When I talk to Jacob I get kinda the same feeling as when I talked to Aaron Martens about fishing: The info is super interesting but I feel like/know I'm really just scratching the surface. Actually feel that way talking to all the pros because they know so much, but with Aaron and Jacob it's a little different deal, if you get what I'm saying.
Anyhoo, here's some great info from the guy who has more MLF wins than anyone: 6. And until this past weekend, as MLF said, "hasn't hoisted a trophy since Stage Six of 2021." Dang that's a long time without winning man! 😱 Oops no wait – he won AOY last year (again). Here's some of what went down for him at Gville – full longer deal at BassBlaster.rocks.
> "...my whole goal starting the event was if I could catch them fast enough and early enough every day where I could graph that final period and find new stuff...that's going to be the way to win this tournament.
> "So the 1st day I caught I think 18 lbs the 1st period. About midway through the 2nd I had 20-14. So I was basically able to graph from that point on, and I found 4 new places.
> "The 2nd day I caught 18-20 lbs pretty quick. They took the camera from me, and I was able to graph for 2 full periods. I found like 7 new schools, and 3 of them were places I found in practice and never saw anything – they just showed up. I was pretty confident I could keep those in my back pocket...[the fish] just got there and probably no other locals knew about them and probably no other competitors....
> "Meaning...many of the best local fishermen know all these spots, but you don't know the exact day they get there. ...if you're not graphing every day, you don't know when they showed up. There pretty much are no secrets on the TN River anymore, so it's really just...finding them first to get that opportunity to really catch 'em.
> "...the first 2 days is just pole position, just get in. The next day [the Knockout Round] is really all about winning. It's a 2-day shootout, a 2-day bass tournament to win.
> Day 3: "I started on a place, and Jordan [Lee] pulled up and asked if he could fish, I'm like, 'Yeah dude no problem.' It didn't work out real well and he ended up rolling out. I moved around a little bit and they'd moved – they were positioned a little bit different. I caught a 4-09 and a 6-something on that place.
> "I ran down the lake and got on a community hole and they were biting. It was crazy how the rain, that front, impacted those big ones.... That front came through and I threw on that exact same group of fish I'd been throwing at for a while...the big ones triggered and I caught 2 6-lbers. I've never seen that, where it's like at the flip of a switch they go from following to eating your bait every cast.
> "That's basically day 1 of the tournament and I have 27-28 lbs by the end of the 2nd period. So I was able to graph a little bit and tinker around [the last period].
> "I actually had 29-09...leaned on one spot really hard, a community place. I had a 6-8 lb lead, so why would I continue to set the hook on 4.5-lbers – they might be the ones that win the tournament for me.
> "The final day I started on the community hole and it did not pan out. I felt like that was gonna happen. The big thing was I had some stuff in my back pocket I had not fished....
> "I was able to catch 2 3.5-lbers the 1st period – it was really tough fishing that 1st period for whatever reason. If I did not have ScoreTracker at that moment, I would have been freaked out a little bit. I would not have known the fish just were not biting.
> "I was saving some things for the afternoon because that's the best time of day [and because of spectator boats that might have fished those spots if he went there earlier]. Knowing that the final period was the best period to fish offshore, I felt very comfortable I could catch 18-20 lbs. You don't know if a local angler or another competitor was on [those spots] – you had to trust that.
> "The start of the 2nd period I started fishing places I found in practice that I hadn't had a chance to fish...catch a 4+ lber and I was like, Alright, they're starting to bite, the wind is starting to slick off, it's starting to happen.
> "...another spot I caught another 4+ lber, like a 4-14. Now we're sitting pretty good.
> "I was waiting to go to this one place where I caught a 6-lber...slid up there and caught another 4+ and a 6-02. When I hooked that 6-lber I was like, This is the tournament. Of course anybody could have an unbelievable day and catch 30 lbs...but I knew if I could get up there and everybody had to catch 30 it would make it a little tough."
The spots
> "The places that are little bit sneakier are places that you have to idle for a long period of time down straight ledges, and for whatever reason bass just set up on that place...the way the current swings...little hard spot, they decide to set up right there for this year. That's the kind of stuff I try to find, and a lot of our competitors do as well.
> "Some of [these spots] were on the edges of grass, some of them were on deeper ledges not even close to grass – it really just depended on what the area had to offer. I had schools as deep as 35' and as shallow as 8'. The most common depth was 15-20'....
> "...typical for every TN River lake, if you start at the dam and work your way up, they're deeper down at the lower end of the lake and the schools set up shallower on the upper end."
Baits
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