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Today’s Top 5
1. Faircloth wins again…on a river again.
Todd Faircloth – who I hope is now out of the “under the radar” category – won the Sabine River, TX/LA Elite…which was really stingy btw. He won with 49-06, less than 16.5 lbs/day. Pretty dang great for the Sabine (he won by almost 7 lbs over Dean Rojas), but wow. Let’s just say Falcon will be a welcome change.
Faircloth also won the upper Mississippi Elite last year. So: two wins in two backwaters on two rivers in 2 years. Anyone see a pattern? For sure Todd does…and BassGold….
Bassin’Fan pointed out that Big Show Scroggins, who finished 3rd, is hot, but he’s just one of several guys who look like they’re on the verge of doing a lot this year judging by how they fished the Classic and this weekend’s dink-fest. The weights and results don’t tell the whole story….
2. KVD Perfect Plastic the key?
BassGold showed that the tournament should be won in a backwater around wood with a combination of moving and flipping baits, which is how it was fished and is basically how Todd won.
> A “bayou off a bayou†off the Taylor River. A flat, bay-like area 3/4-mile long and 400-500 yards wide. Most of the fish were probably on beds, but he couldn’t actually see….
> He caught most of his fish on a 5″ Strike King Swim’n Caffeine Shad soft jerkbait (pearl blue/glimmer back, or watermelon red sparkle). He TX-rigged it with a 1/16-oz weight. If he missed a hook-up, he grabbed a…5″ Strike King Ocho stickworm (Senko) (double header color), TX-rigged with a 1/8-oz weight.
About those baits, Strike King’s Crispin Powley told me:
> “The key to that line is the composition of the plastic. The whole deal with that KVD Perfect Plastic it’s ultrasoft. It’s real high-end plastic designed to have that real soft, almost hand-poured feel to it – but it’s much more durable than a hand-pour.”
> On the double header color, which is a green pumpkin/watermelon red laminate: “Green pumpkin may be the most universal color on Earth, and where it’s not #1, watermelon red seems to be. With this hybrid of the two, you get the darker color of green pumpkin that shows up a little better in colored water, and the watermelon red is better in clearer water. It’s a beautiful combination of the two.”
3. How ’bout this crowd!
In case there was any doubt whatsoever that B.A.S.S. is the heavyweight champeen o’ the world in bassin’, here’s a shot texted to me by the one and only Ztrain, just before the day 3 weigh-in started. This small a shot doesn’t covey how bit that crowd is, but it’s huge, mang! Wow!
Niiiiiiiiiiiice job, Orange folks!
4. Ike and marshal ok after wreck.
In case you don’t follow the Elites or somehow missed this, Mike Iaconelli put his boat on the bank on day 2 at the Sabine. Here’s what he wrote on Facebook about it:
> It was an interesting day but I am thankful that my marshal and I are ok after hitting a log and ending up on the bank. The two of us and the boat came out of it just fine. Looking forward to Falcon!
Dudes were lucky, good to hear.
5. A-rig, Rogue helps Tucker to Ozarks EverStart win.
Mark Tucker’s wire-to-wire win at Lake of the Ozarks = impressive. Keys:
> Wind-blown main lake bank near deep water with gravel but NO chunk rock.
> Baits: Sunny used a River2Sea Ripper jerkbait, cloudy it was a Smithwick Rouge. But day 4 he used a used a Picasso School-E-Rig Zoom Swimming Flukes (a Swimming Super Fluke in the middle) to weight the biggest bag of the derby, a 23-04.
> “When I threw that School-E-Rig I tried to cast it out and let it sink all the way to the bottom. Once it hit bottom I would use a stutter-step retrieve. There was a certain rhythm to work that rig in which was the only way I could get bit.â€
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News
1. Yelas endorsing Typhoon specs.
2. JT Kenney to speak in Melbourne, FL tomorrow.
3. 2013 fishing outlook for MO, KS.
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Tip of the Day
The Strike King Ocho is basically a Senko. All you football fans’ll get that: Ocho Senko.
> With that 14-pound-test Bass Pro Shops XPS Fluorocarbon line, the Ocho fell somewhat faster than if I used heavier line. I wanted it to reach the bottom quickly, so I could cover a lot of water quickly.
> I’ve found that I get more action out of the Ocho as it falls with the 14-pound-test line than I do with bigger lines. So, I gamble on possibly getting two more bites, because I’ve got 14-pound-test line than maybe losing a big bass by using heavier line.
> Dollar pads and eel grass aren’t very tough weeds. If I had heavy lily pads, thick hydrilla or heavier grass…I would change to 17- or 20-pound line.
> I’ve learned that anytime I’m fishing clear water, a lure with some red or red flake in it seems to always produce the most bass. That’s the reason I always throw watermelon-red or the double-header-red color….
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Quote of the Day
As fishermen we try so hard to be up here [holding the winning trophy], and it’s such a struggle.
– Ozarks EverStart winner Mark Tucker, who pours concrete for a living. No doubt it’s a struggle, but Mark made that one look easy.
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Shot of the Day
No doubt the Sabine is tidal – check out this Bassmaster.com shot of 8th-place finisher Alton Jones and a redfish. Tasty, but I guess he threw it back….
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