Fishing Under Heavy Pressure

[brendanc]

Check out this interesting article about fishing under highly pressured conditions. I thought this might make for some interesting conversation. How do you approach a situation like this one?

BC

BassFan Winning Pattern
Morgan Fished Used Area A Little Differently

Wednesday, May 23, 2007



Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell
Andy Morgan went into competition with basically a single, heavily trafficked area.


By the time the 201 pros launched on Beaver Lake for day 1 of the recent Wal-Mart Open (Beaver FLW Tour), the water had been worked harder than a diesel pump in rural Oklahoma.

A massive local tournament ran the weekend before, and the FLW Tour field showed no mercy throughout its extensive practice.

There are few secrets on Beaver, and wherever there were fish, there were boats. Yes, Jay Yelas and Andy Montgomery did find a magic dock, but in the end, two boats on those fish proved to be too much.

Instead, it was the veteran Andy Morgan who carried the day. He fished a heavily used area for parts of the first 2 days, but after the cut, he camped there.

He figured out something a little different in the used water – an overlooked area, a few different baits – and was able to catch more than 8 pounds every single day.

And the biggest surprise is that he did it with a spinning rod – a tool he used to shun.

It was the 12-year pro's first-ever tour-level win, and it netted him $200,000. It also moved him up to 2nd in the FLW Tour Angler of the Year race.

Here's how he did it.

Practice

Anglers seem to have a hate it or love it relationship with Beaver. It's cruel to some, kind to others, and Morgan has historically struggled there.

This year, though, the Tour visited a month later than its typical early April date, which put the conditions well into post-spawn. Also notable was the water level – it was at least a foot above normal summer pool, and much higher than in past events. That put a lot of the shoreline trees and brush into play.

The obvious pattern that nearly everyone found was morning schooling fish, then jigworm fish in the afternoons. A lot of anglers also found hunt-and-peck fish along the shore in the bushes, but concentrations were rare.

About his practice, Morgan said: "I found one little area that had fish schooling it in, and that was basically all I found. I found a couple other little spots here and there where I could get a bite or two.

"I basically found one section of the lake that had fish – where I knew I could go and get bit. I had no idea if I could make the cut, or if I could catch enough fish to even do well."

He added that there was "a tremendous amount of boats" in his schooling area. But he did find one key spot there that he felt was overlooked.

About that spot, he said: "It was one saddle – it came off an island and went to the mainland – and it had one 90-degree bend in it.

"Every morning the spots and whites would push bait into that bend. I could catch one on my first cast every morning, and maybe get 10 (total) bites. But you had such a small window to do it. I'd get out there and in 20 minutes, it'd be over. You could pick up (something else) and maybe get another bite or two, but that was it."

And that's really all he had as the event began.

Days 1 and 2

> Day 1: 5, 12-15
> Day 2: 5, 8-03 (10, 21-02)

Morgan caught his limit first thing the morning of day 1 from his schooling fish. He caught a few good spotted bass, and two largemouths.

"Those are golden here," he said of the largemouths. "With those, I got off to a good start, and that kind of sums it up. If you get off to a good start at Beaver, with a limit of at least 7 or 8 pounds, you can go out and run around and junk-fish all day long, because if you get a couple more keeper blacks (largemouths), you're going to make the cut."

He caught another limit of schooling fish the morning of day 2, then pulled out of there. He knew he was safely within the Top 10 cut.

After that, he junk-fished and caught four or five more keepers, but mostly he was "looking around and trying to expand" on what he'd already found. He didn't find much though.

He made the cut in 2nd, and decided that with only 10 boats left fishing, he'd spend days 3 and 4 entirely within his schooling-fish area.





Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell
Morgan's key schooling spot was a saddle with a 90-degree bend that he said was overlooked.


Days 3 & 4

> Day 3: 5, 9-06
> Day 4, 5, 8-00 (10, 17-06)

"On day 3, I stayed in that one area – within 700 yards of where I originally found the schoolers on the saddle," Morgan said.

"I was throwing a War Eagle shakey-head to catch the fish that were no longer eating. I was just grinding it out. I was staying in that one area, and fishing 'Larry Nixon slow.' I'd watched Larry do well in tournaments over the past year, and recently the last couple of weeks, and when he gets in an area, he'll milk it.

"Nobody milks an area better than Larry, and I've been trying to observe that when I can, and that's what I did here," he added.

Notable is that once the fish were done schooling, they didn't head deeper and suspend. Instead, they went shallow and buried up in the grass.

Also, he was able to extend the schooling bite a little. He caught active fish on a Jackall Mikey, but as the bite dwindled, he'd switch to a Sworming Hornet Fish Head Spin, which usually caught an extra fish or two.

"The lake's been low for quite some time, but it came up," he said. "There was basically grass growing around the bank – your standard Johnson grass and stickweed. (After they schooled), they were right on the edge of that grass, so I'd work the bait to the edge. They'd run out after it and you'd get bit."

On day 4 his schooling bite was a bust, so he went to the back of the pocket, to an area that had a gravel-bottom drain, which he said was like a 7-foot-deep ditch.

On day 3, he'd lost a 3- and 4-pounder there, and when he fished it the final day, he caught a 2 3/4-pounder.

"That got me on my way," he said. "I caught a couple of swimbait fish in there, then did the grind the rest of the day.

"I stayed around and threw at grass points and caught 7 or 8 keepers on the day," he added. And he made one quick run outside the area to a log and caught a 1 1/2-pound spot.

Winning Gear Notes

> Shakey gear: 6'8" medium-action 2-power G. Loomis 822 dropshot rod, Shimano Symetre spinning reel, 10-pound Spiderwire Original braid with an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader (either Berkley Vanish or Seaguar fluorocarbon), 1/8-ounce War Eagle shakey-head, 4" Zoom finesse worm (watermelon-candy).

> He threw the 3/16-ounce Sworming Hornet Fish Head Spin on the shakey-tackle. His trailer was a Zoom Tiny Fluke. Both the Fish Head Spin and the Fluke were pearl white.

> About the Fish Head Spin, he said: "When they'd go down, everybody else would give up. But I'd catch two or three every morning on that Sworming Hornet. At least one would be a largemouth, and every spot I caught on it was a good one."

> As noted, he caught some of his schooling fish with a Jackall Mikey, and he also caught a few fish on a California Swimbabes Tiny "E".

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "Just staying put – not panicking, staying in one area, and just milking it."

> Performance edge – "I'd definitely say it was the shakey-head. It's old reliable. You can really catch them on the shake
y, especially at Beaver Lake, where I've really got a lot more confidence in it than anything else in my boat. And it's hard to beat a Zoom finesse worm."

Article Found at: http://www.bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=2257

[mofish]

First off I hate crowds! It just kills me to have boats all over me!
But when I do have to fish in a crowd I like to see what everyone else is doing, and then do something different! That may mean that I have to fish slower or faster or with smaller baits. I would much rather just go fish somewhere else as to sit and beat the same spot that everyone else is in.

Tournament before last the wind was blowing so hard on the main lake that no one ventured out of the main creek where we launched. Everyone was beating the same bushes in this creek over and over. So I moved out away from the bank and fished some of the bends in the creek dragging a Texas Rig over the drops. It worked I only caught one fish but that one fish got me a 4th place finish when no one else caught much at all. You just have to do something a little different than everyone else.


Its funny too, I just watched a video last week about Morgan and how he hated fishing with a spinning rod. He knew that he needed to get better with it because it caught fish when other things didn't. Now he comes up and wins a tournament on the spinning rod.

[brendanc]

I hear ya... I'm the same way, I can't stand fishing in a crowd. On really windy days when everyone else if hiding from the wind, I force myself to use the wind to my advantage. In turn, it has become a very important part of my tournament strategy.

On the other hand, I can recall fishing tournaments where there were just so many anglers a body of water, that there was simply no place else to go and I was forced to fish in with the crowd. When faced with this challenge, I also like to throw something different from the other guys. I started out bass fishing with finesse baits, so it is one of my strengths. I will often use finesse tactics when fishing in and around a crowd. If the bass happen to be relating to heavy cover, I will change my approach to flippin' or pitchin' into the heaviest cover I can find. This also has produced some really good results for me. My approach when fishing heavy cover is to put my bait into places that the average angler won't even try. I actually wrote a whole article about this:
http://www.bassinusa.com/busa/articles/ ... dly_go.asp

Brendan

[johnnie crain outdoors]

I really don't mind being crowded too much. Our lakes are small so I've learned to live with it. I tend to do whatever I think should be working regardless of what everyone else is doing, but I really concentrate and do it better than the majority of the other anglers. This situation is one of the reasons I love crankbaits so much. I can back off productive-heavily fished cover and pick off some of the smarter fish that move away from the traffic. I have taken a lot of fine bass just out away from where pitcher's and flipper's are working tight cover. Nothing always works, but something always will. Johnnie

[mofish]

Back in April I fished a Big Bass Tournament there were over 2,000 folks fishing this tournament. The banks were getting beat to death. I was heading back into a pocket and ran across a hump out in the mouth of the pocket. I turned around and threw out a marker on the spot and then backed off within casting distance. I sat there and waited for the spot to settle down. I put on the trusty Carolina Rig with a Baby Brush Hog, water melon red. ON the 4 or 5th cast I hooked up with a little spotted bass. Maybe a pound and half or so. What got me was how he pecked at the bait. Two cast later same type of pecking I messed around and told my father-in-law to check out this little fish pecking at my worm. I set the hook and my rod bent down pretty good. I thought man this aint no spot. Got it to the boat and my father-in-law starts going nuts. He netted the 5.23lb fish. We took her in a weighed her and won $500 with that fish.

From where we were sitting on that hump we counted 35 boats beating the bank all around us, never saw one of them catch a fish. We came back to get on our hump after weighing in that fish and 6 boats were on my hump. lol. Nobody caught anything else off that spot. Just go to show that if you can find something a little different it pays off. Always keep an eye on the depth finder cause you never know when its going to show you something that you need to fish.

I know that I will be fishing that new found hump more often!

[brendanc]

Great story... I just had something very similar happy to me yesterday during a club tournament. We were on a very small lake and everyone was pounding the banks. There are two humps in this lake that produced some nice fish the last time we had a tournament there. With all the pressure on the bank, I thought for sure these two off-shore structures would be the ticket. So my plan was to start the day out on those humps. After thoroughly fishing them both, the only thing that was caught was a 5 lb pickerel. I left the humps and got in line on the bank. Well, let's just say that it was not that productive. I made a point to check those humps every hour to see if any bass had moved up.

Flash forward to about 30 minutes before the end of the tournament and I have three RATS in the box that barely measured legal. I made one last pass on the better of the two humps and finally it paid off. First cast was 2 1/2 lbs, and the very next cast was 3 lbs 2 oz. Had a few more strikes, but could not capitalize (the bass were hitting very soft all day). In the end, I did not win the tournament, but I managed to pull off second place with those two fish. There were only 2 limits caught that day and everyone said that they struggled. The winner only had 4 fish, but he had a 5+ lbs kicker which was like striking oil on a lake like this. (Congrats Ray C., nice job! That was his first tournament win ever in our club.)

So what I believe helped make a difference in a heavy pressured tournament for me that day was being persistent, patient and knowing that eventually, those fish would move up...


bc