Casey Ashley's Pattern, Baits & Gear
The problem was, as the tournament wore on, certain areas got fished more intensely than others. "If you had enough stuff that people weren't fishing, you'd be a lot better off," he said. "I don't think that was the case for anybody." The other factor was the wind, which was quick to muddy up certain stretches.
"You to find a place that didn't muddy up and had have to rock," he said. "That seemed to be the only thing to get around." He targeted points with scattered rock on the end. He started the tournament by snapping a tube since that's how he caught fish in practice, but a series of lost fish prompted him to switch to a Carolina rig and a dropshot to mix it up. "I had not caught any offshore in practice," he said. "I caught them on a dropshot day 1 and lost a big on a tube and I figured there had to be something better than that tube."
With the ball and chain rigged up for day 2, he logged 20-06, which was the heaviest bag across the first three days. His best area was up toward Forest City and it had a dropoff from 15 to 24 feet and as long as he fished a Zoom Speed Craw on the Carolina rig slow along the bottom, he got bites. "The Speed Craw is small and compact and smallmouth love it," he said. "When they eat it they get it. Fishing that deep, I couldn't fish it really fast. I could feel the rock with that big weight." Aside from one day-1 keeper that fell for a tube, the rest of his weigh-in fish were split between the Carolina rig and dropshotting a Zoom Meathead or Z Drop.
Gear:
Carolina rig gear: 7'4" heavy-action Quantum Vapor casting rod, Quantum Smoke S3 casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 17-pound HI-SEAS fluorocarbon line, 3/4-oz. tungsten barrel weight, 3/0 Owner offset worm hook, Zoom Speed Craw (green-pumpkin, green-pumpkin purple).
Dropshot gear: 6'10" medium-action Quantum Tour PT Special Issue spinning rod, Quantum Smoke S3 size 30 spinning reel, 10-pound HI-SEAS braided line, 8-pound HI-SEAS fluorocarbon line (leader), 1/0 Owner Cover Shot hook, Zoom Meathead (green-pumpkin), Zoom Z Drop (green-pumpkin), 3/8 oz. clip-on and tie-on dropshot weights.
Main factor: "Just finding a few key areas. That was the deal."
Performance edge: "My Triton and Mercury. Making those long runs on that rough water, having that combination was a big key."
Bassmaster Elite Tour Lake Oahe 2-5 Patterns BassFan 7/6/18 (Todd Ceisner)
