Edwin Evers and his penchant for winning tournaments along with the fact that he lives close by make him one of the favorites to win this year’s Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake in Oklahoma.
He has never won a Classic, but always seems to do well in his home state and many are picking him to win it. In this article. he shares some insight for the event and what patterns he thinks will be used to win it all.
Pre-Spawn is All About the Weather
This year is the first year that the Classic will be held in March, after a decade of February events. Pushing it back a few weeks should improve the fishing and help to eliminate the chance of extreme cold weather affecting the event. Even so, it will be all about the weather.
“I’m not sure what to expect and I really won’t know until we head down there for practice. These past few months have been so rainy that the water around home is as high as I can remember in all my life. There is a good chance that the water will be much muddier than the last time we were there in 2013,” said Evers. He believes three major baits will play a role in this event and they are all classic pre-spawn reaction baits; a jerkbait, crankbait and swimbait.
Pre-Spawn Jerkbaits
Jerkbaits are excellent cold-water bass lures, but they are highly dependent on clearer water to attract fish from a distance. At Grand Lake, Evers plans to do what he does in all pre-spawn situations and that that is to find clear water and baitfish. “I will be looking for the ends of bluff walls, submerged brush piles and the end of docks. These are key areas for throwing a jerkbait in the spring,” said Evers.
His jerkbait selection covers a variety of sizes and diving depths from the Megabass Trick Darter to the Vision 110 and 110+1. He swaps out his hooks for with the Mustad KVD Elite Triple Grip treble (TG58NP) and may also switch to a heavier gauge of hook if he wants a different action. “The heavier wire diameter makes a big difference in the action of the bait. I may change them just to get a specific look out of my jerkbaits,” added Evers.
Crankbaits
Pre-spawn bass love a crankbait and Evers relies on them this heavily time of year. He has several of them in mind for the upcoming Classic and they range from the mid-range divers to the extra deep divers. The Megabass crankbaits he plans to use include the Flap Slap, Diving Flap Slap, Deep-X 300, Deep-X 200T and the Deep-Six.
As you can see there are a variety of baits he has plans for and that is typical of pre-spawn fishing according to Evers. “It is all going to depend on how far they are into the spawning process. If it warms up, I’ll be much shallower and throwing some of the mid-range cranks and if it is still really cold, I’ll be out much deeper,” he said.
With all of these baits, Evers plans to modify them with different treble hooks depending on the line size he is using. “A good rule of thumb is the lighter the line, the lighter the gauge or wire on your trebles,” he said.
His favorite trebles for crankbaits are the Mustad KVD Elite Series 1X Triple Grip trebles (TG78NP-BN), but he will switch to a heavier gauge or shorter shank depending on the lure and line size.
Swimbaits
Another tried-and-true pre-spawn tactic is fishing a swimbait. Evers plans to use this in the upcoming Classic on Grand Lake and says this is a great way to catch big pre-spawn females.
At Grand, he will focus mostly on docks with his swimbait. “Before they spawn, those big fish like to hang around the ends of docks and I like to slow roll that bait out in front of the dock and alongside them as I bring it into deeper water,” he said.
His swimbait of choice will be a 5” Megabass Spark Shad in various shad colors. He will rig it on a Mustad Weighted KVD Grip-Pin Hook in either the 1/8 or ¼ oz. size based on how fast he wants the bait to sink. “The Grip-Pin design really keeps the baits set and rigged properly so you don’t have to keep re-rigging your bait. Both of those sizes are available with the big 6/O hook you need to get a good hookset,” Evers explained.
By all indications, the Bassmaster Classic is going to be a power fisherman’s paradise. Edwin Evers and the other qualifiers are beginning to formulate their game plans to cover all depths and any situations they may encounter. Evers is predicting swimbaits, jerkbaits and crankbaits to be the winning pattern.
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