Livesay, who was back to guiding the day after the event, exploited threadfin shad spawns the first 2 days and switched to gizzard shad for the weekend.

"I never even practiced on the places where I caught them on days 3 and 4," he said. "I'd found a bunch of bed-fish, but I never went to them. I also found a couple of new deals where I'd never fished, including one where I caught two big ones the first day, but I was also running all kinds of stuff that I already had history on."

The baitfish spawns were taking place on shell bars and small ridges in 3 to 5 feet of water. He said that 19 of his 20 weight fish were pre-spawners – the lone exception was a 6 1/2-pounder on day 3. Once he made the transition to the gizzard shad, he shared some area with some of the other leaders, including Walters, Brandon Card and Quentin Cappo.

His bait lineup included two 3:16 Lure Company offerings – a line-through Rising Son swimbait and a Work Horse glidebait. He also threw a 6th Sense Magnum Squarebill and a Carolina-rigged Netbait Little Spanky.

His topwater plug, which produced quality fish each day and four of the five specimens in the final round, was a bone-colored Heddon Saltwater Super Spook.

"I was just making long casts and working it real erratically," he said. "I wanted to move it around and not let them get a good look at it, so I was trucking it all over the place – I wasn't 'walking the dog.'

"I wanted them to think there was a shad up there struggling so they'd come up and blast it. Some of the strikes were like bowling balls falling out of the sky."

Because the fish at Fork are subjected to a substantial angling pressure, he took great pains to remain as quiet as possible. He kept his electronics turned off and his trolling motor was out of the water the majority of the time and he used his Minn Kota Raptor shallow-water anchors extensively to keep his boat in place.

He made his final cull at about 1 o'clock with a 7-15 that replaced a 4-01.

Winning Gear Notes

> Topwater gear: 7' medium-heavy Halo HFX Cranking Series rod, high-speed casting reel, 40-pound braided line, Heddon Saltwater Super Spook (bone).

Notable

> The win moved Livesay up to 4th place in the Angler of the Year race. "It's getting closer to the end of the season and I'm looking at the AOY points – anybody who says they're not is lying," he said. "I need to keep fishing smart and being consistent; cutting checks in every tournament is the plan."

> He finished 57th in last year's points race and thus won't compete in the Bassmaster Classic at Lake Ray Roberts (also in his home state). "I was really (upset) when I didn't qualify," he said. "I've spent a lot of time out there."

John Johson. "Everything Went Right For Livesay On Day 4: Lake Fork Winning Pattern" 28 April 2021, bassfan.com/news_article/10218/everything-went-right-for-livesay-on-day-4. Accessed 3 May 2021.

Third-year pro Patrick Walters is in a tight battle with Seth Feider for the top slot in the Angler of the Year race, with the duo having separated themselves from the rest of the field by 45 points. He turned in his second Top-4 finish of the year (he was 4th in the season opener at the St. Johns River) and his fourth Top-25 in five outings.

He focused his attention on shallow primary and secondary points. He had one that was particularly fruitful, providing him with one or two good fish each morning.

"I was hitting some different places, but the majority of my fish came from three or four of them," he said. "I don't know if some of the places just had fish that were willing to bite or what, but you couldn't just run every point in the lake and expect to catch them."

His original plan was to hit the points in the morning and then bed-fish for the rest of the day, but he had a change in strategy when he caught a 7-pounder on a glidebait just 5 minutes into day 1 and another on a jerkbait shortly thereafter.

"That gave me 14 pounds on two fish, then I went to another point and caught a 2-pounder and a 4," he said. "After that I went back to the point where I started and caught an 8, so I decided that was what I was doing for the rest of the tournament."

The glidebaits (he threw two different ones) were his go-to for the early part of the day and he backed them up with a variety of jerkbaits. Like winner Lee Livesay, he compiled the bulk of his day-4 stringer on a topwater plug.

> Glidebait gear: 8' heavy-action Daiwa Tatula Elite Swimbait rod, Daiwa Tatula 300 casting reel (7:1 ratio), 30-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon line, 3:16 Work Horse or Rapala Haku (shad colors).

John Johson. "Points With Spawning Shad Were Productive: Lake Fork 2/4 Patterns" 29 April 2021, bassfan.com/news_article/10219/points-with-spawning-shad-were-productive. Accessed 3 May 2021.

Quentin Cappo, another third-year pro, fared well in the back-to-back events in his home region. The Louisiana resident's 21st-place finish at the Sabine River was his best to that point and he followed up with his first Top-5.

"I've been fishing the way I like to fish rather than what I think I need to do to compete," he said. "You make better decisions when you fish the way you know how to fish. Also, I have some history in both locations (the Sabine and Fork) and that's helped me tremendously."

He concentrated on the shad spawn during the early part of the day at Fork and mixed in some other stuff later on.

"I was trying to find fish in transition, either coming in or going out (of the spawning pockets)," he said. "I fished anything where the creek channel came close to a spawning pocket – some I had history on and I found a couple more that I put in the rotation.

"I was moving the boat quickly and moving the bait quickly. If I made five casts on a place and didn't get a bite, it was time to move on."

He primarily threw a crankbait in the mornings and a topwater plug in the afternoons. His fish were in depths ranging from 2 to 6 feet.

"I'd start deeper and work my way up," he said. "Each point was different – sometimes they'd come up (and feed) in certain places and I don't know if that's where they wanted to be or just where the bait was at that time. One day they came up way to the left, so they next day I started over there and they came up way to the right. I think they were just wolf-packing those shad."

> Cranking gear: 7'4" medium-heavy glass Halo Cranking Series rod, Lew's HyperMag casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 15-pound Seguar Red Label fluorocarbon line, unnamed medium-diving squarebill.

> Topwater gear: 7'3" heavy-action Halo HFX rod, same reel, 50-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line, unnamed 6" walking-style bait (bone).

> "The rods were the most important thing in both of those setups," he said. "The way they loaded up was really important for being able to catch those fish."

John Johson. "Points With Spawning Shad Were Productive: Lake Fork 2/4 Patterns" 29 April 2021, bassfan.com/news_article/10219/points-with-spawning-shad-were-productive. Accessed 3 May 2021.

Brandon Card was the only Top-5 finish to exceed the 20-pound mark on all 4 days, leading the field after the second and third rounds. It was his second 4th-place showing of the year – he also had one at the Tennessee River in February.

"I started day 1 on bedding fish and I caught a 4 1/2-pounder, but then I abandoned that," he said. "My other areas had nothing and I needed to get offshore and do what I do."

He'd found one school of bass away from the bank on the first day of practice and two more on the third day, so he had enough confidence to make the switch. Their depth ranges varied from 8 to 18 feet.

"There's nothing worse that fishing offshore with only one school – that's a recipe for a disastrous tournament," he said. "Having three gave me the freedom to hop around and let them rest.

"I fished mostly points, but they didn't look like much on a map so I use that term loosely. It was just a matter of putting the time in and finding a couple of random areas."

His bait arsenal included a jerkbait, a swimbait a hair jig and several different crankbaits.

> Jerkbait gear: 6'9" medium-heavy iRod Air rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGXtreme casting reel (8:1 ratio), 12-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon line, Yo-Zuri 3DB jerkbait (ghost sexy shad).

> Swimbait gear: 7'5" heavy-action iRod Air rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (8:1 ratio), 18-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce Z-Dew's swimbait head, 4" McGill Bait Company BC Shad 4.0 (shad).

> Hair jig gear: Same rod and line as swimbait, Abu Garcia MGX casting reel (8:1 ratio), 5/8-ounce True Bass Shuttlecock (white).

John Johson. "Points With Spawning Shad Were Productive: Lake Fork 2/4 Patterns" 29 April 2021, bassfan.com/news_article/10219/points-with-spawning-shad-were-productive. Accessed 3 May 2021.