Robbie Dobson's Pattern, Baits & Gear

Robbie Dodson found about 30 places in practice that he thought had potential, but he discovered once the tournament started that only three of them weren't being pounded by other competitors. He focused his efforts on those. "Two of them were pretty shallow - 8 or 10 feet on top with a 4-foot drop," he said. "The other one was about 20 feet on top and fell of into the river channel." He did most of his work with a football-head jig - estimating that it accounted for 14 of his 20 weigh-in fish. He caught several on a worm and one on a Strike King spoon (sexy shad).

Jig gear: 7' heavy action Daiwa Light & Tough rod, Lew's Super Duty Speed Spool casting reel (6.2:1 ratio), 15-pound Maxima fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce PJ's Finesse Baits football-head jig (watermelon or green-pumpkin), Luck-E-Strike Ringmaster trailer.

Shaky-head gear: Same rod, reel and line, 1/4-ounce homemade jighead, Luck-E-Strike Jogger Worm (green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "Having three schools of fish with not more than a couple people fishing for them."

Performance edge: "My Lowrance HDS 8 - I used it to find every one of my fish before I caught them."

Pickwick Lake 2-5 Patterns Bassfan 6/11/14 (John Johnson)