Dakota was knocking at the door all year last year and now has his first bigger W. (I guess the MLF Toyotas are like the former region-based Opens?) Anyhow congrats to him, I'm sure more are on the way, here's how he won it – which was shortened to a 2-dayer and was scheduled BEFORE the weekend, which is interesting:

> "This time of the year we have a lot of tournaments at Rayburn so I've fished quite a few of them at this time of the year, and it's taken me quite a while to get dialed in to what to look for. ...I look for stuff to win on there. I don't think about going to catch 12 lbs, I don't think about going to catch 15 lbs. I know this time of the year there's the potential for giant bags to be caught.

> "Basically it's kind of a home run swing whenever I'm there, that's my mindset. I'm looking for early pre-spawn staging females. Those groups of fish, big ones, kind of...winter in those areas. They don't have to move a lot, there's bait everywhere.

> "Monday was only my day to practice. I just went graphing around and put the trolling motor down. I went looking for new areas. I didn't have single waypoint in my graph...new graphs and just went fishing. I ran new water...obviously checked some things I fished in the past, but for the most part it was all new water.

> "The bigger fish on Rayburn I feel like key in on gizzard shad this time of year so I was looking for areas that had gizzard shad in drains and was running that. Where I found those, typically big bass weren't too far away."

Baits

He said none of these baits really caught more fish than the others, and the Carolina rig he fished some didn't really matter in terms of weighed fish:

> Strike King 6XD (chart/powder blue – "that's the only color I throw" of that bait this time of year) with Owner STY-35 Trebles and SuspenStrips "to get it weighted right." 15-lb Strike King Contra Fluoro, Lew's BB1 Pro Reel (6.2), 7' 10" Lew's KVD Composite Cranking Rod.

> 3/4-oz football jig (PB&J) with a Strike King Rage Craw (PB&J), 17-lb fluoro, Lew's HyperMag Reel (7.5), 7' 4" H Lew's Elite Rod.

> A-rig with 3.3 Strike King Rage Swimmers (sexy shad), 1/4-oz heads on the bottom and 1/16-oz on the top: "I cut the hooks off the top 2 because we're only allowed 3 hooks. I make sure I get the hooks on the bottom...bass mostly feed up on that thing." 17-lb fluoro, Lew's BB1 Pro Reel (6.2), 7' 11" H Lew's Greg Hackney Signature Series Rod.

> He caught 1 big one on a Strike King KVD 300 Deep Jerkbait (oyster) with the hooks changed to the same Owner ST-35 Trebles, 10-lb fluoro, Lew's Custom Lite SS Reel (not out yet, for casting lighter baits), 6' 8" M Lew's Elite Rod.

Electronics

> "I used Garmin side imaging to find those areas...Garmin maps to look for those areas then side imaging to scan them.

> "I used forward-facing sonar as well, whenever I was fishing. You could've caught those fish without it – I'm always looking at it, but you didn't have to have it."

Shout-outs

> "My title sponsor the last couple years has been Tiger Creek Lodge on Sam Rayburn. If you're going to fish down there it'd be a good place to go – the big ones are biting!"

Tidbits

- He weighed 32-04 on the last day – one fish was a 3.5! – to win by 1-05. He had 48-10 over 2 days.

- One time he had a big one hooked up on the 6XD and after it jump a 5-lber got latched onto the back hook – so like 13-14 lbs on that one bait, but the 5 pulled off. Crazy!

Before gettin' to the Qs, this year Dakota is fishing the Bass Pro Tour, the MLF Invitationals and some Toyotas. New sponsors are Lew's/Strike King, Toro and NetDirectAutoSales.com, a TX truck dealership. And if you're wonderin', his last name is pronounced "Ee-bear." Here we go:

1. Does this mean you're gonna win one on the Bass Pro Tour this year? And what do you think about going to the best 5 there?

> "As far as that goes, I would never make an assumption like that. Fishing will humble you quick. [The win] felt great, but I'm going to a new lake and a new tournament, and that's all that matters. These fish at the Harris Chain [Toyota which he's practicing for], they don't care....so I have to keep working and doing my part.

> "The format change doesn't make a difference to me. I don't care what format I'm fishing. Tell me what the format is and what the rules are...and I'm in."

2. Can you compare winning a 2-day Toyota vs fishing a week-long Bass Pro Tour event?

> "No."

[😆 Love it!]

3. Do you think getting close to a win several times was a test of your faith?

> "I'm not going to say it was a faith test because I never doubted and it would never make me doubt my faith, but did it happen for a reason and did it make me better down the road? Absolutely.

> "For a guy coming from a humble financial background, those 2nd, 3rd and 4th finishes allowed me the opportunity to do this and have that win at Rayburn. So I'm very thankful for all those experiences."

💪

4. You said you looked for a pattern more than spots. Is that usually how you fish? Because some folks think electronics beats pattern-fishing.

> "...if you don't know how to fish, if you don't know how to look for patterns, if you don't know how to do that stuff, I don't care how good you are with electronics. If you don't understand patterns...you're not going to be able to compete against guys who can do both...and dang sure in a multi-day tournament.

> "Can a guy scope 5 big ones in any 1 day [tournament]? Absolutely. But if you can't pattern fish and do it for multiple days and understand why those fish move....

> "Take the electronics out of our boats and the same guys will win, I promise you."

5. Word is you went out on your 1 practice day with your mom. Did she find any of those fish for you in practice? Be honest...😁

> "I only caught like 2, but when I figured out what I was looking for...caught a 6.5 and another one about 8.5. I tried to be secret about it...she [whispered], 'You're gonna win right here.' I didn't win right there but it was really cool.

> "She drove all the way home [to LA] to go to work, and drove all the way back because she just had a feeling. She said, 'There's no way you're not winning this tournament.' I was like, 'Mom don't put that on me – you're gonna jinx me, you know?'"

Hahaha mom was right! And pretty stoked:

#bassinfamily

Backstory: I'm always skimming the tourney news and saw this bait mentioned in a win on the Alabama Bass Trail tourney at Lake Wedowee. Looked for it like I always do when it's a deal I haven't heard of before, found it – sounded interesting and that bill shape spoke to me. So I called the guy who makes it – Phillip Taylor, a tool and die maker who owns Blue Ridge Bait Co...

...and one of the guys who fished it in that tourney, Brian Elder (left):

After talking to 'em I bought 3 of the baits! 😁 Some info from 'em:

> Phillip: "...being in NC, we like to crankbait fish. All this spawned from my love for the Carolina Killers – a flat-sided crankbait made from balsa. Those things are great but you can't cast them very well when it's windy.

> "...playing around with different weight-transfer systems. I came up with this idea...I finally realized I was making it way too difficult. That tungsten ball bearing is expensive, but it's needed and makes it so smooth. That weight transfer will not fail, I don't care how you throw it.

> "Once the lure hits the water, that ball bearing smoothly rolls to the front of the lure to aid in a quick-diving action.... That special transfer system is the reason we call it the Roller Shad. As far as I know this is the first flat-sided crankbait on the market to feature such a weight-transfer system."

> Brian: "It started out as just a flat-sided crankbait that you couldn't cast. It literally started out as a kite. We talked about it for months, how we could add a weight-transfer system and keep the tight action....what angle will the weight transfer have to be to keep that tight action.

> "What we came up with is in my opinion is one of the best weight transfer systems on the market...it flies."

> Phillip: "A lot of people like going down the bank...these things work really well for that because you can get the depths without getting the long cast.

> Brian: "The target [of the Roller Shad] was really 5-10', and we wanted a bait that could be tight, run at a steep-enough angle to deflect well, and have a bill that is designed to deflect. A squarebill doesn't necessarily have a tight wobble...."

Sounds cool so far – here's what they said about that bill which kinda reminds me of an old Luhr-Jensen bait (I think, can't remember which one):

> Phillip: "...our lip design on this bait...neither square, rounded or coffin-shaped. It's a flared lip and excels at coming through wood and rock. It allows fishermen to crank hard when making contact.... The moment you crank the handle, this thing is digging.

> "That lip was actually designed for rock and it just so happened we found out that it actually worked great in wood. You can crank that thing hard in the wood and it will deflect...deflects in such a way that I think it comes through a little better than those coffin bills. They just don't deflect as good as this flared lip...really triggers the fish."

> Brian: "A squarebill doesn't necessarily have a tight wobble.... We knew we needed a squarebill, everybody does a coffin bill.... The problem with coffin bills is when you deflect the bait it goes dead. If you don't change your cadence when you deflect...it goes dead. This bill bill has enough surface area on the outside that it doesn't kill the action...it deflects and picks right back up without changing cadence."

Little more info

> Phillip: "The body on the Roller Shad is also unique. From a front or end profile you can see the unique triangular shape that helps keep the bait balanced and helps minimize hook rash.

> "The Roller Shads are also made from a proprietary urethane resin mixture that is much more durable than wood or plastic. It really has a great feel to it. With a such a great crankbait design, we wanted to use a superior material to build it out of.

> "...premium split rings, premium Mustad KVD Triple Grip Trebles [the rear one has a rotating rear hook anchor], and a .060-thick G4 F10 circuit board custom-engraved lip...wears less than the typical .030-thick lips."

> Brian: "Don't upsize the hooks. This thing is specifically weighted to run like it runs.

> "It's my favorite crankbait to throw. It casts like a rocket, deflects off wood, runs at a steep-enough angle to pull through grass – it is in my opinion that perfect search bait in 3-10' of water.

> "It was released in 2022, but I've been fishing the final prototype of it for 1.5-2 years."

At the AL Bass Trail derby he fished the #7 and #10 sizes (numbers are running depths) in "catawba craw" (top pic above). He said, "My partner was throwing a Chick Magnet. He had that 0-4', I had everything below that."

The third Roller Shad size is #4, comes in 10 colors. I bought the 3 #7s, one "catawba craw" and these 2:

That "Caribbean craw" has a light blue belly. The baits have a handmade price – $22 each:

> Phillip: "If I spend $25 or $30 apiece [for a bait], I don't know about you but I'm expecting something special."

> Brian: "The only thing can compare it to is handmade baits and that's because they are handmade."

The 2nd best tourney bait ever, pink jerkbaits, bass fishermen can solve the bigfoot deal?? Here you go!