How Jason Christie won another one, at the Pasquotank River

Ah yes, the ol’ salty Passaquoddy, where Ahab matched wits with Moby Dick and someone wrote a book about it. Possibly. 😁

Alright well if there was any doubt before – and there shouldn’t have been – Jason now firmly is “one of the best ever.”

No FFS tourney won with a spinnerbait/swim-jig (wheelhouse) + close to the ramp in the spring? ✅

FFS + never fished an urchin before + 180-mile round trip in brackish water in the summer where he “tanked” (83rd) last year? ✅

#Stout fo sho. Here’s how he got ‘er done this time – a little shorter than normal because Jason was runnin’ and gunnin’.

Going in and practice

> “Since I finished toward the bottom the last time we were there, it was all about getting points. I was in the 20s in the points, so my thought was, Hey let’s get as many points as we can and get out of here.

> “Practice for me weight-wise was good, but we were fishing 14-hour days. I would catch 25-30 lbs but I was only getting 8-10 bites a day. So if you limit that to 4-5 hours of fishing, I was worried.

> “But where I was fishing, I knew that even if I caught 3, I could catch 17-20 lbs. So I made the decision to go [on a long run] no matter what.”

Tournament

> “All the fish I caught came off either cypress trees or docks [in 1-8′]. The best way I know to describe this event is – other than the last day on that key dock – it was random. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, it would change.

> “The 1st day I caught ’em half on trees, half on docks. The 2nd day they were all off trees. The 3rd day it was mixed again. And the 4th was almost all off docks.

> “The key for me was just to keep my bait in the water.

> “I caught 19 bass and saw 1 of them eat my bait. I was not Scoping fish. I was Scoping a little bit the underwater cover, but most everything I was casting to was visual with my eyes.”

Bait

> Unknown urchin bait in gp and what looks like plum or scuppernong, 2/0 Trokar Frog Hook,  a “little bit of weight” (he didn’t know the exact weight), 22-lb Sunline Shooter Fluoro, SPRO JC Elite MG Reel (8.1), 7′ 2″ Falcon Cara Swim Jig Rod.

> “I literally sat down the night before the 1st day of practice, threw something together and that’s what I fished with. It was just something I tried…the first stop I caught a big one and I just rolled with it.

> “I don’t have any previous experience with that bait before this week. I was learning every day….”

Electronics

> “A lot of people don’t realize what we put these rigs through, especially an 180-mile round trip. For everything to still work when you get there and back says something about how tough they are.

> “I was Scoping and was using the trip odometer to make sure I had enough gas. I used 360 a little bit when I was fishing out deeper, but when I got up shallow I just knew if one was there he was gonna bite. I didn’t want to not cast at a target because I didn’t see one.”

[He said the Garmin tidal-water mapping was “really good.”]

Shoutouts

> “Obviously the boat and the motor. I’m to a point in my career where I wouldn’t have a sponsor if I wasn’t 100% confident in everything. [He listed every category] – it’s everybody [he wanted to thank].

> “…electronics mounts – if I were to run a sub-par mount, then I would have to stop out there in the middle and fix everything, and I’d lose 30 minutes…I just don’t do that. [He runs Precision Sonar mounts.]

> “Everything I run I have 100% confidence in. So when Jason Christie wins, the team wins. It’s a team effort.”