18
Tactics
Tactics
Y COL
17
LARRY NIXON
BEE BRANCH, ARK.
22 LBS, 2 OZ
by David A. Brown
AUBURN, CALIF.
22 LBS
by David A. Brown
Cody Meyer started the tournament by keying on blue-
back herring, but several missed chances steered him in a
different direction midway through day one. He got several
topwater bites, but the fish either missed the plug or shook
free. Meyer then decided he needed a changeup.
“About 10 o’clock I went shallow. I started throwing a
buzzbait and caught a small limit,” Meyer says. “I fished the
buzzbait around bluegill beds and skipped it under docks.
Anywhere you had both of those together, it was great.
“I got some good bites that way in practice, but I should
have known that with the falling water, that pattern was
going away. The second day I realized the only way I could
have a good bag was to throw a topwater [offshore]. I went
out there with one rod and literally threw it all day.”
Despite multiple opportunities, day two yielded only five
fish, but at least a bigger bag moved Meyer up the standings.
His targets were about 30 cane piles planted in 25 feet of
water. The cover held a lot of bass, and the California pro
drew strikes by walking his lure at a brisk pace directly over
the piles.
Baits
Meyer caught his day-one fish on a white 1/4-ounce Strike
King Tour Grade Buzzbait fitted with a 3 3/4-inch Strike King
Rage Swimmer – also in white. For his topwater work, he
fished a Strike King Sexy Dawg in the sexy chrome color.
“The General” kept it simple with a strategy focused main-
ly on targeting surface-breaking fish with a Heddon One
Knocker Spook and a pencil popper. However, the detail
work depended on distance and fish activity.
“If I was working something that wasn’t that long of a cast,
I was doing better with the Spook than the pencil popper,”
Nixon says. “You can throw the pencil popper so much far-
ther, and you don’t know where they’re going to break. So 90
percent of the time, if I was standing at ready and looking for
breaking fish, I had that pencil popper in my hand because I
could get more distance.”
Nixon says the Spook enabled him to work a spot longer
than the pencil popper. The latter requires significant move-
ment for its designed action, while the former can simply
twitch over a smaller area – a valuable tactic for early morn-
ings, when Nixon could target predictable schooling spots.
Fishing down the lake, within five miles of the takeoff,
Nixon found his best action over 15 to 22 feet of water.
When his topwater bite stalled, Nixon worked cane piles with
a shaky head. Unfortunately, sunshine on day two really
hampered the surface activity, and Nixon landed only two
keepers to back up a strong day-one total of 17-13.
CODY MEYER
Baits
82
Nixon’s topwater baits were a Heddon One Knocker
Spook in a shad pattern and an Evergreen Shower Blows
pencil popper in blueback herring. He fished the cane piles
with a 3/16-ounce shaky head and a green pumpkin 6 3/4-
inch Yamamoto Pro Senko.
FLWFISHING.COM I OCTOBER 2017