How Dave Lefebre caught ’em at Mille Lacs

Dave Lefebre cracked ’em pretty good at Mille Lacs and finished 3rd, though almost 10 lbs behind winner Seth Feider. Here’s what the pride of Erie, PA did:

> Never made a cast all week. Fished vertical on fish I could see on screen. Had to spend quite some time on bigger fish — some took 10+ minutes to catch. Almost like bed fishing sometimes: Leave bait on fish and back off, barely pick bait of bottom — deadstick it for long periods of time and they would finally pick it up.

> Rotated best key rocks. Three in particular produced my biggest fish throughout the tournament.

> Used Lowrance 3d Structure Scan at 120′ to mark all biggest rocks in 15-18′. The best ones were isolated. Near, but unattached to the rock veins. Most were about 2-3′ tall.

> The two giant (5.5-lb) Shadow Rap fish were fish I couldn’t catch on a dropshot. I backed off, let that thing sink by the rock and worked it slowly. It was pretty cool, actually.

> Fished one reef close to takeoff and learned it more each day. Had a very tough practice and really no back-up plan, which turned out to be good in hindsight.

> Dropshot: 4″ Senkos (green pumpkin magic and “other variations of gp with different flakes”), HOOK, 3/16- and 3/8-oz VMC tungsten dropshot weight, 15′ 6-lb Sufix fluorocarbon leader, 8-lb Sufix Nano Braid mainline (aqua camo), 13 Fishing Creed GT spinning reel, 6′ 10″ medium-light 13 Fishing Muse Black and Envy rods.

> Shadow Rap Deep (elite blue), 8-lb Sufix fluorocarbon, 13 Fishing Concept E reel (7.3), 6′ 10″ medium 13 Fishing Muse Black rod.