FORT GIBSON LAKE
oN tour
WAGONER, OKLA. – SEPT. 29-OCT.1
Hosted by Wagoner Area Chamber of Commerce
PRESENTED BY
A single laydown produced
most of Fulps’ winning catch.
by David A. Brown
WINNING aNGLer
dereK fuLPS
broKeN arroW, oKLa.
Stat Line: Fulps has amassed eight
top-10 finishes in the FLW Bass
Fishing League since 2000. Two of
his best finishes were fourth-place
efforts on Fort Gibson in 2012 and
2016. This is his first Costa FLW
Series victory.
tactics and target areas
114
Fulps caught every fish he
weighed in from one large laydown
about seven miles up the Grand River.
Sprawled out in 7 to 14 feet of water,
the tree covered an area about the
length of a truck and boat trailer.
While practicing, Fulps located the
fairly fresh laydown on his Lowrance
HDS-10 when he moved off the bank
from where he had been scanning for
the usual mix of shallow wood that
river anglers target. He found other
completely submerged trees along the
same flat, but that first one offered a
full, leafy profile that the fish seemed
to favor.
“Bassmaster Elite Series pro Edwin
Evers gave me some tips on how to
zoom in and zoom out and what
range you should be on when you’re
scanning for cover,” Fulp adds. “If
you spread that range out too far, you
lose your definition and can’t really
tell what you’re looking at. I had my
range set at 60 feet.”
Keys to victory
Knowing how the fish were posi-
tioned around the tree and adjusting
accordingly proved essential to Fulps’
success. The cover of the large tree
provided a broad field of opportunity
for fish and fisherman, but he quickly
dialed in a replicable pattern.
“I caught fish all around that tree –
north, south, east and west, depend-
ing on the current,” Fulps says. “When
the current was running strong, they
were all on the east and north [deep
and upcurrent] sides, but when the
current was slack or it wasn’t running
as hard you could catch them around
anywhere. Once the current started
ripping, they were easy to pinpoint.
You could sit in one spot.
“I think they’re easier to catch
when they’re ganged up during the
strong current because they’re com-
petitive. They see one fish run out and
grab something and it fires up the
school. When they’re scattered, they’re
harder to catch.”
Fulps caught the majority of his fish
on a 6-foot, 10-inch Falcon LowRider
rod with a 6.4:1 Daiwa Steez baitcaster
carrying 12-pound-test Berkley Trilene
100-percent Fluorocarbon.
“That outfit allowed me to throw
those lighter baits a long way with
that lighter line, and I think I got some
extra bites because of that,” he adds.
“That lighter line allowed me to get
those baits down quicker. If you’re
using 20-pound, that current’s grab-
bing your line.”
fLWfISHING.com I december 2016