Road to the 2009 BASSMASTER Classic
February 6, 2009
I had the privilege of representing the Montana BASS Federation Nation at the 2008 BASS Federation Nation National Championship on Milford Lake, KS, and after 15+ years of tournament fishing and three trips to the National Championship (2003, 2005 and 2008) a life-long dream finally came true. I qualified to fish the 2009 Bassmaster Classic (Shreveport, LA February 20-22). It is truly an honor to represent the BASS Federation Nation at the Bassmaster Classic.
This journey would not have been possible without the strong support of family, friends and sponsors. I’ve been invited to share in my travels including the key patterns, techniques and baits that helped me along the way.
Qualifying
The road to the 2009 Bassmaster Classic was a 2-year journey that began in the spring of 2007 with three Montana BASS Federation Nation qualifying events. While Montana is not known for its bass fishing (trout are king in Big Sky Country), there is a dedicated group of anglers who traverse the state in snow, rain, wind or sun for the chance to compete and move to the next level in the sport. These are some of the most dedicated anglers I have met, often traveling 8-12 hours to fish an event.
The first Montana BASS Federation Nation qualifier was held in April, 2007 on Noxon Rapids Reservoir in Northwest Montana. Noxon Rapids Reservoir is a Flathead River impoundment stretching about 30 miles from Thompson Falls, MT to the Noxon Rapids Dam. The lake has a good mix of smallmouth and largemouth bass which can be found throughout the lake’s many rock bluffs, stumps, sand/gravel points, large flats and grass lines.
Early spring fishing can be challenging due to the frequent spring storms and large temperature fluctuations. While the frequent weather changes can be difficult on anglers the bass in Noxon are accustomed to cold water and adverse conditions. Crankbaits and jerkbaits are productive in early April as the last of the winter ice comes off the lake. By mid-to-late April water temps rise into the upper 40’s and low 50’s as the smallmouth begin venturing onto the lake’s many shallow flats and points to feed on the abundance of yellow perch in these shallow areas. A Yamamoto 4” Kut Tail worm or 3” Senko rigged wacky-style on a drop-shot are good options when targeting the roving packs of hungry smallmouth.
On warm spring afternoons the largemouth can be found relating to stumps, beaver huts and other wood cover. Spring favorites for targeting largemouth include a black/blue jig, 5” Yamamoto Hula Grub (194J) on a ¼ oz football head or a weightless 4” Yamamoto Senko (297, 194J, 213), either Texas or wacky rigged.
The third and fourth tournaments of the 2007 season were held on Fort Peck Reservoir in Northeast Montana. Fort Peck is a 134 mile long Missouri River impoundment with 1,520 miles of shoreline winding through the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The lake is an amazing smallmouth bass fishery and world renowned area for trophy deer, elk, sheep and antelope hunting. Animals are frequently spotted along the lake shore, rim-rock canyon walls or lightly timbered draws extending from the lake.
Fort Peck is in a remote area (even by Montana standards) so getting there is half the battle. After driving eight hours from my home in Corvallis, MT to the booming metropolis of Jordan, MT (population 352, cows included) there are 25 miles of dirt and gravel roads through the Missouri Breaks to the tournament launch site at Hell Creek Marina and State Park. Due to its enormous size and remote location the lake gets little pressure from bass anglers. I am sure there are many areas of the lake where the smallmouth have never seen an artificial lure. The upper end of the lake has stained to muddy water with standing timber lining the old river channel while the lower end is deep and clear. Be sure to leave your expensive crankbaits and swimbaits at home, the northern pike are HUGE and seem to show a preference for expensive Japanese baits. 
With minimal fishing pressure and an abundance of water, the bass on Fort Peck are usually willing to bite almost anything that passes them by; finding schools of larger fish (3 to 6 lbs) is the key to doing well here in tournaments. The primary forage is cisco and crawdads which makes white crankbaits and spinnerbaits or crawdad imitations productive year-around.
During our qualifying tournaments in June of 2007 water temperatures were 65-68 and the post-spawn females were moving from the spawning areas to deeper water while the males could still be caught in and around the shallow spawning flats in 1 to 3 feet of water. My technique was to swim a 5” Yamamoto Double-Tail Hula Grub (297) along the edges of spawning flats to locate rock piles and isolated rocks in 4 to 6 feet of water adjacent to deeper water. The larger females were holding in these transition areas and feeding on crawdads in the rocks and gravel.
Once an isolated rock pile was located I would slow down and crawl the Hula Grub through the rocks. Boat position and presentation angle were critical. Oftentimes I fished a rock pile for 10-15 minutes before finding the right angle or sweet spot. After hooking a good fish I immediately kicked a marker buoy over the side. After landing the fish I returned to the exact same spot and made the same cast. I can’t count the number of times I have caught back-to-back 4+ lb smallmouth using this technique.
The Yamamoto 5” (297) Double Tail Hula Grub was rigged on a ¼ oz football head jig. I fish the Hula Grub on a 6’6” GLoomis medium-heavy GLX fishing rod and Shimano reel spooled with 14 lb Flurocarbon line. The GLoomis GLX rod and low-stretch fluorocarbon line were key for dragging the Hula Grub through the rocks without getting hung-up. That set up also helps in detecting light bites as the smallmouth often pick up the grub on a semi-slack line. I used this set-up exclusively during the two events to finish 1st place in both 2007 Fort Peck qualifying events, win the 2007 Montana BASS Federation Angler of the Year Title and secure a spot to compete at the 2008 BASS Western Divisional on the Montana State Team.
2008
The 2008 Western Divisional was held on one of my favorite western lakes, Coeur d’ Alene Lake (CDA) in Northern Idaho. This lake has something for everyone with a good mix of largemouth and smallmouth. Going into the event I knew qualifying for the Federation National Championship would be difficult due to the talented anglers on the 2008 Montana Team and their knowledge of CDA Lake.
After discussing options with my first day non-boater partner we decided to start in Harrison Bay, a great spring spawning bay on the South end of the lake. The big females were moving into the back of Harrison Bay a few days before the tournament started but a cold spring storm had shut-off the bite during practice. When the skies cleared up the last day before the tournament, I thought that 24 hours of warm sun would be enough to get the big largemouth biting again. I was wrong! We stayed in Harrison bay most of the day waiting for the bigger fish to bite and I ended up with a disappointing 11.04 lbs and 42nd place overall.
My Day 2 partner was a great young angler from Idaho, James Hollingshead. After discussing our experiences from Day 1 and weighing our options we decided to join the flotilla of boats in the zoo (a recently flooded pond and farm field). The zoo was a very popular area during the three-day tournament with 30 to 40 boats starting there each day. With an early draw on the second day, some help from the fog (GPS is a wonderful invention) and a 45 minute run we were one of the first boats into the zoo and had our choice of places to start.
I started with a ½ oz black/blue jig and within the first few minutes we hooked up with a double. Both were 5+ lb largemouth. What a way to start the day! Once the rest of the boats made it through the fog and down to the zoo we had a 75’ stretch of bank to fish for most of the day. After a few more good fish the bite slowed. With almost everybody flipping brush hogs, sweet beavers or jigs into the wood and grass I decided to try a more subtle technique. I reached for my Senko rod, a favorite for spring fishing on CDA Lake. A slower falling Senko was the ticket for getting highly pressured bass to bite.
Using a weightless 5” Senko (213), Texas rigged with a 7’ GLoomis GLX medium-heavy fishing rod and Shimano Reel spooled with 14 lb fluorocarbon line I was able to finish with a 16.01 lb limit moving me up to 16th place overall, but still ten pounds behind a chance to fish the Federation National Championship.
Going into the third day, I was fishing for team weight since I was still ten pounds behind the leader from Montana, Jim Armstrong, an exceptional angler who can pull a limit of fish from CDA Lake with one hand tied behind his back. After a short discussion with my Day 2 and Day 3 non-boater partners (James was in 3rd place overall with a chance to win so I wanted to stay out of his way on Day 3) we decided to make the long run down to the zoo again.
After a full week of unrelenting pressure, fishing was slow and most boats left the area by mid-day. I started the morning fishing with a jig, but quickly switched to the 5” Yamamoto Senko and never put it down. Dead-sticking the Senko was the key to getting these high-pressured fish to bite. Fishing VERY slowly with the weightless Senko and making multiple casts to each piece of wood produced fish all day long, including a pair of 5+ lb largemouth off the same log. With a lot of patience and a little luck (only lost one fish) I weighed in five fish for 21 lbs to finish the tournament in 4th place overall and earned a trip to the 2008 BASS Federation Nation National Championship.
The National Championship
The BASS Federation Nation National Championship is by far the most challenging, exciting and rewarding tournament I have attended. I can’t say enough about the hospitality of Geary County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Junction City, Fort Riley and the soldiers of the Big Red One. The community laid out the red carpet and welcomed us with open arms. Meeting and competing against some of the best anglers in the world is definitely a thrill I will not soon forget. 
Fishing the National Championship in 2003 and 2005 was a huge help going into this event because I knew what to expect, how to prepare, had confidence in my fishing plans and I was not as nervous (during my first trip to the National Championship I don’t think I slept all week!). Before the off-limits I had the opportunity to spend some time on the lake with four local anglers (Jason Heis, Randy Landraville, Rick Dykstra and Mike Blaha). All four were very knowledgeable and the information I gained during those four practice days proved to be invaluable come tournament time. I not only learned some good areas and local patterns, but more importantly where to fish when the wind blows, a lesson that proved critical for the upcoming tournament.
So, how was the fishing? Let’s just say I am happy to be alive! The official practice day and first day of the tournament were cancelled due to high winds. It was a quiet and lonely bus ride from the boat yard back to the hotel each day. After working long and hard to get where I was, it was difficult and discouraging to leave the boat in the parking lot. On the second scheduled tournament day, the winds died down to 15 mph in the morning so they let us launch. After two days sitting in the hotel everyone was excited to finally get on the water. I was one of the last boats out and my first two spots were already taken by other competitors, so I moved to a series of rocky points a short distance from the ramp at Thunderbird Bay and quickly hooked-up with a couple of wipers (if you want to catch a bunch of big wipers, Milford Lake is great!). The wind started to pick up again and within a couple of hours she was blowing out of the North at 30 to 40 mph. I decided to make a harrowing run across the lake to Rush Creek before the swells on the main lake were to too big to safely cross.
Cold and wet from the run across the lake and with no fish in the livewell, I decided to slow down and fish my strength, a 5” Yamamoto Double Tail Hula Grub (208). I caught several fish during practice on the Hula Grub and the cold, windy post-front conditions seemed perfect for the slow-moving bait. Most of the shad had pulled out to deeper water (20 to 30’) for the winter, but the bass had either not followed or were simply not biting in the deeper water so I focused on a several 4 to 8 ft deep rocky ledges in Rush Creek.
I fished the Yamamoto Hula Grub on a 3/8 oz football jig using a 6’6” GLoomis medium-heavy GLX rod and Shimano reel spooled with 12 lb fluorocarbon line. It was difficult to hold boat position and feel bites with the strong wind and swells, but the sensitive combination of a GLoomis GLX fishing rod and fluorocarbon line helped me detect the subtle bites and boat a couple of keeper smallmouth.
The trip back to the ramp was by far the worst conditions I have encountered in a bass boat with 40 to 60 mph winds and 6 to 8 foot swells. My observer was a soldier from the Big Red One and this was his first time ever in a bass boat. Cold, wet and shivering after the long and rough ride back to the marina, he never complained once and thanked me for the day on the water. Upon returning to the ramp, feeling certain I had lost my shot at the Classic by missing a couple of bites, I was surprised to find that I was one of two anglers who caught two fish and found myself in 3rd place overall.
Day 3 of the tournament was cancelled due to high winds. Back to the hotel once again with high hopes that Tournament Director Jon Stewart and the BASS staff could arrange for a make-up day on Saturday. Saturday morning started with frigid temperatures and gusty winds, but fortunately the weather cooperated enough to get us out on the water. The water temperatures had dropped with the two passing cold fronts and strong winds were expected in the afternoon and I felt one or two fish would be enough to qualify for the Classic.
On the final day of competition I decided to return to Rush Creek and fish the ledges again with the Yamamoto Double Tail Hula Grub I used on the first day of competition. With the winds picking up mid-morning I moved to a partially protected area behind a series of docks in Rush Creek. Behind one section of dock there was an underwater rock ledge that dropped from 4 to 6 ft with some brush planted along the edge. The ledge was behind a cable suspended one foot over the water between dock and shore. I positioned the boat near the cable and on the first cast to the brush pile I missed a good bite. #$%&#@!
A couple more casts to the submerged brush pile with the Yamamoto Hula Grub and the fish bit again. After a short fight I moved up to the cable, laid down over the front of the boat and reached under the cable to lip the fish. At the last second the fish made a run under the boat and wrapped around my electric motor. A strong gust of wind caught the boat and pushed it away from the cable. I tried to grab the cable with my free hand, but it was too late and I could not use the electric motor because it would cut the line (ohhh crap!). I stuck the end of my fishing pole over the cable to keep the line from breaking on the cable and put some pressure on the fish to see if it would swim out from around my electric motor. A second strong gust of wind caught the boat and before I could hit the free-spool button my fishing rod broke over the cable (thankfully GLoomis has a great lifetime guarantee).
While quickly drifting away from the cable, I held the broken rod in one hand with the reel on free spool, lifted the electric motor out of the water with the other hand and un-wrapped the line from around the motor (it was wrapped around it twice!). I made my way back up to the cable keeping light pressure on the fish so the already frayed line would not break on the cable and landed a 3+ lb smallmouth bass. I was shaking like a leaf and had to sit down for a few minutes and collect my thoughts. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had just qualified for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic.
Thanks again to my family, friends and GYCB for helping make a dream come true. See you at the Classic!