Western Legend Gary Dobyns' Biggest Win: 2009 US Open
September 4, 2009
I rang Gary Dobyns while he was happily driving home from the US Open on Lake Mead, Las Vegas where he had just made the biggest win of his 40 prize boat, 100 victory career. Yes, he's won almost everything else that ever arose or ventured out West in his day, yet the US Open had eluded Gary until he set his mind to it. It is the most challenging and prestigious of all tournaments held west of the Mississippi. We're not going to give you detailed US Open coverage here (that info is at www.wonbass.com). What we will give you however, is a ride home with the champion. Please enjoy what Dobyns has to say.
The 5" single tail Yamamoto Super Grub (18-series) and the 5" double tail skirted Yamamoto Hula Grub (97-series), both in color #297 (green pumpkin with black flake), those were two really key baits for me.
The Super Grub didn't pay off as much in the tournament, but it did help me all the way through practice and it helped me locate a lot of fish. I was just throwing the Super Grub on a 1/4 oz darter jig head and fishing it fast.
The Yamamoto Hula Grub, I was throwing it on a 1/2 oz football jig head, and I was fishing it really fast. As fast as possible, making bottom contact, moving it along almost like a swimming crankbait. It just accounted for a bunch of fish for me during the US Open.
The other two baits that helped me out were a Lucky Craft BDS4 crankbait in a solid white-bellied Tennessee Shad looking color, and a Lucky Craft Gunfish topwater in Ghost Minnow color.
Those were the four baits that really did everything for me.
That 5" single tail Yamamoto Super Grub was the first bait I had success with during practice. The only reason I didn't have more success with it come tournament time, was because I kept falling back on the other three baits. I could have done well in this tournament just on the Super Grub. I was making some bottom contact with the darter jig, but mainly fishing it as fast as I could. The action on that grub is just phenomenal. They'll come a long ways for it.
I rig the Super Grub with the curly tail pointing up. Tail up, that's just the way I have always done it, and I have a lot of faith with the tail up. There's no other reason for it except confidence.
I pour my own darter heads because I am really picky about putting the certain Gamakatsu 60413 hook in it, and I am very picky about hook points and angles, so I pour my own darter jig heads.
The way I was swimming it, I wanted it down there close to the bottom. Same thing with the Yamamoto Hula Grub.
The Yamamoto Hula Grub is a gold standard on Mead. You can catch fish on that green pumpkin Yamamoto Hula Grub every day of the year on Lake Mead. Those things work in any lake in the world for starters, and at Mead, I won't go there without those things. I know I am going to catch fish on them.
With the Super Grubs and Hula Grubs, I was fishing fairly shallow, rarely more than 15 feet deep and most of the time, less than 10 feet.
My whole idea was just to try to make a million casts a day, swimming it up the bottom slopes, down the bottom slopes, parallel to the bottom, just as many casts in every different direction, always as fast as possible.
I was just fishin'.
I covered water quickly going down the banks. I'd catch them on points, catch them in pockets, catch them on the transitional stretches in between points and pockets. I didn't really know where they'd be and they changed locations every day. I couldn't like, lock in on points, because the next day, I couldn't catch nothing off points and I'd catch them in pockets.
I had my Minnkota 101 trolling motor constantly on high, and I never turned it down less than 70% power.
The Lucky Craft Gunfish was my savior limit-out bait to catch a limit. Any time I started to get chicken or doubt a little bit, I needed it. I was throwing it on shady sides of points or any kind of shade. A lot of time you get shade back in some of the steep pockets, Shade was the whole key with the Gunfish. You had to cast tight on the walls, in the shade, and once I got out into the sun with it, I'd haul it in and fire out another cast into the shade line and make a fast retrieve with the Gunfish. I fished everything lightning fast.
And I needed a crankbait, something I could work fast on the shallow parts of the points. So that was the Lucky Craft BDS4 crankbait. I was pretty much fishing windy points with it. I'd make long casts with the Lucky Craft BDS4, mainly using it in 4-5 feet of water, pretty much just swimming it back fast. It wasn't really hitting bottom or bouncing off too many obstructions. I'd hit rocks once in a while, but when it seemed I was catching them, I was just fishing it pretty fast, not hitting anything.
The whole idea on Lake Mead is that there aren't a whole lot of fish in there, and the more water you can cover, the better. I never caught fish in the same place twice. Every day it was a new place, new water. I mean, not that I wouldn't go back and fish where I had caught them the day before. I tried that, but I'd never catch them there again. Mead is like you need new water, new fish, every cast.
I had other baits on rods out on the deck. I threw a spinnerbait, but never weighed a spinnerbait fish. For some reason, fish were hitting the spinnerbaits but not getting hooked. I think they were banging the blades on me. The crankbait, they don't have that luxury. If they bite, it bites back. So that's what put me onto the crankbait. I threw a ripbait, but didn't weigh anything on it. I threw a Senko, which was just too slow for me at this event. I tried a hollow body swimbait, and it didn't turn out to weigh anything for me in the tournament, but I still always had it out on the deck. I threw some other topwaters, but I just couldn't get them to eat it. They ate the Lucky Craft Gunfish though. They will always eat a Ghost Minnow Gunfish. No matter what, that thing is going to catch them.
I wanted this really, really bad, and this means absolutely everything to me. It's my biggest win. It's the one thing I wanted to do, probably because it is the most prestigious tournament in the West, and I had never won it. I've won almost everything else I aimed at in the West. Everything I wanted, I won except the US Open. I think it comes at a great time for me. It shows I'm still strong. It will also be a great help to me with my Dobyns Rods sales. It's just positive. Yesterday, on the final winning day, it was my and Kathy's thirty-first wedding anniversary so that was kind of a nice deal for us. Just everything about this tournament was positive, positive, positive. |
When I first made my game plan for fishing the Open, I took my son Richard and told him you're running the Dobyns Rods company for the next three weeks, because I'm going to Lake Mead and I'm going to try to win the US Open. I'm going back to fish how I used to fish. Back in the day, I wouldn't just show up. I used to practice. Richard is 28 and he has had a very good fishing year. Back in February, he had I think 5 seconds and a first in February. He's a stud fisherman. He wanted to fish the US Open and I told him, "Hey dude, the Open is mine, you've got to stay here and work." To which he said, "Everyone knows I am fishing better than you are!"
"That's true," I said, "but you're still going to be here working and I am going to go fish the US Open."
So that's what I did. I practiced ten days. Two weeks before the tournament, I went down to Mead and practiced three days. A week before the tournament I went and practiced four days, and I came home for a few days and then I went back and fished three days prior to the tournament. Lake Mead is 11-1/2 hours drive from my house, I don't want people to think it is in my backyard. It's 11-1/2 hours from my house, and I spent almost as much time on the road as I did on the water.
About Ever Fishing Back East... That's a hard road, going back East. It didn't fit my life for many years because I was a family person first, and I wouldn't go back East, because I would not gamble. I had a good full time job. I could work as many hours and as much overtime as I wanted. I worked nights and fished days. So I wouldn't gamble on my family, and I just got to where I felt like I didn't need to go back East. Sometimes I felt like I would like to go back, I think I can fish with anyone back there, but it is just not a chapter of my life that I'm going to do. I am happy with my life. I am a fulfilled person, I am a family person, I've got great sponsors, which is a hard thing to do by staying in the West, having good sponsor support usually doesn't happen. You've got to work at it, do a lot of writing, a lot of promotion, a lot of shows. So I do all that and I am very, very lucky, I've got an absolutely great life. I even catch a fish once in a while! |
I don't fish near as many tournaments any more, and I just don't have time to practice. You lose your edge a little bit when you don't fish, and I've lost my edge as a result. I am still a top ten fisherman when I fish, but I am not a winner right at this moment, because I don't prepare. I don't have all that practice time on the water right now. So I am fishing a little bit slower. But with the practice I put in on Mead, I was fishing good again.
I was running down the lake on day two, right after take-off, and I see this windy point over there, and I say, that's a good looking point. The wind is blowing in on it, and I had caught fish there in the past. I whipped the boat right around and made a u-turn and sat down on that point. On my second cast, I catch a two-pound-plus. I catch a 3-1/2 on my next cast Two minutes later, I catch another 2-1/2 on that point, and I scan the area all around and say, I bet you that point over there, about a half mile away, has got to have them too. So I run over there and first cast, I catch another 2-1/2. That's what happens when you are fishing a lot and when you are fishing good, your instinct really rolls.
When you are fishing good, you make really good decisions and I mean it's just snap, snap, snap. Boom! Boom! Boom!
When you don't practice, your decisions are slower, your instincts are not as good, and you just don't have the sharp sense to follow your instincts very well, I believe.
| Dobyns Rod Company |
All I have been doing basically for the last few years is fishing rods - the Dobyns Rods business. I am just absorbed with that. I love the idea of fishing rods and everything about them. I've always worked with fishing rods. I've designed fishing rods for a lot of companies. I really believe that right now that Dobyns Rods is making the best rods that you can buy in the USA. That may sound like an arrogant statement, but it is the truth. I've got a very high end manufacturer out of Korea. We only build super high end equipment and I am really into rods, and my rod company is doing very, very well. The rods are phenomenal. They're light, strong, super sensitive, super-balanced. We're running close to zero breakage returns, so they're durable. Winning the US Open, it's not going to change me. I'm not going to start fishing more again. Rods are still my number one priority. The rods and promoting my sponsors are my number one priority, because I still have a very good sponsor base. I still do a very good job for my sponsors, and they do a very good job for me. Yamamoto is a great sponsor for me along with Ranger, Evinrude and Hummingbird. Lucky Craft, P-Line and Gamakatsu. Sawyer Cook, Roboworm, and Costa Del Mar. Tru-Tungsten and Daiwa. I've got a phenomenal backing by sponsors and even though I've slowed down on tournaments, I haven't lost any sponsors. Even in these tough economic times, when other sponsored anglers are nervous about cuts, I've actually received increases that I didn't ask for. So I am still doing a good job for my sponsors at sport shows, at appearances. If anything, I have stepped up my promotion. I did 11 club seminars in the last 8 weeks. A lot of it is for my rods, but all of my sponsors get a good plug at every club seminar or any time I speak, and people listen. But rods are really what I am doing right now. I'm dealing 13-16 hours a day with rods. I do all the rod design. My product line is a work in progress. I am always changing stuff, always trying to come up with the newest, latest and greatest. I have been to Korea six times so far this year. The rod builder over there is the best. I think he has the best rod engineer in the world working for him. He comes up with super high end materials - stuff other rod building companies struggle to do. But design is only a small part of it. I answer every email that everyone sends me. I am doing a lot of work on the computer which everyone knows I am the world's worst one-finger typist, but I answer all of my emails, a lot of phone time, a lot of work with dealers, with reps, just the day-in/day-out stuff. I treat every customer awesome, I mean awesome, and it just takes a lot of time. I answer every phone call. You know there's nothing worse than a bass fisherman who likes to talk - and I am one of the worst! So if someone calls me for a two minute question, it's usually an hour session, and it just eats the day up. That's my part of it, the design plus the promotion. But I am only one part of it. It's pretty much a family business. My son Richard is pretty much running the company. He's taking care of a lot of the paperwork and the shipping and all of that stuff. It's me and Richard and Tom. Tom is Richard's girlfriend's brother. He's a good guy. It's the three of us, and my wife and daughter take care of our accounting. My wife and daughter are both accountants and have regular jobs working full-time for other companies, but they handle our accounting too. My daughter Miranda is twenty-nine, expecting her first child which will be our first grandchild, and we are very excited. Miranda's due the end of October or early November. My wife is Kathy and the winning day was our 31st wedding anniversary. We have a very stable family, and I am very blessed, I have a very good family, good family support. It's a family business. We are growing it really fast. It's fun. We're selling a lot of rods, and it takes a lot of our time. I am really behind my rods. I am going to do it. I am going to make my rod company successful for me, for my family, I really am. It's a full time job, yet I still get the chance to catch a couple of fish every so often. Winning the US Open, it's not going to change my direction, but it's good to know that when I put my mind into fishing again, I can still catch them. Visit www.DobynsRods.com. |
In closing I'd like to say, if you put your mind to something, you can do it. If you work hard enough, most of the time you can do it. I really set my mind to do really, really well in the US Open. It's hard to say when I went there to win. Everybody wants to win, but I worked hard at it, I made good decisions, and a little bit of luck goes a long way too. If you want something, go for it. That's probably the best thing I can say, and a good balance of home life is a must. It's hard to win in fishing, but I've got good support, a very stable home life, I'm just blessed with a very good life. And the other thing that has me stoked is how many people were pulling for me, calling me. As much success as I have had fishing, I have never had so many people pulling for me, my phone's been ringing off the hook. It's unbelievable, and shows that if you treat people good, people want you to do well. I have an unbelievable amount of friends and supporters. It sure makes me feel awful dang good, I tell you. Thank you.
- Gary Dobyns