LAST CAST
SECRETS ON THE SEAMS OF CHANGE
Back in May , Walmart FLW Tour rookie Buddy Gross of Ringgold , Ga ., could sum up his Tour win on Pickwick Lake in one word : eelgrass . “ Eelgrass ?” I questioned , making sure I heard him right during an interview on the second day of competition .
“ Yes ,” Gross responded . “ I ’ m catching them out of eelgrass . I don ’ t think any of these other guys even know it ’ s growing in Pickwick .”
Gross was right . No one else in the tournament was onto his eelgrass game . Even Pickwick experts Randy Haynes and Mark Rose were unaware of the eelgrass propagation in the lake . In essence , Gross had cornered the market on eelgrass in Pickwick for that event , and it turned out to be a highly profitable week for him .
Gross ’ eelgrass discovery – and subsequent win – is yet another example of how new bass fishing patterns are born from the seams of ecological changes in lakes . Whenever a new species invades a lake where it previously didn ’ t exist , the influx impacts the aquatic environment , which in turn affects bass and ultimately adds new wrinkles to fishing in some form or fashion . The anglers who are the first to recognize such changes are the ones who get a jump on the learning curve and score big . In the case of Gross , he had become familiar with eelgrass by fishing it in Guntersville over the last few years . So when he discovered it in Pickwick , he capitalized on it .
Looking back over the last 20 to 30 years , these kinds of environmental changes have been a fertile ground of sorts from which new techniques , innovations and bass fishing “ secrets ” have sprung up .
Other than perhaps floods , nothing changes a lake faster than an influx of new vegetation . Gross ’ win in eelgrass is one example , though minor by Rob Newell
when compared to the milfoil and hydrilla infestations that swept the country during the 1980s . Once these aquatic plants found their way into lakes , they proliferated quickly , changing the entire landscape of the bass fishing business with everything from “ weedless ” lures to “ weedless ” props for trolling motors .
The spread of zebra mussels constitutes another environmental change that has had a domino effect on bass fishing across the country . One of the primary impacts of zebra mussels is increased water clarity . A serious infestation can turn normally off-colored water the clarity of spring water in just a couple of years . Great Lakes anglers have witnessed it , but a more recent example was seen at the Costa FLW Series event on Oklahoma ’ s Grand Lake in April 2015 . Grand , a lowland impoundment known for its fishy , off-colored , fertile ( continued on previous page )
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER
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FLWFISHING . COM I AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2016