The anticipation for every season is almost always the same. The unknown of it. The excitement. The what ifs. It’s always fun kicking off a new season as you never truly know what’s in store; good or bad. This season is especially interesting, as we embarked on a new journey in the first season of the Bassmaster Opens EQ series. The EQs are a means of qualifying (or requalifying) for the biggest show in bass fishing, the Bassmaster Elite Series. However, it brings a new twist. In the past, the Opens series were divided into multiple divisions with Elite bids going to the highest points finishers (usually 3-5 people) over the season in each division. This year, the only qualifiers will be those that fish all nine events across the country from Central Florida, Louisiana, Upstate New York and about everywhere in between. It’s a very diverse schedule that will challenge us all, simulating both the typical travel and diversity of a Bassmaster Elite Series schedule. They have also changed the off limits periods to a month prior to the events which is inline with the Elites as well. There are a lot of mixed opinions from our bass fishing community, but one thing is certain, this will best prepare you for the rigors of the Elite Series gauntlet.
I embarked a week early to Atlanta in order to get the new Dodge Ram 1500 wrapped at ZDecals just north of the city. ZDecals is one of the best places to get wraps done in the Eastern United States, whether it be for vehicles or boats. After having the boat wrapped there last season, I knew they would knock it outta the park on the new truck. They did not disappoint. We matched the design of the boat wrap for the most part, but added a little twist on the back, which I think really makes it stand out. We are thankful to be working with DuraEdge Products again as a title sponsor and the baseball themed wrap should really attract some attention once again.
Speaking of baseball, while the truck was in the ZDecals wrap lab, I made my way over to visit one of our great DuraEdge customers in Atlanta, Chris May and the Georgia Tech Grounds Crew. The day prior to picking up the truck, we spent the day with them as they prepared for baseball practice and an upcoming series with their rivals, the Georgia Bulldogs the next week. We captured what their typical day looks like and got to know some of the guys more, which was really cool. Georgia Tech was the first big time D1 school to make the switch to DuraEdge infield mix in the earlier stages of the business. The story goes, Jon (the former head guy) and their AD told Grant (McKnight) to come tell them why they needed to go to his new and relatively unproven mix. So, Grant jumped on a plane and showed up there the next day. They told him he had ten minutes to convince them why they needed to spend the money on this infield mix from Pennsylvania. Ten minutes ended up being enough, and they soon purchased their first truckloads of DuraEdge infield mix and haven’t looked back since.
The next day, I Ubered from my buddy, Tony Bulak’s house, up to ZDecals to pick up the new ride. Nick and company were just putting on the finishing touches. I was very impressed and thankful that they were able to get us in just before the Eufaula Open, but also, the fact that it was right on the way and only a few hours from our final destination. We hit the road and arrived that Friday night at our AirBNB only five minutes from the main launch, Lakepoint Resort, at Lake Eufaula. I usually stay with a couple guys in the Opens and this year I am traveling with my longer time travel partner, Craig, but also Shane Lineberger. We were all greeted with amazing weather, steadily in the 80s with the lows still being pretty warm most of the time as well. The first day of practice I went to the south end and checked some stuff I’d studied prior to the event. I didn’t get a ton of bites, while I graphed most of the day, when I bore down and fished some the bites I did get were in the 3-5 lb range. It was a good start and helped me see what stages the fish were in after this very quick warm up. The next couple days were productive, although not always bites wise, I spent a lot of time behind the wheel idling looking for brush and other interesting bottom structures. Overall, I felt confident there were still a good bit of fish offshore, but it felt like enough were shallow and potentially more would show up. My best practice day was up the lake however, bites wise, as I probably got 15-20 good bites towards the end of practice, shallow. I figured you would have to mix it up some between deep and shallow and my game plan was to begin each day up the lake throwing a swim jig and flipping in order to catch a good bag before ultimately heading down lake in search for a kicker or two.
Day one, this plan worked out pretty seamlessly. I kicked off the morning throwing a ⅜ oz white swim jig with a matching rage craw and flipping the ¼ oz Angler Tungsten weight with the 3/0 Owner Jungle Flipping hook and 5” junebug blue tail stickworm (with a Owner flashy accent blade on the end – I call it Senko Spin). This worked out to the tune of probably 15 lbs by 10am. Then we made the run through some rough wind conditions down lake, fishing some brush piles, uneffectively, on the way down. I arrived at a key hard spot/brush pile and after running through my rotation of baits, finally fired a shakyhead over there while I looked at my graph. After, what we call “deadsticking” it there for a bit, I picked up, felt the ever subtle pressure of a big bass and set the hook. A solid 4.5 pounder rocketed to the surface and I fought it carefully on my spinning rod with the light Gamma braided main line and fluorocarbon leader before wrangling that prespawn fatty into the boat. It was a good cull taking us up to about 16.5 lbs. I truly thought I had about 14 lbs, but the fish were deceivingly heavier than they looked at Eufaula. I kept running brush piles, some hard spots and mixing in some docks and shallow grass with no more culls unfortunately. We kicked off our season with 16-7 and were sitting in 42nd out of 225.
Day two (or three, as Friday of the event was canceled due to high winds), I considered flipping my rotation, but ultimately went back into the shallow grass areas I flipped day one and got off to a quick start. After that front rolled through it was much cooler that morning, which can affect the shallow bite. I favored slowing down and methodically picking everything apart with my flipping set up instead of the swim jig as they can often get more lethargic this time of year. I flipped two solid keepers quickly and had a few more short strike the ol’ senko spin. My co-angler Eric caught one and then we both kept getting more and more short strikes. This is typical after a cold night as the dirtish shallow water cools quicker than the deeper water. As the sun came up they got slightly more aggressive and I put two more keepers in the boat including a stocky 4+ pounder. We then headed down lake about an hour later than the day prior and started running brush, hard spots, cypress trees, pockets with grass – essentially anything I got bit on or was similar to it. It was slow for a bit until I decided to run in a pond that I’d seen a good bit of bed fish a few days prior. I knew it probably got pounded on day one and most of day two, but I figured there was at least one I could trick with my ace in the hole. It ended up being the case. Two of them I saw were way too skittish and not that big anyway, but a locked down 3 pounder looked primed to get a ride in the Phoenix livewell. The first cast, I flipped in there and his gills flared which is a sign of irritation and that he’s about to eat your bait and take it out of his spawning bed. He took off with it. Swing and a miss! Strike one. I put on a new bait and pitched over there again and let it sit. Strike two. Time for another bait. This time, I took my Owner braid scissors and cut off about 2 inches from the top of my bait. In my mind, less plastic, more hook, better chance of hooking up. Oh yeah, this time he messed up. He ate it again, I reared back and swung him over the side, number five. Whew.
We ended up running across the lake to a couple of my better brush piles. I said I just need a 3+ to cull and I’ll be right where I needed. A 3+ did indeed show up. However, it was not on my line, but my co-angler Eric’s. The fish was out off the side of one of my piles and he ended up catching his biggest fish and solidifying a solid 7+ lb co-angler bag. I was genuinely happy for him as he had almost 8 pounds on day one, which saw Eric ultimately finish in 4th place overall for the tournament.
We continued running brush, some docks, grass and trying to find a big one on bed in one of the pockets to no avail. Almost every pocket I tried to run in was occupado and a specific 5-6 pounder I rolled up on the day prior that was too skittish to waste time on, had a boat firmly camped on it when I rolled in there. Up the lake we went. We finished our day up the lake near the launch and were not able to put another one in the boat unfortunately. Overall, it was a grind, but I was happy to fish relatively clean and grind out a decent limit, going 14-1 (once again more than I thought) and get out of our first event with a 44th place finish, 35th in points for the EQs and a solid start to the season. As I told many of my friends and family before and after the event, this deal is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. With nine events, consistency is king. You can easily end your season in the first event with a 120+ finish, so finishing in the top 20% of the field is the name of the game. The year I qualified in 2019, I think my worst finish for the season was 27th. My goal was to always be in the top 25% of the field and we started our season with a check mark in that box.
The next event on the docket is Toledo Bend Reservoir in Many, LA, right on the Texas border. Toledo Bend is a famed fishery in the bass fishing world, as its nearly 200,000 acres and full of Texas sized bass. From the thousands of acres of standing timber, docks, rocks, seawalls and grass, you can fish about anything your heart desires. April in Texas can spell some great fishing as the weather is usually pretty warm and the bass are active. Although I’ve never been to Toledo Bend, this is one I am most excited about this season. We don’t often see many bass over seven pounds in my neck of the woods, but in Toledo Bend, ten to even fifteen pound bass swim in its Texas sized waters. I am definitely excited to get there and grind.
Tightlines everyone!
