In Garrabrant's own words, “On the practice day before the tournament, I decided to fish in the central delta and had a tough day. The water visibility was just a few inches, there was a large boat tournament in the area, and I caught zero fish during practice. I knew that I had to take a risk on tournament day and decided to fish in the north delta where I found much cleaner water. In the early morning hours, it was very windy, and I decided to throw a jackhammer chatter bait against a tule line and caught my first fish just 20 minutes into the tournament. I tried to run that same chatter bait and reaction patter for the next few hours but couldn’t reproduce that bite. After 5 hours without another bite, I decided to make a move and get out of the wind where it was easier to finesse the fish. I found a stretch of rocky bank that was protected from the wind, had healthy grass, 4 feet of water visibility, and I knew that fish had to be in this area. I positioned my kayak parallel with the bank and started casting a weightless Senko next to the grass line in 6-10ft of water. I quickly caught another keeper while popping the Senko out of the grass and knew that I had to slow down and stick with the finesse techniques. I kept throwing that Senko for the next hour and a half and was able to catch the 4 additional fish I needed to fill up my limit. In hindsight, I was lucky to get those fish as the bite completely shut off for me and I wasn’t able to put another fish in the boat for the rest of the day. I’m looking forward to the WWBT TOC and the bite heating up in NorCal as we get some better weather.
John Myers finished in second with 61.25”. He worked a brush hog in back waters where no bass boats have been fishing. The key to Myers’ success was to flip his brush hog with 20-pound fluorocarbon to the front of willow brushes and the pockets on the sides of the tulles. Myers worked the same quarter mile stretch the entire day.
“The tide had to be moving fast to position the fish.”
Myers used the tide to help cover water, he would let the tide move his kayak and flip every pocket and willow and then he would run back to the end and go over the same stretch. He tried reaction but never got a bite. The morning bite was good until the tide dropped out, but once the tide started to come in and started to rip, he caught a 20.75” fish.
“In a kayak you can’t run the tide, so I fished both tides in one area and waited for the fish to bite.”
“You’re stuck in one area.”
Myers thanked his wife for all her support. He also thanked Super Clean, Lunkerdaddy Lures, TM Custom Lures, Stage Stop Gun Shop and Ryan Cook Fishing for all their support.
Thomas WIllingmyre placed in third with 55.25”. Willingmyre practice fished without much luck but made the right adjustment on tournament day to finish in third. He threw a white and chartreuse jackhammer all day long with a hog farmer trailer. WIllingmyre concentrated on the dirtier water in one to ten feet of water. He had a few fish come unbutton so he added a trailer hook and then caught everything that bit.
“Once the tide was completely out the bites were tougher to get.”
Willingmyre would work his chatter bait along the tule points while his kayak was in ten feet of water.
He thanked his wife and family for all their support.
Top Ten:
1. Griffith Garrabrant 72.75”
2. John Myers 61.25”
3. Thomas Willingmyre 55.25”
4. Jeremy Miles 36.75”
5. Dang Xiong 36.25”
6. Cha Xiong 29.25”
7. Jacob Dasher 29.25”
8. Abel Patino 28.50”
9. David Boyles 28.00”
10. Dana Graves 27.50”
BIg Fish:
John Myers 20.75”
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