Delta local Bobby Barrack of Oakley, Calif. was crowned the pro angler champion at this past weekend’s Wild West Bass Trail (WWBT) General Tire Duel on the Delta – the final California Pro/Am stop of the year.
Barrack – known as the Frog Master – battled a field of 95 pros, amidst another 95 co’s, weather conditions that surpassed his “30 degree swing” rule and his own mental rollercoaster (multiple days of ups and downs that all anglers face as every minute detail becomes a monumental, game-changing decision) to land atop the field.
For Barrack, the Snag Proof frog designer, three days at the Wild West– truly became Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
PRE GAME PLANS FOR THE DELTA WWBT
When asked about his win, Barrack simply stated it was about good tournament fishing, explaining that involves three components – good decisions, good execution and some luck.
“If you can put all three of those things together, you CAN put yourself in the position to POSSIBLY win and that’s what I did,” he said. “I made some really good decisions and I executed well, only losing two fish in the whole tournament. In a three-day tournament that’s really good.
“If you can get your execution ratio up to 80, 85 or 90 percent, you’re going to be in pretty good shape. It’s so hard to fish a two or three-day tournament completely clean. There are always guys that lose fish – that lose good ones.
“The guys that lose the least amount of good ones, the guys that make good decisions, execute on those decisions and have some luck are the guys that end up in the top-5. And, those top-5 are often interchangeable. The difference between first and fifth is one or two bites – no matter where you are fishing. The playing field is so even anymore, the margin for error is so slim, you’ve got to have some luck and I did. That’s how I won.”
BEST DECISIONS FOR DELTA LURES
Barrack feels his best decisions revolved around bait selections that related to the conditions.
“I am a topwater junkie,” he said. “But looking at the volatile conditions that we were facing during the event, I thought better of it. I told myself that I AM NOT going to throw my frog, UNTIL I get in position to throw my frog.
“Normally, I don’t have that type of discipline and I can do really bad because of it. If I do really bad, its almost always because I try to force the frog bite.
“It’s something that started with me about seven or eight years ago. I decided I wanted to win a big event on a frog; so, I kept throwing it. I did NOT fish smart. I tried to force feed ‘em and that’s never a good decision.
“This time I used some discipline, left the frog on the deck and got comfortable first. If the tournament would’ve been this coming weekend, it would’ve been a whole different deal; but primarily because of the weather, I needed to fish the current conditions and do it intelligently – which is a change for me.”
MENTAL PREP FOR TOURNAMENT DAY
Barrack dialed in his mental game with a trip to another famed big bass fishery.
"The off-limits period is something that I've come to love about Wild West," he said. "It helps get me off this place (the Delta) and puts the brakes on for me. So, for the last couple years, during off-limits, I've gone to Clear Lake and fished there for eight or nine days. It is a phenomenal way to get my mind off the Delta, do something different; but still stay sharp."
With his mental game in check, Barrack returned to the Delta ready for his fiercest competitor – his own homewater.
DAY ONE – NO FROG BEFORE ITS TIME
Barrack held fast to his “no frog” theory and employed three specific baits to combat the weather conditions.
He threw two moving baits – a Rat-L-Trap Echo 175 in Honey Craw and a ½ -ounce, Dandy Baits spinnerbait with double gold blades in a custom color SKL, which is the “Sherman Lake Killer” pattern of black and red with a hint of chartreuse.
“When I tie on a spinnerbait, it’s usually SLK,” he said. “If the water is really calm and clear, I will use Tennessee Twister; but SLK is good in both dirty water and clear water, as long as you have some wind.”
Barrack also put two jigs to work – a bluegill pattern made by Bobby D and a G-Money jig in green pumpkin.
“These were bladed jigs,” added Barrack. “They don’t send them that way. I assemble them myself – both with black blades."
Barrack attributed all of these “non frog” baits for putting him in early position on Day One.
“They put me in a place where I could play a little bit,” he said. “I was getting key bites on all three of these. They each were as important as the other, with a third of my weight, coming on the Echo, a third on the spinnerbaits and a third on the jigs.”
Once he was “comfortable”, with a bag in the high teens, Barrack did what he does and went froggin’.
“I got some fish on my Tweety Wobbletron, but most importantly, it helped me find the big girl that I caught on Day Two,” he said. “I was reelin’ it back in, and that big one took a look at my frog. She made a move, but wasn’t interested in eatin’. Even though she didn’t bite, it was an important moment of the tournament; because then, I had her address.”
At the end of Day 1, Barrack weighed 24.36, to sit in 3rd place.
DAY TWO – KNOCKIN' ON THE DOUBLE'S DOOR AND BIG STRING
Again, Barrack’s first move was to get a comfortable sack. Once, that was checked off the list, he put the info that he had learned about the current feed window to work and made a house call to the DD that showed herself on Day One.
“I made it at her meal time and was fortunate to get her to bite and keep her on,” said Barrack.
His tweener went 10.93, earning Big Fish honor of the event.
"When I saw her head, I thought I had a teen fish; but she was totally, 100 percent spawned out," he said. "She was 26 1/2-inches long. She should've been in the teen range; but she had no girth - just very skinny.”
Barrack's big one fell to a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog rigged on a Mustad Grip Pin Max.
“The Grip Pin was an important part of landing the big girl,” said Barrack. “These hooks keep all the plastic out of the bite of the hook. It keeps it up at the eye; so, it doesn’t fold or roll down into the throat of the hook. That is a big, big deal when you’ve got a giant on. It means I hooked an 11 and she stay pegged.”
Barrack’s Flappin’ Hog punch rigs were tied on with both a 3/0 and 4/0 Grip Pin. He fished Hogs in both green pumpkin/red or watermelon with copper/orange/red. The big one fell to the green pumpkin/red. He used a 1 ¼-ounce weight and 100-pound braided line.
“I use white braid,” said Barrack. “I can see it better in the water. I paint two-feet of it black and then I can see the white line going down. When I know I have two-feet of black and I'm fishing in three-feet of water and my line stops with a foot of black left, I swing. It's kind of a little safety measure. "
DAY THREE - MENTAL CONTROL VS. BASS CATCHING
Barrack went into the final day with his mind on some advice from a fishing partner.
"My friend Wally told me to fish smart, hit a line drive and don't try to hit it into the parking lot," said Barrack. "It was what I needed to hear from someone else that tournament fishes. I needed to get away from doing something stupid, pump the brakes a little bit, fish smart and not be an idiot. I had a 10-pound lead going into this last day; but what I had rolling around in my head was that Robert Lee let a nine-pound lead slip and so could I.
"The camera boat guy kept asking what I thought about my lead and I kept telling him that this wasn't Shasta or Oroville. At the Delta, there is no lead that is safe," Barrack said.
"Even at eight minutes left in the 3rd, the Atlanta Falcons thought they were okay. They were feeling pretty good. I didn't want to fall into that trap. I told the camera guy as long as Tom Brady wasn't in one of the other boats, I ought to be alright; but anyone of these guys could go Tom Brady on me today and then I would be screwed.
"The Delta is like Clear Lake and cannot be underestimated. At a fishery like this, a guy can swing three times and have what it took you two days to weigh and that was running through my head. I kept trying to concentrate on Wally's words; fish smart, it's better to get beat than to lose it yourself."
The words of advice served well as Barrack fought to keep his mental game in check when Day Three didn't start well.
"On the first two days, I felt good about my bag by 9:00 a.m.; but on Sunday, I just didn't get the same type of opportunities," he revealed. " I pulled in to my starting spot in the morning and caught a couple of 13-inch fish AND a short.
"Now, that was a big deal; because I hadn't seen a 13-inch fish all week. That should've alarmed me right there; but it didn't. I missed that clue. Then, I noticed the grass floating around and I put it together. My area had been nuked with pellets.
"I was there on my high-switch; which is a good time to catch big ones and it took me almost 50 minutes to realize what had happened. It is inexcusable that it took me that long to figure it out. It caused me to blow my high-switch window in an unproductive area.
"It probably had been pelletized on Friday and started taking effect late Saturday; because I had caught some good ones in there on Day Two. By Sunday, the pellets had really started to dissolve the grass and the big ones get sick and don't like it; so, they moved on."
Jumping into action with Plan B at about 9:30 a.m., Barrack grabbed an old faithful and went Senko fishing.
"With a Senko, you can catch some keeper fish; but you can also catch the biggest fish in the pond, so it's a good option to have," he explained.
Barrack employed two colors -a black/blue to cast during cloud cover and a black/red when the sun was shining. He fished them wacky-rigged.
"I rotated between the two colors and picked up that spinnerbait once in a while," he said. "I filled out my limit with 10-pounds and thought before I went crazy, I should get my punch rod out and try and get rid of some of these little guys."
He used the same Flappin' Hog rig to upgrade a couple of pounds.
Barrack's locations were primarily the same each day. He ran from Big Break to Grant Line, rotating his areas. He reported that he was not chasing a tide; but attempted to concentrate on being in "productive areas" on tide switches.
"On Sunday afternoon, at the low-switch, I made one of the worst decisions of my tournament and when I was back at the weigh-in, I was really beatin' myself up over it," said Barrack. "I was telling myself that if I lose this thing by a pound or two, it was because of my Day Three, late afternoon decision on the low-switch.
"I decided to go to a spot where IT MIGHT happen; instead of going to a spot where I was PRETTY SURE it WOULD happen. I didn't listen to what I should've done and I fought myself over it.
“In the end, it worked out; but if Nick (Nourot) would've beaten me by even a few ounces, I would've kicked myself all over for not making a good decision on the final day at crunch time. I could've given myself at least a 30 or 40 percent higher chance to catch more, if I would've chose a better area to be on the tide switch in the afternoon; but I didn’t. I messed that up.”
Barrack explained the “good area” that he was talking about had to with the weather changing, water clarity, boat traffic and pellet residue – controllable and uncontrollable variables to be aware of when making “good decisions”.
Barrack ended up with a Day Three weight of 12.71. His tournament total went 66.26. He held a lead of nearly six-pounds over his nearest competitor.
For the win, Barrack banked a total of $13,200, which included contingency dollars for Big Fish and Yamamoto.
He expressed appreciation to Steve at Mustad Hooks for sending him the Grip Pins that he needed for his punch rig, the Wild West Bass Trail for the event and his family.
"It is great to have the family support to spend the kind of time that it takes to do well in this sport," he said. "Having an understanding family is a big, big deal. When they allow you the time that you need to excel in tournaments or even to fun fish, you've got to return the favor. You got to take care of ma!"
The WWBT final top-10 weigh-in can be viewed here.
The WWBT General Tire Duel on the Delta paid out over $110,000 to the competing pro and co anglers.
Full 2017 Wild West Bass Trail California Delta PRO Payout and Results
Full 2017 Wild West Bass Trail California Delta CO Payout and Results
The Wild West Bassers will meet again in September for the year-end championship at Lake Mead.
A special thanks to all of the 2017 WWBT sponsors – A & M Graphics, Costa, Dobyns Rods, Evinrude, E3 Spark Plugs, Gator Guards, General Tire, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Hydro Force, Lowrance Electronics, Lucas Oil, P-Line, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats and Super Clean.
For more information visit WildWestBassTrail.com and follow WWBT at Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram.
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