the Fluke out when they were busting, or even when they weren’ t, and they’ d eat it. But the second and third days I had to call them up with a topwater.”
The surface lure of choice was a chrome Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper, but whether it was the Super Fluke or Pencil Popper, Suggs had to work the lure as fast as he could to get bites.
Suggs rotated through his five areas at least three times every day, letting each area rest at least 20 to 30 minutes. Ironically, the two cane piles he felt would be best never really lived up to expectations, while the one he was ho-hum about outshined the rest.
SUGGS’ key to SUcceSS
Since fishing offshore is one of his favorite ways to catch bass, Suggs notes that dedicating himself to the offshore bite proved to be the fastest – though, sometimes hardest – path to success.
Throughout the first two days, Suggs noticed many anglers venturing out deep to check a cane pile or two before running back shallow.
“ So many guys lost out on the offshore deal because they didn’ t lock in on it,” says Suggs, who figured out early on that he probably couldn’ t win fishing both shallow and deep.
Suggs believes the feast-or-famine nature of offshore fishing caused some anglers who fished both deep and shallow to miss critical windows of opportunity over cane piles. For instance, on day one, he had four fish by 11 a. m. Then he hit one of his cane piles at the right time, limited and culled out everything he had. If he’ d been splitting time between deep and shallow, he might have missed that key bite window.
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