If history is any judge, Elite Series pros fishing this week’s West Point Lake Battle have a good chance of winning if they flip a jig to shoreline wood. You might be thinking “duh,” but that’s not a guess. That pattern is what BassGold shows has won the majority of tournaments on that Georgia lowland reservoir this time of year.
Here’s more:
Best Baits
A BassGold Pattern Report for April-May on West Point shows that if you have a jig in your hand at least part of the time, you have a 200-300 percent better chance of winning than if you don’t.
That doesn’t mean you can’t win fishing something else, and as always, it depends partly on the conditions.
Other than a jig, a spinnerbait has worked well (not used much anymore, so maybe a swimbait would work), and take a look at that topwater bar in the graph.
Topwaters have been a big factor around the shad spawn, and if the Elite pros find any of that happening this week, look for topwaters to factor in again – though note that while that pattern has accounted for a bunch of high finishes, it hasn’t played a part in nearly as many wins.
Where To Find ‘Em
The Macro Factors graph basically shows three patterns that can work: shallow (shoreline and main lake pockets), deep (main lake offshore, main lake points, and creek channels) and upriver, with shallow accounting for about twice as many wins as deep.
That doesn’t mean you can’t win fishing upriver. It just means your likelihood of winning is greater if you don’t. Then again, Elite winners often do something significantly different than the rest of the field – we’ll have to see what happens.
All of that said, it’ll be no surprise that the Habitat Factors graph shows that wins and high finishes come around mostly shallow structure and cover.
Weights Needed
The Weights by Month graph for this Pattern Report shows that whoever wins this derby will have to average in the mid- to high teens per day, with high finishers at around 15 pounds per day.
Note that even though only a few patterns from Elite-level events went into this report, usually the weights are caught by local sticks who know the lake and hold up on the Elite level. Then again, once in a while an Elite winner will blow that average out of the water.
Check out BassGold.com, a B.A.S.S. partner. Like your depthfinder, the more time you spend with it, the more you’ll get out of it. Save 15 percent on the one-year subscription price by using code BASS132 (case sensitive) when you sign up. Note that BassGold offers a three-day free trial.
