First stop of the 2011 BASS Central Open was held on Lake Lewisville, TX in less than ideal conditions. With the recent snow during the Super Bowl and the increased fishing pressure on the lake I knew this tournament was going to be a grind from day 1. Having never been to Lake Lewisville or Texas for that matter for a fishing tournament I had to do rely on what little information I was able to find online, satellite photos and the replay of the 2010 College Fishing Championship. At first glance it looked like a relatively shallow & flat lake with a lot of submerged brush/timber.
I flew in Tues night from PHX to Dallas via Southwest, settled in at the hotel and located the nearest WalMart to get my license the next morning. Not having a ride for prefish on Wed I decided to drive around to a few marinas and scout out the lake from shore before the pretournament meeting at 5PM. I find this helpful to get an idea of the water level from what I've studied via satellite photos, look for dead baitfish around docks, craws in the shallows and see what the boats on the water are doing. I did find a few dead shad around the size of a lucky craft pointer 78 & no signs of craws. I also noticed the lake was very low (at the conservation level according to the internet) and all of the brush/timber I found online was out of the water. I was a little bummed to see this as I was planning on flipping heavy cover/brush with a spinnerbait, jig, tube (flipping), chatter bait or some other power fishing techniques that lend well to my strengths. Scratch that idea. The lake for some reason reminded me of Modesto reservoir or Woodward reservoir as there was little structure in the water, rocks/mud bottom, shallow and now grass. This gave me a game plan to start with as I’ve fished both those lakes in Feb when the bite is really tough.
Day 1 I was paired with Paul Ferguson from Tyler, Tx. He manages a pain management clinic which a number of bass pro's have been treated aside from being fairly well connected to Skeeter boats on their Pro staff. The pain clinic he manages also happens to be the one that Western Pro Gary Dobyn's has been attending after his injury on the Cal Delta. We discussed the game plan a little after the pre tournament meeting and he acknowledged that the tournament was going to be a bit of a grind. We ended up fishing West of the I-35 bridge where the E50's held the last day hole course (along with 80+ other boats). During prefish he found the water temps in the very low 40's near the dam & a thin layer of ice on the East side of the lake from the recent cold temps.
Our first spot was a main lake point that was in a creek channel with the wind blowing into our direction. We could see a lot of baitfish/bass suspended off the point the entire day and decided to wait out the fish when they started to come up to the shore. This sort of fishing works best for me as a coangler as I can fish slow and find the spot within the spot on the structure. We'd move 100 feet to the left and right of the point, into one of the coves and go over the structure till 1PM. Each few passes we'd catch a fish and found 3 areas no bigger than a 2.5'x2.5' area that the fish would predictably move into. I ended up catching my first 2 keepers (co's only have a 3 fish limit) on this spot with a bomber shallow running crankbait and a 3/8oz hula grub (pictured below). We later hit 2 other spots and with the same approach and I was able to find my 3rd limit fish. Plenty of sand bass and short fish were caught that day along with ~20 short bites on the jig most likely by small fish. Seeing those around me I knew I had a decent bag as most boats that went by either had 0 or 1 fish in the boat & Paul didn't have a keeper until 2PM on a ripbait. I weighed 3 for 5lb 6oz putting me tied for 10th place after day 1 & Paul only weighed (1) 2lb 2 oz spotted bass. With 93 coanglers blanking the first day I knew I was in good position for a check, but had my eye on the boat for 1st place & no points to worry about for this circuit. This gave me the confidence to swing for the fences on day 2 without fishing chicken.
- lewisville_crankbait.jpg (157.1 KiB) Viewed 869 times
- lewisville_jig.jpg (155.28 KiB) Viewed 869 times
Day 2 I drew Chip Porche from Tulsa, OK and recently graduated from OSU. He was part of the OSU college fishing team that was leading Day 1 on the FLW College Championship series on Lewisville last year & knew the lake fairly well. Chip like many of the Day 1 pro's blanked on Day 1 and knew he needed a 15lb bag to be back in it on Day 2 which he was catching in prefish before the tournament. Chip's strengths were more shallow power fishing and running/gunning which unfortunately doesn't work tell well when the morning temps were 39 degrees and the bite really off. We tried early in the morning fishing slow with a jig & had a few short bites, but nothing on the boat. Around 11AM the sun finally came out and started to warm up my hands enough were I could feel them (probably a factor in missing a few bites in the AM on my side). We also fished East of the I-35 bridge with now about 100 other boats and quickly realized that we had to do something different as nobody was catching fish. We made a few moves looking for shallow water fish on some structure, but only managed a few sand bass on the shallow crank I was throwing. By 1:30PM we started moving around the lake from spot to spot trying different structure, the dam, boat docks, etc to no avail. Even with a ripbait, dropshot & wacky jig head we couldn't get bit to save our lives that day. We both did our best to fish our strengths but I knew that my weakness in bass fishing is when the majority of bass suspend I'm going to struggle.
Luckily I only dropped from tied at 10th place to tied at 21st place (the guy I was tied with also didn't weigh in a fish Day 2). In comparison 103 coanglers also blanked on Day 2 so I didn't feel too bad about the entire event. In hindsight I don't think I would have done anything different as I was getting bit & fishing to my strengths. I know that suspended fish are my weakness and that I did everything I should have for this tournament. The bites in general were very subtle and the only way I was able to detect I was getting bit at all was using a really sensitive fishing line like P-line 100% Fluorocarbon & my Dobyns Rod's. Had I used my old fishing rods I doubt I would have felt those bites and wouldn't have done as well as I did. If you're a jig fisherman as I am you really should check them out (especially the 704C and the 705C). They are by far the best fishing rods on the market.
Next stop on the BASS Central Open is at Table Rock in Branson, MO April 28-30. I'm really looking forward to this tournament as I've always wanted to fish Table Rock and we're hitting the lake at a really good time of year.
Vince Borrego
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