Bass Fishing Oct - Nov 2016 | Page 107

condItIonS fishery type: st. lawrence river and lake ontario air temperature: mid-80s Water temperature: upper 60s to low 70s Wind: stout west winds on day one, building stronger on day two; calmer on day three Precipitation / cloud cover: mostly clear to partly cloudy skies moon Phase: waning gibbous Water clarity: 15 to 20 feet Predominant Lake features: boulders, islands, grass and large flats keys to victory

No doubt, being able to piece together a pattern that was easy to replicate was a huge plus for Dobson. He was the only angler to bring in more than 21 pounds each day, making fishing seem easy compared to the rest of the field.

A lot of the field overlooked the shallow fish, writing them off due to water temperature and the amount of moss on the rocks. Dobson leaned on his strengths as a sight-fisherman, but not for bedding bass – for bass lurking the shallows looking for an easy meal.

“ I think the biggest key to my win was my eyes,” Dobson explains.“ I saw almost every fish that I caught, and my experience fishing shallow back home on Lake St. Clair taught me that bait presentation is everything. If you cast too close, you’ ll spook them. If you cast too far away, they can’ t see it. It had to be very precise to get them to bite.”

PreSentatIon keYS keeping the bait in one place was vital for getting cruising smallmouths to eat – especially when fishing a drop-shot. varying his weights from 1 / 4- to 1 / 2- ounce helped to keep the rig on the key spots depending on the amount of current and wind.

“ Getting the bait on a clean spot and keeping it there without blowing off was very important,” adds dobson.“ I’ d hold the boat in place, cast in and just dead-stick it. once the fish saw the bait they would just swim over and eat it.” the drop-shot scored the majority of his big bites, but the ultra-finesse Ned rig also pulled through later in the event. because of how small and subtle the Ned rig is, bigger fish that were more lethargic and wary had no issue with snatching up that easy meal. as the tournament wore on he fished more of the areas between clean spots, and that is when he worked in a Megabass vision 110 + 1 and duo realis spinbait 90. even if fish wouldn’ t commit to those baits they would still show themselves, giving dobson a chance to pitch a drop-shot or Ned rig at them.

The other big factor for him on a the vast body of water that connects the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario was having the right equipment. The wind forced the hand of a lot of the anglers – and forced tournament directors to limit the field to the river on day two – but Dobson was running a rig designed to handle big water thanks to Bryan Doyle, his buddy and co-angler practice partner for the event, who lent his boat to Dobson.

“ I can’ t thank Bryan enough for loaning me his Ranger 620 Fisherman,” Dobson adds.“ It is rigged to handle rough water, and it made a big difference.”

Dobson won the tournament with a variety of baits, but a drop-shot rigged with a 1 / 4-, 3 / 8- or 1 / 2-ounce weight( depending on the conditions) helped pluck smallmouths from the shallows. He paired it with one of three soft baits: a Berkley PowerBait Twitchtail Minnow, Gulp! Fry Worm or Gulp! Minnow.

co-anGLer cHamP

Joe tHomPSon cLaYton, Ga. total Weight: 43-07( 15 fish) Winning Program: thompson’ s prowess with a drop-shot earned him the win at 1000 Islands with three bags of smallmouths. the Georgia angler kept it simple with a 1 / 4-ounce weight for his drop-shot and a berkley powerbait twitchtail Minnow as his only bait.

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