photoperiod is getting shorter that
that’s going into the winter. They’re
not going to put a bunch of energy
into producing young when those
fish aren’t going to make it through
the winter.”
Spawning or not, it was a cool
moment on FLW Live and another
part of the storyline of a unique sub-
fishery within Lake Hamilton.
The Takeaway
Outside of the current, the weath-
er also forced adjustment. During
practice, bright, high skies and long
periods of sunshine positioned fish in
predictable areas where docks and
overhanging trees created shade.
Pros were able to target bass effi-
ciently by target casting with finesse
worms. Clouds, fog and rain overtook
on day one and lingered on day two,
which prompted the fish to roam
(forcing adjustments from pros fish-
ing all over the lake, not just in the
tailrace). Moving baits such as Ebare’s
Fluke and a glide bait for Martin
became better tools for getting bit.
The inability to adjust might be
one of the reasons why most of the
pros who fished the tailrace on day
one struggled, then abandoned it
altogether on day two.
Sticking it out and making accom-
modations for the conditions helped
Ebare and Martin challenge for the win.
The Spawn
Big bass weren’t the only thing
people talked about while watching
Ebare and Martin fish the tailrace on
FLW Live. During one segment the last
68
day, fans watched Ebare attempt to
sight-fish a bass on a bed.
Spawners, in August? Ebare
believes so.
“I really feel like those fish had not
experienced water warmer than 62 to
65 degrees, and that’s why I found
some spawning,” he says.
Considering that there are Florida-
strain genetics in the lake and Florida-
strain bass are known for staggering
their spawn from fall through late
spring, the theory could make sense.
Though Lusk, who watched it happen
on the live show, isn’t convinced.
While he says he can’t completely
rule out some spawning activity, Lusk
doesn’t believe that just having cold
water is enough to trigger bass to go
through with it. He thinks they might
have been set up on bream beds.
“What you have to take into
account is photoperiod,” he says.
“What really gets those fish spawning
is water temperature and photoperi-
od. In my personal opinion, I don’t
think they were partaking in any actu-
al spawning activity.
“It [a bass] has got a certain
amount of energy to contribute to
reproduction. They know when the
FLWFISHING.com I FALL 2019
The Weather
Looking back at the tournament,
the tailrace bite probably surprised a
lot of people, though it probably
shouldn’t have surprised any pros,
some of whom mistakenly wrote it off
the instant they felt the mass of cold
air over the water up in the tailrace.
Anytime conditions are stagnant and
hot in late summer, flowing water
attracts bass.
“To me, it just made perfect sense
that that’s where I should fish, espe-
cially when I got up there and started
seeing all those fish,” Ebare says.
He says a similar pattern can work
on other fisheries. As an example, he
points to Tommy Dickerson’s Fort
Gibson Costa FLW Series win last Fall
when Dickerson jumped shoals to get
into a creek with some flow. The tail-
race at the Cup isn’t exactly the same
and is an extreme example, but there
are similarities.
A couple of big bites turned out to
be all that separated Ebare, Martin
and Felix from Thrift and runner-up
Kyle Walters, who fished brush all
three days and benefited from a pair
of kicker bites each of the first two
days. It didn’t happen up the river
this time, but we’ve seen similar pat-
terns win Cups before. John Cox did
it at Wheeler a few years ago, and
Brad Knight did it at Lake Ouachita
before that.
Those weren’t cold-water, tailrace
scenarios, and the winning areas
couldn’t support the amount of pres-
sure that the Blakely Mountain Dam
tailrace did this time. But upriver Cup
patterns still present interesting case
studies in late-summer fishing that
contradicts conventional wisdom.