Houchin’s primary tool was a Texas-rigged Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver.
Presentation Keys
Houchin employed a 7-foot, 4-inch,
heavy-action Denali Lithium rod mated
with a Team Lew’s LITE Speed Spool
LFS Series reel (7.1:1 gear ratio). The
reel’s fast retrieve and the stiff action of
the rod were important for getting fish
away from cover immediately upon the
hookset, Houchin says.
He also credits his Costa Tuna Alley
sunglasses for helping him see into the
water and pick out cover that he other-
wise might have missed. The Arkansas
pro caught most of his fish early in the
day, but he also managed to catch
some in the deeper cover later when
the sun was more directly overhead.
Though Houchin usually fishes
along at a quick pace, at Dardanelle he
slowed way down and picked apart
every piece of cover.
On the final day, waves of about 2
feet crashing into the backwater took
Houchin’s tactic of flipping deep cover
out of play, so he resorted to cranking
with the Lucky Craft 2.5 square-bill.
Keys to Victory
Though Houchin led from start to
finish, perseverance and one kicker fish
caught late on the second day were the
keys to his victory. Most of the fish
Houchin boxed in his primary spot were
essentially the same size, so he left that
area around noon and fished other
places in search of a backup. None
MAY-JUNE 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
materialized, but a side trip into Illinois
Bayou produced a 3-pound, 5-ounce
bass that smacked the crankbait. That
enabled Houchin to cull a 2-pounder,
which boosted his weight by about a
pound and a half.
If that fish had weighed a pound less,
Houchin’s final weight would have
wound up at 44-4, or 5 ounces less than
the stringer of runner-up Tom Silber.
“I was just killing time [when he
caught the 3-5], but truthfully, that’s the
fish that won it for me,” Houchin adds.
Houchin took the lead on day one
with 19-12, but he had to settle for 14-
1 on day two. Still in the lead, but with
other anglers having gained ground on
CO-ANGLER CHAMPION
him, Houchin was sorely tempted to
fish another area on day three. He
knew fish were still in his primary area,
however, and he had no other place he
could depend on to produce the bites
he needed to win. Resigned to at least
a top-five finish, he made one final bet
on the place that put him in contention
for the winner’s paycheck of $50,000.
Sticking with his original game plan,
Houchin finished out the tournament
in the backwater. His final-round catch
was 11-7, though Houchin says that a
5- to 6-pound bass that swiped at the
crankbait, but missed, at the boat
would have pushed him into the 16-
pound range.
Name: Robert Bartoszek
Hometown: Hampshire, Tenn.
Winning Weight: 37-02 (14 fish)
Winning Program: A Lake Dardanelle veteran, Bartoszek
relied on a junk-fishing approach that involved eight dif-
ferent baits in areas with diverse profiles and cover.
His most productive bait, however, was a SPRO Fat John square-bill (cell-
mate color), which he threw with a 7-foot, medium-heavy Shimano Crucial
rod, a Quantum EXO reel (7.3:1) and 15-pound-test Seaguar InvizX fluorocar-
bon. He used the square-bill to catch all five of his day-two keepers and two
of the four keepers he had on day three.
“I like that stiffer rod with a square-bill because I’m throwing it around
cover, and I like more backbone to get them away from cover,” Bartoszek
says. “That and the faster retrieve helped me more than anything because I
think fish were reacting better to it.”
89