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Ben Matsubu Scores 5th on Toledo Bend
Takahiro Omori 6th, Charlie Hammack 9th, Lendell Martin, Jr. in 15th
By Russ Bassdozer

March 21-23, 2002

2001/02 BASSMASTER Central Open - Toledo Bend Reservoir, Many, Louisiana

Congratulations to Ben Matsubu! Ben drilled out 50.05 pounds of bass to take fifth place and $12,500 on Toledo Bend this weekend. Takahiro Omori closed ranks for sixth place ($5,500). Not far behind was Charlie Hammack in ninth ($4,000) and Lendell Martin, Jr. high in 15th place ($2,200) out of almost 290 hard-fishing pro anglers who ride the Central Open trail.

"I caught all of my fish all three days on 5" watermelon Senkos (9-10-194J). Each morning at take-off, I would put some lake water in the bags of 194J Senkos, and lay them out in the sun. The combination of sun and water would fade the color out of the Senkos, making them closely match the color of the lake water," says Ben.

I feel the fish wanted a bait that blended into the surroundings, says Ben. All three days, I fished in the vicinity of one duck blind, which was atop an underwater island. There were twelve boats fishing around me, and they were all throwing Carolina rigs. I can tell you I caught ten bass to their one with my faded-out Senkos. All of my fish came off that one underwater island. I gave up some time on the second day by having to split the water with my draw partner, and running to a spot my second day partner desired to hit with his half of the day.

I also gave one fish to my third day partner, continues Ben. I already had my limit, about 17-18 pounds in the livewell, but my partner only had 2-3 fish in the boat. I saw one fish that I figured was a small one, but still a keeper good enough for my partner to add one to his stringer. The fish was cruising along a laydown log, and it swam into a nearby bush as we approached it. I figured I would let my partner have the fish, since it looked smaller than I could use, but it would help him fill his limit. "Flip into that bush, a bass just went in there," I told him. Sure enough, he hooked up! However, the fish turned out to be a nice 3.5 pounder! That fish would have given me 53 pounds, and moved me into second place. Oh well, I guess I will be remembered as a nice guy!

During the two days of pre-fish practice on Toledo Bend, says Ben, everybody was catching 15 lb. limits during practice. A lot of guys were fishing beds, and a lot of these bed fish were stuck during practice. Bed fish are highly susceptive to being caught by the first angler and first lure to approach them. After that first encounter with an angler, however, this makes a lot of these fish real gun-shy to stay on the beds. Whenever another boats approach them again, they will shy off the beds. So these bass stuck during the pre-fish, your chances become very low that you'll catch them again during the actual tournament.

As luck would have it, a cold front moved through on the second day of the three-day tournament, and catches began to nose-dive. The first day, before the cold front moved in, there were 115 limits and 974 bass caught for the field of almost 290 anglers. When the cold front hit, catches dropped to 88 limits and 870 fish the second day, and worsened to 69 limits and 737 the third day, due to the cold front effects.

I feel all the fish were bed fish that I caught off the underwater island where I stayed for the three days. I could not see a lot of the beds, because they were under five to six feet of water. However, I kept working big circles around the underwater island. Whenever I caught one fish, I would cast right back at the exact same spot, and catch another. I suspect they were nesting pairs. Anyhow, that catch-one-catch-two pattern repeated itself for the three days. As the fishing worsened due to the cold front the third day, I ran out of bites on the underwater island, although I did bag a whopping 9.09 pound fish there before abandoning the island to run long stretches of banks throwing spinnerbaits and flipping Senkos. That 9.09 pounder tied another angler, Kevin Broussard, and Kevin and I split the big bass money for day three! - Ben Matsubu

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