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EQ is either what comes after "DQ" or it means "emotional quotient," "equalizer" or "elephant quiz." Take your pick, I think they all work. 😁
Alright anyhow it seems like Elitist Emil Wagner is working on an "Excellence Quest" because he just went out and won the Lake Champlain Bassmaster EQ. Here's 5 with him about that and some other stuff:
1. How did you catch 'em?
> "This was probably the only tournament that will ever go like this. I had 1 magical spot that carried me through the first 2 days. I found it in practice and I caught 23 lbs in 15 minutes. They [smallmouths] were all over 4 lbs.
> "I was like, This has to be best hole on Lake Champlain. This insane.
> "But in my head I was thinking it probably wouldn't [stay that way] because normally it doesn't. But I went there the first 2 days and it was just storybook. I caught a ton of 4-lbers and didn't have to make a bunch of decisions."
He was pinging a minnow:
> "The big key was working it a ways over their head, getting it past them and making it look really natural. If it you were too close to 'em, or your timing was off when you made your cast, or if you shorted the fish....
> "You had to make really good casts and work your bait properly, and they would destroy it. It was some of the most fun I've ever had in a tournament."
"They would destroy it. It was some of the most fun I've ever had in a tournament."
> "The final day I pulled up to that spot – we'd had 25 mph wind gusts overnight. I pull up there and all the bait is gone, there's floating grass everywhere and 90% of the bass were gone.
> "...got me that far – I stayed there til almost noon. With only 3 hours left I started running some of the water I found in practice that had big ones. Thank God they were there. I caught 3 more really big ones and lost a giant as well.
> "That's what won the tournament for me, making that move the last day."
Can you give more specifics about working the bait wrong vs right?
> "I was trying to keep the bait high over their heads and keep it moving – make it look like a baitfish fleeing away from them. If that bait got down in their face, or they saw it and swam up to it and you were lake to start working it...you would never get those bites.
> "If you let the bait get really close to them, or if you slowed it down too much and they got a really good look at it [that was bad]. ...it was a fine line."
What were your spots like?
> "The first 2 days they were on a big main-lake ledge that went from 15' out to 50'. Some parts of the day you'd see 'em on top of the ledge on the bottom, and then a bunch of bait would swim by...they'd start blowing through bait and that's when they were the most susceptible.
> "The sweet spot was about a 100-yard stretch but I was catching them on probably a 500-yard stretch. That 100-yard stretch had 2 little points on the ledge...thousands of smallmouth there. All around this half-mile stretch there were a ton of smallmouth and they were big.
> "Every time you went through the stretch, new ones would come from the main river, new ones would come in from up on the flat. It was just a big replenishing feeding frenzy."
[Paul Marks Jr, his roomie, found the same fish and finished 3rd.]
> "The last day I was catching them really shallow – in 6' sitting on edge of a sand drop. They were really spooky. If they heard it splash...if it was unnatural in any way, they wouldn't eat it."
2. How does someone boat-flip 4-lbers on a M-action spin rod with a braid to fluoro knot with any kind of confidence – or do you just gotta be crazy? 😜
> "It's the wildest thing. You have to have some momentum coming with [the fish], just like boat-flipping anything. But it's different with largemouths [vs] smallmouths.
> "If you loosened the drag on them, they would start pulling really hard and they would dig...it would get harder to pull 'em in. So I didn't have the drag locked down but I had it pretty dang tight. I would hit 'em and I would just reel. I would never let them get to that point [of digging].
> "I would just hook 'em, get 'em through the jumps and then flip 'em.
"I would just hook 'em, get 'em through the jumps and then flip 'em.
> "That [Fenwick World Class] 7 1 M isn't beefy but it's a strong rod. ...that 12-lb [Berkley] Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon is like rope – it is so strong.
> "...at the side of the boat, smallmouth being smallmouth they want to come to the surface anyway. So I'd just ride that momentum and flip them in.
> "It was scary but I was doing it in all of practice and I wasn't losing any.
> "The 3rd day it was really tough, and 2 of those 4 3/4s I caught I boat flipped 'em, they hit the floor and the jighead came out of their mouth. So in my head I'm like, If I try to land those ones scooping 'em, there's a good chance they jump and I lose them."
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