BEDS, BASS AND BEYOND
todd Castledine’s victory exemplified a strategic use of a seasonal assortment. he caught 12 of his 15 weigh-in fish
off beds, but before that deal was set up to his liking, he spent at least part of his mornings “just fishing.” he meandered
through likely staging areas with a swim jig and a square-bill, picking off fish that were coming and going.
once the sun’s height facilitated spotting beds, he would ease in close to cover where “reading” individual bed fish
would determine the requisite presentations.
“this is going to sound crazy, but there’s absolutely no trick to it [reading and catching bed fish],” he admits. “you
have to treat every single fish as its own personality. with one fish, you might have to throw in there 1,000 times. with
another, you might have to throw in there once.
“After years of doing it, you kind of figure it out, but i learn something new every single time. whatever they do dic-
tates what i do.”
to it the first two days, but I
went there late in the morn-
ing on day three. I didn’t
know if they’d be in there or if
I could even see them, but I
caught two of the ones I
weighed off beds.”
After that boost to his
stringer, Castledine strug-
gled through nearly three
unproductive hours before
remembering a particular
piece of gravel bottom south
of the state Highway 147
bridge in about 18 feet of
water. The Texas pro rerout-
ed and headed to the histor-
ically productive spot.
Notably, Castledine says
the move didn’t feel right
even before completing his
first retrieve. He actually
reeled up and headed else-
where until something deep
in his gut prompted him to
return. Back on that gravel
spot, his first cast delivered
the 9-pounder that assured
him the win.
Presentation Keys
Renowned for his sight-
fishing skills, Castledine credits
his Costa sunglasses as being
essential in helping him spot
bed fish and observe clues to
their behavior and potential
aggressiveness. Equally invalu-
able were his twin Power-
Poles, which ensured proper
boat positioning.
“You just have to find the
right spot [for the boat].
Sometimes that’s closer, and
sometimes it’s far away,”
Castledine admits. “Sometimes
you have trees in the way.
Sometimes you’re out in the
open with the wind. If it’s windy,
I like to get my boat in there to
block the wind.”
On Castledine’s deep spot,
he was concerned that the
seasonal shoreward migra-
tion of bass might have left
the spot barren. However,
spotting two good fish on his
electronics fueled his interest
in returning.
“If I hadn’t seen anything, I
probably wouldn’t have turned
around, but I did see those two,”
he states. “I just got it in front of
a big one, and she ate it.”
Keys to Victory
Cliché as it might seem,
Castledine’s mental tough-
ness also factors in. True,
everyone in the field con-
tended with the same weath-
er challenges of a day-three
cold front and lakewide low-
water conditions. However,
only Castledine was suffering
with an illness that would’ve
kept many in bed.
APRIL 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
“I had the flu two weeks
ago, and I got sick again on
Sunday,” he said at the final
weigh-in. “To be straight-up
honest, I was throwing up all
this morning before takeoff.
Five minutes before takeoff, I
was trying to figure out how I
was going to make it through
the entire day, much less
catch fish.”
Gutting it out, Castledine
used the motivation of a
potential comeback victory
to block out his physical dis-
comfort. He instead focused
on details such as boat posi-
tioning and graph reading.
CO-ANGLER CHAMPION
Name: Mat Downey
Hometown: Kountze, Texas
Winning Weight: 55-04 (15 fish)
Winning Program: Mat Downey of
Kountze, Texas, caught every fish in his
three daily limits on a bone-colored
River2Sea Whopper Plopper. The key to his
Whopper Plopper presentation was a long cast - long
enough to run out all of his 50-pound-test braid and
expose the 12-pound-test fluorocarbon backing.
Although he usually fares better fishing hay grass in
early spring, Downey says recent low water led to a
resurgence of Rayburn’s hydrilla. The bass seemed to
prefer this newly regrown grass, so he fished it thor-
oughly whenever he had the opportunity.
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