Key Yamamoto Baits Have Ensured Howell's Consistency
By Pete Robbins
Mid-Atlantic Staff Writer
July 9, 2009
Springville, Ala. – With one tournament left to go in the 2009 Elite Series regular season, Randy Howell sits in 9th place among the hundred anglers who started the year. That means he’ll be going to the Bassmaster Classic at Alabama’s Lay Lake next February.
But while Howell is happy that he’s all but assured of making his 9th trip to the sport’s ultimate stage, he can’t rest easy yet. The opportunity to fish for a half-million dollars in one event is nice, but before then he’s got mountains to climb.
Specifically, if he remains in the top twelve after next month’s Oneida derby, he’ll get a chance to fish two reduced-field events within an hour and a half of his home to determine the 2009 Angler of the Year. If he wants to do that, though, he’ll have to come up with some top finishes, and that’s the only thing that has been lacking in his effort this year. He hasn’t missed a check yet – finishing no worse than 39th all year – but he hasn’t made a top twelve cut, either.
While he may not be completely satisfied, that sort of consistency is unbelievable in this day and age. While it may not be surprising from superhuman anglers like Kevin VanDam and Skeet Reese, the list of those who show up in the check line event after event gets pretty thin after them.
Howell’s finishes – two in the teens, three in the twenties and two in the thirties – aren’t owed exclusively to Yamamoto products, but the GYCB arsenal has produced some monster catches in some tournaments and prevented stumbles at others. While Randy didn’t want to give away all of his secrets, he was willing to reflect on the baits that have gotten him within striking distance of the big dogs and a chance to beat his 6th place AOY finish from 2008.
Big worms have played a critical role in several Elite Series tournaments this year at waters including Guntersville and Kentucky Lake. Howell worked diligently with Yamamoto’s designers last year to come up with the ultimate in oversized worms.
He likes the curly tail worm for most situations. “I just about drove Ron Colby crazy I sent (the prototypes) back so many times,” he remembered. “But that final time the tail was perfect. Three and four pounders just choke it.”
He used it at Guntersville for some key five and six pound bites, often fishing it on a Lunker Lure football shakey head, which features a long shank 5/0 Gamakatsu hook. It worked again on Kentucky Lake’s ledges, but when the fish got overpressured, he switched to the big Kut Tail. “That’s the second worm I throw,” he said. “A lot of times I’ll start with a big crankbait, catch a few, and then switch to the curly tail. When they quit on that, I’ll go to a Kut Tail, which is more of a finesse worm.”
His favorite colors? “The green pumpkin/watermelon laminate is my first choice in clear water. At Kentucky Lake I used plum and watermelon/red. Any of the green pumpkins are good.”
He also likes to swim the big worms “over the top of short grass.” That’s what he did en route to his 28th place finish at Guntersville. “After the shad spawn got done, I’d swim it over that grass with a 3/16 ounce Molix tungsten weight.”
Howell’s big worm tackle usually consists of a Quantum Tour Edition PT heavy action rod paired with a Quantum “Burner” reel. In shallow water, he uses 19 lb. Molix fluorocarbon but if he’s fishing deeper, in the 20 foot range, he’ll often downsize to 15 lb. fluoro.
He cautioned anglers throughout the country not to dismiss the big worms too soon. “People up north are missing out,” he said. “Even on lakes like Oneida, in the northeast, any place you have grass and bass over three pounds, it can be deadly.”
At the season’s fourth stop, on Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake, Howell didn’t put all of the pieces together early in the event and relied on the Senko® to bail him out.
“I was bed fishing like everyone else,” he said. “But the bite could be tough, so I bailed out halfway through the first day. I was fishing some banks with smallmouths on them like KVD but he was smart enough to do it in practice.”
On the afternoon of the first competition day, he pulled up on one rocky point and caught a four pound smallmouth by blind casting a watermelon/red Senko® to a dark spot.
“The next day I weighed in all smallmouths,” he said. “On the third day, four of my five fish were smallmouths. It was so easy when you finally did it.”
No matter where he goes, he always has a Senko® tied on, usually some shade of green. “I like watermelon/red in the spring, if it’s somewhat clear,” he said. “But if it’s totally clear, slick calm, I’ll go with straight watermelon.”
At Smith Mountain, he fished the Senko® on a Quantum 7’ medium-action Tour Edition PT spinning rod, paired with a 40 TE PTI reel and 12 lb. Molix fluorocarbon. He threaded the Senko® onto a 4/0 Daiichi Bleeding Bait hook.
One other lure that Howell has used to his advantage is the Shad Shape Worm. At both Smith Mountain Lake and Wheeler, he fished it on a special dropshot set-up – using a Recoil Rig, made by his sponsor Secret Weapon Lures – to tempt fish that had become finicky.
“It’s like a remote control for your bait,” he said. “It’s deadly for bedding fish, for cruising fish and around docks. Fish will come to it.”
He usually pairs it with a half-ounce weight. That way the entire rig stays in one place, but the little worm acts like it’s alive. Once again, watermelons are the key hues – both watermelon/red and the watermelon/green pumpkin laminate. He fishes this “bungee” bait on the same spinning rod he used for the Senko® at Smith Mountain, although in some cases he’ll employ braid (typically 20 lb. Spiderwire Stealth) with a fluorocarbon leader. “That gives me sensitivity and on a long cast I can still make the worm come to life,” he said.
Oneida is next. He’s never missed the money there, either. In fact, he’s been in the top quarter of the field all three times that he’s been there with BASS. Smart money says that whether he pursues largemouths or smallmouths, or a mix of the two, he’ll have these baits at the ready when he crosses into New York.