Kelly Bostian: The lures likely to figure in Bassmasters Classic

BY KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer
Monday, February 18, 2013
2/18/13 at 6:59 AM

Find everything you need to know about the Bassmaster Classic, which comes to Grand Lake and Tulsa on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This site will be home to news, videos, maps, schedules and guides.

People who wonder just how a person catches a bass on Grand Lake O' the Cherokees in February should not be embarrassed to ask - 53 of the best anglers in the world are coming to the lake Friday-Sunday to compete in the Bassmaster Classic for a $500,000 top prize and will learn the answer to that very question.

But the anglers do have a pretty good idea of what will work.

Two experienced Oklahoma voices on the subject confirmed that jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs will figure heavily into the tournament.

Pro angler and Classic competitor Edwin Evers of Talala gave us some samples from his tackle box that he said are representative of the baits most anglers in the 2013 Classic will be using.

Longtime bass researcher and assistant chief of fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Gene Gilliland, gave us the why and what-for on the baits.

If you want to know what the anglers might use, or if you are a person who doesn't know fluoro from mono and has never twitched a stickbait, then this is for you:

Weather, water, pattern

Anglers often talk about Grand Lake as "patternable."

Gilliland explains patterns this way: "Depending on what kind of pattern shows up you figure out what the fish are doing in one place and you can duplicate that pattern, that method of fishing, around different places and catch fish."

Because Grand Lake has so many fish and so many areas of similar water depth and structure, which could mean anything from rock piles and ledges under the water to boat docks, brush piles or bridge pilings, then an angler can find a similar spot, throw a similar bait in a similar way and hope to repeat what they did in another spot three miles away and 30 minutes earlier.

What kind of pattern develops depends on a lot of things, water temperature and clarity being big factors at Grand. Heavy rains, snow, wind and muddy water could be a problem. "Then they may not be able to depend on one pattern that carries them through," Gilliland said. "That's when it gets really tough."

Jerkbait, stickbait

Suspending stickbaits often are called jerkbaits, but they are not to be confused with soft plastic jerkbaits.

Soft plastic jerkbaits are more of a warm-weather lure, however, so the odds of those making much of a showing at this Classic are slim. The soft plastics are a slow-sinking lure, sometimes fished by skipping them under docks. The angler gives it a series of light twitches (jerks) to give it action on the way down.

A stickbait, on the other hand, is usually a hard plastic lure that looks like a big minnow with a bill on the front and treble hooks hanging from its belly and tail.

Stickbaits are weighted and balanced so they achieve neutral buoyancy and suspend in the water column. When reeled in, the bill causes the bait to quickly dive down six, eight, 10, even 15 feet deep depending on the bait style and how long and fast it is reeled.

Then it suspends there, not sinking, not rising, and the angler, with a slack line, gives it a little twitch now and then.

Bass also may suspend, for example, next to a rock ledge 10 feet deep in 20 feet of water. Such a fish may find this easy meal too much to resist.

"It's like a cat toy," Gilliland explained. "It sits there and sits there and they sit there and sit there and look at it, then as soon as you twitch it they just have to pounce."

Slow-rollers, spinnerbaits

Most everyone knows a spinnerbait has a heavy body and chromed blades that twirl and flash, mimicking a baitfish in the water.

But in the winter, slow rolling is the often-used technique. Consider those same slightly hungry bass suspended at 10 feet off that rocky ledge in 20 feet of water.

Depending on the weight of the lure, an angler can cast a spinner past those fish, let it sink down 10 feet and then reel it in just fast enough (slow but not too slowly) so that the blades spin.

A slow, steady retrieve with a spinner also might allow an angler to follow along all kinds of lake contours, rocky bottoms or stumps, laydowns or ledges.

"If we have some warming weather, the fish might be a little more active and wanting to chase a bait," Gilliland said. "So you might not need to have something that sits right there in front of their face."

Another advantage to spinnerbaits is the ability to cover more water. In other words, an angler can throw a spinnerbait in two or three locations compared to someone working a stickbait, who may let that bait sit still between twitches for that amount of time.

Football-head jigs

A football-head jig is a favored year-round lure on Grand Lake. The oblong-shaped lead head of the bait is where the football name comes from.

The jig wears a skirt of rubber strands that weave and wave with movement and water action just around the base of the oblong head. The hook itself usually is tipped with a soft-plastic bait to give it a little more life, and possibly some taste and smell.

In summer, anglers "pitch and flip" jigs into heavy cover and sometimes "swim a jig" by reeling it in quickly. In winter it's more often a "cast and crawl" operation.

Jigs often are talked about as crawfish imitators but, generally, "fish are conditioned to eat something crawling on the bottom," Gilliland said.

A jig can be fished very slowly, even left to sit for short periods for stubborn fish, and it also is relatively snag-proof so it can be cast to penetrate the branches of the big brush piles on Grand or thrown out to slowly crawl back and probe rocky slopes and drop-offs.

Original Print Headline: Fishermen know what will work on Grand

Kelly Bostian, 918-581-8357
kelly.bostian@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Megabass Ito Vision One Ten jerkbait in clown color. "The clown color is great when the sun is out," Edwin Evers said. "A suspending jerkbait is a must-have for pre-spawn, cold water conditions." MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

Megabass X-80 Trick Darter in Table Rock shad color. "It's more of a finesse jerkbait, something smaller," Evers said. "If they're not committing to that bigger bait, sometimes a smaller bait will work a lot better." MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

A 1/2-ounce Bass-X football-head jig, peanut-butter-and jelly color, tipped with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer in green pumpkin. "You don't go to Grand without a football-head jig tied on 365 days a year," Evers said. "That Super Chunk is good for winter because I don't want something with a lot of motion." MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

War Eagle 1/2-ounce spinner bait, gold tandem willowleaf with red kicker and chartreuse and white skirt. "That's a bread-and-butter lure early in the spring. That spinner with the red kicker has won a lot of tournaments," Evers said. "Chartreuse and white, that's the No. 1 spinner color that there is." MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World