Coming off his lowest Elite Series finish of the year (78^th at Bull Shoals), Bassmaster Classic champion Chris Lane is itching to get back on the water. 

He won’t have to wait long though, as the next Elite event begins Thursday at Douglas Lake in Tennessee, a venue that like Bull Shoals, hasn’t hosted a lot of tour level events in the last several years. The Elite anglers won’t be as unfamiliar with Douglas as most were with Bull Shoals though, since many fished a BASS Open last year in June that was won by Bobby Ferguson with almost 62 pounds for three days. Lane was in the field of last summer’s Open, and finished a respectable 28^th out of 159. 

Despite it being a month earlier than last year’s stop, Lane is brimming with confidence as he looks ahead to the tournament. “I think it’s gonna be really good” Lane begins, “Douglas is a lake that produces a lot of very big fish, and I always love fishing lakes like that. The water levels should have most of the fish up shallow, which will make it a really fun tournament.” 

Lane thinks that the spawn will still be a player in this one, saying “These Tennessee River lakes tend to bring their water levels back up around the end of April, so I really think we’re gonna hit it at just about as good a time as any, with pre, post and spawners all ready to be caught.” 

I decided to forgo going into further details on how lane thinks the tournament will be won, what weights to expect and where it will be won, and instead asked the Legend Pro to give up the secrets and tell us three things he’s going to have tied on as he leaves the Marina for the first day of practice and how he thinks they will help him locate the winning fish. 

Luck E Strike RC2 Crankbait- 

Lane thinks the bass in Douglas will predominantly be in some stage of the spawn, and one of his favorite ways to quickly analyze the bass population in a water body is to cover water with a crankbait. “The RC2 is a great shad imitator, and shallow bass can’t resist a shad blowing by them. I plan on throwing the crankbait quite a bit as I am looking for the areas that I will fish the tournament in.” 

For dialing in a shad bite around spawners and post-spawn fish, Lane relies heavily on standard shad patterns for his crankbaits and also keeps his presentation pretty simple. He throws the RC2 on a 7’ medium power; All Star crankbait rod paired with a 6.4:1 Revo SX and 15-17lb Stren fluorocarbon line, depending on the cover and depth he is fishing. 

Luck E Strike Fast Lane Tube- 

Since Chris expects the fish in Douglas to be pretty shallow, his Florida roots won’t allow him to leave the dock without something tied to the end of a flipping stick. In this case, he plans on using a Luck e Strike Fast Lane tube, the bait that he used to win the Classic. 

About the Tube, Lane says “It’s a really versatile bait. I will flip it in the bushes for pre and immediate post-spawners, I love it for bed fish, and I will also cast it and work it slowly along the bottom like I did in Shreveport.” 

He fishes the tube on a 7’6” heavy power; All Star flipping stick paired with a 6.4:1 Revo SX and 50lb Stren Sonic Braid line. He usually starts out with a ½ ounce weight and goes up or down in size depending on how the fish and cover are responding. 

Gambler Cane Toad- 

It might be a bit of a surprise to see that lane plans on fishing a toad in a lake with little vegetation, but Gambler’s toad is one of his all-time confidence baits. “A lot of guys think a soft plastic toad is only for vegetation, but they’re missing out on a lot of opportunities that way. I think the Cane Toad will play big in the backs of pockets, along rock walls and around flooded bushes.” 

Lane’s toad setup includes the custom designed Gambler Chris Lane Double Trouble Toad Hook, a Revo SX in 7.1:1, 50lb Stren Sonic Braid and a 7’4” All Star frog rod. 

Game Plan 

Chris thinks the Douglas event will be a “good, old-fashioned bank beaters tournament” and his game plan will start out by determining whether the majority of the fish are pre or post-spawn. To do this, he starts on secondary points while he pays close attention to the shape of the fish he is catching. “If I’m catching a bunch of post-spawners on the points, then I know that the fish are almost done and I adjust accordingly. If the fish I am catching on the points are still fat, I know they are moving in and I can continue to move deeper into the pockets.” 

Though there should be some fish on beds still, Lane thinks a lot of them will be too deep to see, so flipping and casting to the cover and bushes that attract spawners will be a major effort as he practices. 

In the afternoons, he also plans to spend a lot of time throwing a topwater and has some prototype topwater baits he wants to keep secret but is looking forward to using in addition to the Cane Toad. 

It’s not often that you get a professional tournament fisherman to open his mouth about how he is planning on catching them before a tournament, but Chris thinks “the baits themselves can only take you so far, and it’s the ability to adjust on the fly and make the right decisions that allows you to compete at the highest level.” 

Fishing at the highest level is something that has been happening an awful lot for Chris as he continues his unbelievable 2012 campaign. Look for a post-tournament update after the Douglas event to find out if any of the baits he predicted wind up helping him in the tournament.

Legend Pro Scott Ashmore had what he called a “frustrating” experience on Bull Shoals last week, where he was in 8th place after day one before slowly falling to 50th due to a weather change and missed opportunities. 50th place isn’t necessarily that bad all by itself. Heck, it still gets paid and provides valuable AOY points, but after sitting in 8th place as the scales closed on day one, the Broken Arrow, OK pro had much higher hopes than 50th. The following is a day-by-day breakdown of Scott’s Bull Shoals experience.

Practice
“I actually had a really great practice. I found a couple of excellent spots and had like 22lbs of smallmouth one of the days.” Ashmore says about his practice. He even caught one close to seven pounds in practice and was able to expand the pattern to another location as well, saying “I had two spots I could catch them on, so I had a really hard time deciding which one to start on. I was fishing long points that had really deep water nearby and I was able to get the big smallmouth to react to popping a jig.”

In addition to the jig fish, Ashmore had also identified a bank where he could catch them cranking rocks with a Bomber 7A, but the quality wasn’t the same as the jig fish spots.

Day 1: 5, 17-06
Ashmore decided to start in the smaller of his two spots and the decision immediately paid off, “I had a limit by 7:58, including a 5-2 largemouth and another one close to five.” He caught one of the big ones off a bed, but the other one came in his primary smallmouth spot. He ended up moving through his other locations and culling a few times to get his eventual weight. His bag consisted of two largemouth and three smallmouth, good enough for 8th place at the end of the day.

“Day 1 went great, but I was pretty concerned about the second day since I know how finicky smallmouth can be. I knew that cold front moving in would have some effect, but I didn’t realize how much it would change things.”

Day 2: 5, 10-12
Ashmore’s concern over the weather change turned out to be prophetic, as the cold front scattered his smallmouth until the afternoon and he had only one fish by noon. “I picked up a crankbait at 12:00, and by 12:20 I had a limit in the boat. After that, I went back to check on the smallmouth and they were there, but they were biting different.” The weather had caused them to bite very lightly, and he lost 4 fish that he estimates were between three and four pounds.

“For whatever reason, I just couldn’t keep them buttoned up. I’d get good hook into them, but after about the third or fourth tailwalk, they would just pop off.”

His day two effort pushed him all the way back to 38th place going into day three.

Day 3: 3, 4-09
The second day of the cold front scattered Ashmore’s fish even more, and this time he felt like he was spinning out of control. “I started scrambling around, putting that Yamaha to work while fishing stuff that I had no confidence in. I eventually picked up a couple, then went back to my primary area again in the afternoon and proceeded to lose four more really good smallmouth for the second day in a row. You can’t do that in big tournaments and expect to succeed.”

He thinks he even had another chance at that big one he caught in practice, saying “I caught her right next to this big white rock, so I went back there a couple times in the tournament. One of the last times I was there, I threw my jig up there and she knocked so much slack in the line that I couldn’t get a good hook in it. I fought it to the surface and it popped loose. It was a freaking giant, so I’m pretty sure it was that same fish again.”

Lessons Learned
“I knew that the smallmouth are a lot more susceptible to Mother Nature” Ashmore mentions, “but this tournament really drove that home for me, and I needed to spend more time in practice developing a plan “B” and “C” so I would have confidence doing something else as the weather changed.”
About the lost fish, he is also a bit frustrated because despite the weather change he still had the bites each day to fish on Sunday. “I know its fishing, but I can’t remember a time when I lost that many big fish in a tournament. I’m just gonna forget this one, move on and get ready for Douglas Lake coming up in a couple weeks.”

Gear used
Ashmore caught the majority of his fish on an unnamed green jig that he fishes on a Falcon Cara 7’6” rod paired with a Lews Tournament Pro Speed Spool reel and 20lb Seaguar Invisx.  The crankbait he used was a Bomber 7A in green craw and he fished it on a Falcon Cara crankbait rod with a 5.4:1 Lews Tournament Pro Speed Spool reel.

The last time BASS held a tour level event on Bull Shoals, the year was 1991, the national average gas price was $1.12, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had just hit 3,000 for the first time (it’s over 12,000 now) and Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen was still alive. Legend Elite Series Pro Scott Ashmore was just 23 at the time, and though there were eleven current Elite Series Anglers in the field, Scott was not one of them.  He does have some experience on Bull Shoals though, but it’s been awhile and he figures he was last there” in the late 1980’s.”

Unfamiliarity doesn’t prevent Ashmore from being excited about BASS’s upcoming return to the massive impoundment straddling the Missouri/Arkansas border though, and he says “I think it’s going to be a great tournament and fans are going to see some pretty big stringers brought across the stage”.

Ashmore thinks that the Bull Shoals bass will be in the peak of the spawn, and top finishers will be looking at the majority of the fish they bring in. “The conditions should be right, and they’re spawning on Table Rock, which fishes pretty similar, so I expect it will probably be the same once we get out there.”

About his planned approach, Ashmore says it’s all about locating the right creek, “All these Ozark lakes have so many creeks and cuts, you really have to spend the time finding the creeks that have the right combination of temperature and bank composition to hold the fish as they come up and spawn.”

Another prediction Ashmore is willing to make is that the key to this tournament will be finding the deeper beds, which often have the bigger fish on them. “Due to all the steep sloping banks on the lakes, the fish will often bed deeper in the Ozarks, and if you can get the right depth figured out where the majority of the beds are being made, you can typically locate some of the larger fish.”

One of the keys to fishing the deeper bedding areas once you have the depth located, is to make longer casts and slowly drag or work the bait through the proper depth, while feeling for the tell-tale thump as a fish grabs the bait. “I actually prefer to fish for spawners that I can’t see,” Ashmore mentions, “It allows me to take longer casts and really concentrate on getting the presentation right. Fish on the deeper beds are also typically much easier to catch because they are not as exposed as a fish bedding right next to the bank.”

Bait wise, Ashmore thinks people will be able to catch them on any standard sight fishing baits used everywhere else in the country, but he also hints that there are some bedfishing tactics that are unique to the Ozarks region, and he will have a couple of those on his deck once the practice period begins as well. “I can’t really say what they are right now, but there are certain clear water things that you do in this region to catch spawning fish that probably wouldn’t work anywhere else. I’m not really sure why that is, but I just call it ‘Missouri Fishing’, and don’t be surprised if you see some of the top finishers doing some unique things.”

The 1991 tournament was in early May, and Ron Shuffield won with 57-8 for four days (just over 14lbs per day). Ashmore thinks this tournament will definitely take more weight than that to win and if things go just right, believes it could be downright amazing. “Don’t be surprised to see several 20lb stringers and even 25lbs is not out of the question on Bull Shoals if you get around the right group of fish.”

Predictions of 20lb bags aside, Scott Ashmore is definitely confident that he can get around the right group of fish to help him make his first cut of the season, and hopefully finish even higher than that.

Legend Boats would like to wish Scott, and the other members of team Legend, Jason Quinn and Chris Lane good luck as they head into the second “Quarter” of the 2012 Elite Series.

Contact Kody Bradbury
kody@legendmarine.com
804.338.9341

Fresh off his dominating performance at the Bassmaster Classic, Chris Lane’s confidence is at an all-time high as he prepares to head to Palatka, FL, for the upcoming Elite Series St. Johns River Showdown, to kick-off the 2012 regular season. This is the second year in a row that the Elites have visited the St. Johns. Last year, Edwin Evers won the event, bringing in a four day total of 77.1 lbs. Lane took 44^th in that event, enough for a $10,000 payday and valuable Angler-of-the-year points that he used to finish a career best 12^th in the standings.

Though he has historically fared “mediocrely” on the St. Johns River, Lane can’t wait to get this year’s tournament underway, saying “I’m really excited to get out there on the St. Johns, and even though I’ve never really done all that great up there, I have a lot of momentum right now and I’m really interested to see how that momentum will play out as we move into the regular season.”

“I think it’s setting up to be a great tournament, it’s been warm and the weather has been great but not too hot, so you’re gonna see some really big fish caught.”

The 2011 event was dominated by sight-fishing, as both Evers and several others in the top 5 spent the majority of their time looking at the fish they weighed. Lane predicts that the spawn should be a little less of a player this time, as the weather has been warm but not like it was last year. “I think there will be a lot of bed fish brought in, and I’m certainly gonna try to catch a big one if I see it on the bed, but I don’t think there are going to be enough to last four days. We’ll know by about the first day of practice though, so I’m gonna be prepared either way.”

Even if prepared to bed fish, Lane would much rather spend his time looking for a post-spawn bite, saying “I’m hoping I can go down there and toss a Gambler Cane Toad and a Snag-Proof Guntersville Frog to catch post-spawners. It’s gonna be typical Florida fishing if the spawn isn’t a huge player, so you’ll see guys throwing worms, frogs, anything will really catch them down there, It’s gonna be a great tournament.”

Whenever a tournament comes to Florida in the early spring; there is the potential for monster weights. Chris thinks this event will not disappoint, and predicts the overall winner will be pushing 100 lbs. “Even with a huge winning weight though, it will still drop off pretty quickly, and you should be able to get paid with between 12 and 13 lbs. per day.”

About whether his Classic victory affects his strategy at all for this tournament, he says “Not really, I still have to go out there and come up with a plan to catch the largest possible stringer each day of the tournament. It may allow me to spend a little more time on a six or seven pounder, but I still have to concentrate on fishing the way Chris Lane fishes.”

Chris has already cemented his place as a Classic champion, and now he sets his sights on his first regular season Elite Series victory, and the $100,000 payday that comes with it. Here’s to hoping that momentum and confidence all line up for the Legend Pro as he moves into the body of the season.

Contact Kody Bradbury
804.338.9341
kody@legendmarine.com