13 codyMEYER
Tactics
by Tyler Brinks
32 LbS, 2 oZ
Like many others in the field, Meyer struggled to find
schools of bass offshore. He instead looked to Google Earth to
find productive areas.
“I found six creeks near Limestone Creek in the Decatur
area that went way back. They had running water coming
into them and were much cooler,” says Meyer, adding that
the main-lake water temperature was 85 to 90 degrees, but it
was only 75 degrees in his creeks. “I went back into one in
practice, and there were fish of all species swimming around
everywhere. It was just full of life.”
Each of the creeks had plenty of laydowns, stumps and
current to fish.
“They were shallow, but the bass in the creeks were
aggressive,” Meyer adds. “I just ran out of fish because the
areas didn’t replenish.”
Meyer’s most effective bait was a 1/4-ounce Strike King
buzzbait fished across 1 to 2 feet of water. A gizzard shad-col-
ored Strike King KVD 1.5 square-bill also proved to be key.
He made repeated casts with the crankbait to the ends of
deeper laydowns to catch suspended fish.
Finally, Meyer used his finesse-fishing chops to catch
cruising bass and to fish swift current.
“I would throw a weightless green pumpkin Strike King
Ocho on a wacky rig or a green pumpkin Fat Baby Finesse
Worm on a drop-shot to catch some of the fish I saw. Four of
the fish I weighed in during the event came this way,” he says.
Baits
14 darrELROBERTSON
Tactics
by Curtis Niedermier
30 LbS
Robertson employed a two-pattern approach at the Cup.
First was targeting the ends of a pair of bluff banks up the Elk
River, which produced the bulk of his catch. One bluff in partic-
ular produced seven keepers for him the first day, and he caught
them by fishing and re-fishing a 50-yard stretch where the bluff
leveled out in its transition from steep wall to flat bank. The tran-
sition area dropped from about 8 feet deep down to 3 feet.
His other productive pattern was to stop and hit any
good-looking cover along the riverbanks on his way back to
Ditto Landing for weigh-in.
Baits
76
One bait keyed Robertson’s entire tournament: a 5 1/2-
inch green pumpkin Yamamoto Swim Senko rigged Texas
style with a 1/8-ounce weight.
“I’d just flip it up to the bank and let it swim down the
bluff,” he says.
Around laydowns and other shallow cover, Robertson
flipped the swimbait with a flippin’ stick just like any other
Texas rig.
“If I could find some fish, it would catch them. I just didn’t
get around enough fish,” Robertson adds.
FLWFISHING.COM I OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2016