How Pat Schlapper ground out 38 lbs to win the Sabine Elite

The Elites went from one of the best bass fisheries in the country where 8 lbs is 1 fish to one of the worst bass fisheries where getting 8 lbs could take 7 FISH!! 🤯 Lol crazy! But we all know some guys can grind and in the end the best grinder this time around was Pat. Here’s how he did it.

Going in and practice

> “This was my third time going there. My rookie year I think I finished [22nd] and the last time was not good.

> “The water was super high so I started over in that Taylors [Slough] area. I knew it had a saltwater barrier and figured it was a lot more stable. And the last time we were there that’s where a lot of fish were caught.

> “The 1st place I stopped I started catching ’em…caught ’em all day, had some good ones, better than average size. So after the 1st day I’m like, That’s good, I can get bites.

> “Day 2 I went over to the Neches River which is where I usually fish. …looked like crap. The water was really dirty and high. I caught 2 little tiny bass and a redfish – I bailed after an hour and a half.

> “I went back to Taylors and I spent the next 2 days of practice there, finding every little stretch I could and figuring out how to get bit throughout the day.

> “Honestly after practice I felt pretty good about catching a limit and a couple big ones.

> “That place is so big you just can’t get caught running around – because you’ll just run out of time. Usually when I do well in tournaments, particularly on bigger water bodies…I’ll find one area and just dissect it.

> “For this one…okay I can throw a buzzbait til about 9:00. After that they won’t really bite it very good. Then from 9:00-10:00 the flipping bite was still decent. Then I always had a dead time – 10:30-1:30 was always pretty slow, then it would pick up afterwards. So I kinda had that timing figured out.

> “When I found the pipes the last day of practice that put a wrinkle in it. It was all the way at the end, as far as you could go. It took a little over an hour to get there.

> “That was the whole gamble that won the tournament – bypassing all my good stuff to get to the best spot and hope nobody was there….”

Tournament

> “The 1st day I ran up in those pipes, caught a limit pretty early then it slowed down a bit. Once the sun…got real high, probably about 9:45, I caught 4 really good ones: three 2.25-lbers and almost a 4.5-lber. So I had my bag.

> “I kinda hung out there and fished around…to see who else was gonna come there. …if someone was going to try to get in there, I was going to be there so they wouldn’t get on it. And so the next day I’d know if they were ahead of me they would go there.”

No one showed up. He flipped around some more in different stretches and ended catching about 12 keepers and losing a couple more. Most came on the Do-It Molds compact finesse jig he makes himself.

> “Day 2 I knew I had hit that [pipe] spot pretty hard but I’m like, I gotta run up there – because I knew some more nice ones were there because I lost 2 of ’em and caught 1 in practice close to 3 lbs that I…didn’t think would leave there. A group of resident fish live there.

> “I ran all the way up there and no one was there again. I caught a 12.5-incher and caught 1 close to 3 lbs that I honestly think was the one I caught in practice.

> “I fished there til 9:30 and only had those 2 fish.”

He flipped his main stretch of bank – “whatever was in front of me” – and caught a 3rd keeper, and then headed back to his pipeline spot:

> “It was like a series of pipes going over the water and just pillars [with] some little brushpiles…brush washed up on the pillars from when the water was high.”

> “I caught my 4th and 5th right away. I threw the jig and the little creature bait and didn’t get any bites. So I picked up a dropshot and caught [those] 2 keepers really quick and a short one, then I left. I was like, I can catch them like that tomorrow.

He flipped the rest of the day and culled 1 fish.

> “Day 3 I started on my buzzbait stretch…capitalize on that because I hadn’t got to do it yet. I fished through my best area and caught 1 small keeper. That was it.

> “Then I ran up to the pipes and I had 1 nice one and lost it, and that was the only bite I had. I left and flipped a stretch of bank and caught my 2nd keeper.

> “Once the sun got high I went back to the pipes. I’m like, I’ll just throw the dropshot around get a few more keepers. I did that and didn’t catch any. It was just burnt out.

> “…flipped the rest of the day…caught my 3rd one, caught my 4th one, both 1.5-lbers. I had 15 minutes to fish, went to a little isolated piece of wood I had, made one flip and caught a 3.5-lber. I only caught 5 that day [4 flipping, 1 buzzbait].

> “Day 4 I figured those pipes were pretty well burnt out. I knew there were catch and release fish at the bridge at Taylors…got there…a boat there that was tied pup. He pretty much pushed me out of there but I didn’t really care.

> “I ran around the corner to the same [buzzbait] stretch and stopped there. I put the trolling motor down and the wind was perfect. The first pass I caught 4 good ones in 10 minutes – that’s what won the tournament.

> “I went to another stretch and caught my 5th one on a buzzbait. That fizzled out so I started flipping and caught another keeper that culled maybe an ounce. That was by like 9:30.

> “I figured I’ve got all day to flip – I’m gonna get a good one off those pipes. When the sun got right I ran up to the pipes and caught a small keeper, then flipped the rest of the day. I caught 2 more small keepers the rest of the day – that was it.

> “The fact that I led every day is crazy because that doesn’t happen down there. Usually it changes a lot. If somebody catches a 10-lb bag they can jump from 30th to 1st it’s so tight.”

Baits

> 3/8-oz Do it Molds Compact Finesse Jig (b/b, 2/0 short shank hook with a wide gap and an intentionally heavy weedguard for the Sabine) with a Big Bite Baits Chunk (sapphire blue) 18-lb Sunline Shooter Fluoro, high-speed reel, 7′ 3″ MH F St Croix Legend Tournament Rod.

> Dropshot: 4.5″ Roboworm (Folkestad special), 3/0 straight shank hook, 3/16-oz weight, 12-lb Sunline AMZ Braid to 10-lb Sunline FC Sniper fluoro, 7′ M F St Croix Legend Elite Spin Rod.

> Brazalo Bushwacker Buzzbait (3/8-oz gold blade) with a variety of black toads including a Big Bite Baits Tour Toad, 50-lb Sunline SX1 Braid (green), 7′ 3″ MH F St Croix Victory Rod.

> Why that buzzbait: “It’s the best buzzbait I’ve found. It has a brass bead on it, it makes a good clack and you can kind of adjust how loud you want it. It runs true, it’s built well, it’s a got a good hook.

> “Basically I went through a phase 4 years ago where I bought a pile of different ones, trying to find one that I like.”

> Why the gold blade + black toad: “The water was darker – it wasn’t muddy. I always think black shows up better, and I always like gold blades in tidal water. I also don’t think as many people throw a gold blade.”

> Flipped plastics: Couple small creature baits (all variations of b/b), 2/0 straight-shank flipping hook, 5/16- or 3/8-oz weight, 18-lb Sunline Shooter, same rod as buzzbait.

Electronics

> “Just mapping for getting to my spots, following my tracks – the GPS functions. I looked at 360 a little bit, but mainly what I was casting at was all visual.”

He runs Humminbird Apex 13s with the new user interface:

> “…organize waypoints. I mark waypoints certain ways…what kind of bank it was, I mark isolated wood with different kind…helped me a lot with that.”

Shoutouts

> “The main thing is a lot of people respected my water. Matt Robertson, Kenta Kimura – he saw what was going down and stayed away – Logan Parks, Emil Wagner and Bryan Schmitt. They all knew I was going there and they had found it, but they respected it because I was leading.

> “They earned a lot of respect from me and that needs to be known. Because a lot of guys wouldn’t have done that [and it] could have been different. Those guys definitely deserve a shoutout.

> “And thanks to Scheels for sticking by me and being my title sponsor for my entire career so far.”