The Bassmaster Elite Series is coming to my home pond, Lake Seminole, in late February. So I’ve been filling you guys in on what that looks like as a local. We talked last time about some of the disadvantages that come along with being a local in a tournament that’s this big — and the pressure. But this time I want to tell you guys how I’ve been preparing for this one during the offseason, which I’m not really taking off this year.
I’ve been going through though a lot of tackle and going through lipless crankbaits for days. It’s stuff that I haven’t used in years. I’ve already pulled out two lipless crankbaits that I retired. They’re coming out of retirement because, if I’m going to fish for a $100,000 on my home lake, I know for a fact they’ll eat them. I’m going to throw that one.
And if I only have a few of the lipless crankbaits that I really like, then I need to get more, but some are discontinued. So I’ve been hunting them down, calling my old tournament partners saying, “Hey man you got any I can borrow?” I’m trying to find as many of the baits that I have confidence in as I can.
Because even if I have my number one Rat-L-Trap on — my favorite one — and I’ve got the school fired up and hang it up on a stump, guess what, we’re breaking it off. I can’t go up there and get it just because I want to save a lure. Not fishing for $100,000. If I were fishing in a weekend team deal, yeah, we’ll go up there and get it. But not in this one.
I’ve got a buddy on the lake whose dad paints baits too. I’m trying to get blanks of certain lures and get him to paint them the way I want them. I want something different. Just like with ChatterBaits, everybody and their brother has a JackHammer. So I’ve been trying to make a vibrating jig that will be just a little bit different than what everybody else is throwing. A little bit different sound a little bit different wobble, different profile, any of that stuff.
I think it’s going to be one of those deals, especially if you’ve been railing on them, that by the time you get to Day 4 you’ve got to change up. They’re not going to keep biting the same thing. If I’ve got something that’s just a little bit different and that gets me two more bites, those two bites could mean everything.
I’m spending a lot of time on the water looking too. I think whoever wins will win off one area. There are three major flats on the lake. And when I say major, they’re major — I mean like eight miles long. And because of the vegetation, you can’t really see much with your electronics. The only way you can tell much about them is with your eyes before all the grass dies off.
So if you’re going down this 500-yard flat, and there’s one patch of milfoil in the middle of a pile of hydrilla, well that’s going to be a dang good spot. But if you didn’t know it was there, the only way someone might stumble onto it is to get a bite and then realize that it’s there. I want to find as much as I can with my eyes as the grass is dying off.
Realistically, you could win a four-day tournament on one ditch bend here. These ditches are like highways. When the tournament gets here, the bass are going to be getting close to spawning, really close. So they’re going to be moving through these ditches.
This tournament could be won in the last bend of a ditch that has 6 feet of water in it and is surrounded by 3 feet. They’ll just load up in a spot like that. Everyday there’s going to be new ones coming in, and during the day there’s going to be new ones arriving.
I’ve got to be on the water all winter to figure out which ditches the grass is going to die in. A lot of times you’ll have a ditch that’s been awesome for three years just jam up. And then the grass won’t die in that ditch one year. It’s like the ditch is not even there because the grass is pretty much level all the way across the flat.
And that’s something that changes year to year — there’s no rhyme or reason. Other than the cold. I want it to be a cold, cold, cold winter. If it could get super cold for a month, and then the week of the tournament we have a healthy warming trend, it would be Katy bar the door. I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes 100 pounds to win if that happens.
We’ll have to wait and see what it’s looking like when we get a little closer to go time. For now, I’m just spending as much time on the water and time prepping tackle as I can. We’ll check back in in a month or so to let you know how things are shaping up.
