Pete Pond's Pattern, Baits & Gear

The topwater bite at West Point Lake played into the hands of Pete Ponds, who grew up throwing a popper bait to catch schooling fish. "I love to throw a popper even though it's not usually a big-fish bait," he said. "But because the weights were so low last week, I was able to utilize it. Being able to throw it was cool because I had a lot of confidence in it. Normally, though, a bait like that isn't going to get it done on the Elite Series. It might catch you limit here or there, but it's just not a big-fish bait." Coming off a dismal practice, he entered the event unsure if he'd be able to bag a keeper, let alone a limit. He'd discovered an old waterfall/drain where an old lake emptied into West Point and that was the only area he had confidence in. He wasn't on a shad spawn pattern and couldn't locate enough bedding fish to last him the event. "Takahiro Omori had told me he'd been catching them on a Pop-R, so I tried it and got some bites," he said. "I caught two spots on day 1 and went back to throwing the Pop-R and caught a key fish. Once I got that bite, I stuck with it. It was probably the key bite that helped me in the tournament." His topwater bite didn't fire on day 4 so he transitioned to a spinnerbait. "One thing that keyed me in on the waterfall bite was I'd caught a striped bass in there and it was spitting up threadfin shad," he said. "When I saw that, I matched the blades on my spinnerbait to the size of the shad it was spitting up." Boat position was also a key factor for the Mississippi native. "My fish came from what I think was a post-spawn deal," he said. "I could catch them where you'd position your boat if you were fishing the bank. I had noticed a competitor of mine was in tight to the bank on the first day and he only weighed three fish so that clued me in that I had to stay off the bank. Mentally, it was a challenge all week because I was only getting about seven or eight bites a day."

Topwater gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Duckett Fishing White Ice Terry Scroggins Pro Series Model casting rod, Ardent Edge casting reel (7.2:1 gear ratio), 14-pound Vicious monofilament line, Rebel Pop-R (silver black). While most of his competitors were throwing newer, pricey popper-style baits, he dug out a Pop-R that he estimates he's caught 300 bass on. "It's got teeth marks all over it," he said. "The paint's all worn off, but I put new hooks on it and it worked just fine." On day 4, he caught several of his weigh fish on a 1/2-ounce Talon spinnerbait in a shad pattern with a willow-leaf blade.

Main factor: "Persistence and sticking to it mentally. Sticking with a lure I knew would work was key."

Performance edge: "My HydroWave was very important for me. I believe strongly in it. I had it on Shad/continuous play and I really believe that masked the trolling motor noise and depth finder noise and the fish relate that to eating."

West Point Lake Patterns 2-5 Bassfan 5/7/13 (Todd Ceisner)

10 Colors

Rebel Pop-R Topwater Popper

$7.99

4.2

5 Reviews

Vicious Ultimate Co-Polymer Lo-Vis Green 330yd

$6.49

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