Things have begun to slow down on Lake Ouachita for many of the pros that made it into the final rounds of the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup. A few have burnt up their fish. Some are running out of new water that fits their patterns. And others have succumbed to the doldrums of constantly changing conditions. In the end, this event will prove to have been a true test of tournament fishing ability worthy of being called a championship.
Days three and four of the event somewhat mimicked what we saw on days one and two: a day of cloudy, rainy weather followed by a hot, clear and calm day. On Saturday, day three, we saw most pros beating the bank and wearing out their topwater lures. Today, it was much of the same, yet a few pros began revisiting their offshore holes.
All of the top 10 struggled at least a little bit to keep their fish hooked clear to the boat. It’s almost as if these Ouachita bass have figured out the trick for shaking free of lures a little better than bass elsewhere. The schoolers here are also cruel. Today, I watched Cody Meyer cast repeatedly to schooling fish all around his boat without any luck getting bit. Yesterday, in the rain, I watched at least a half dozen pros running the bank, where they never even noticed the frequent surface schoolers spread out throughout the middle of the bay, where I sat in a media boat. Some of the fish I saw breaking the surface were tournament-winning quality. They just seem to be highly elusive.
I think the one lesson we can take from this event is that you must have an open mind about summertime tactics. You can throw topwater in any conditions: rain, shine, wind, calm. Same goes for offshore fishing. You can fish power or finesse lures, but unless you have a school of fish pegged in one spot, you’d better be burning up the water. Today, someone asked me to take a stab at estimating the number of casts made by the average pro in this event. I had no idea. Thousands, certainly. But you could throw out a very impressive number and probably not overestimate. I think if they were allowed to fish two rods at once, and were able to, they would have. Covering water and making frequent casts were definitely major keys.
Another interesting thing I saw was that some of the pros were fishing and re-fishing their best spots, not just over the course of the tournament, but multiple times throughout the day. I watched Luke Clausen fish one 300-yard stretch of bank three times before noon today. And he might have fished it more when I was gone watching other competitors. Timing was probably part of it, but so was the random, unpredictable feeding nature of these Ouachita bass. In, out, up, down, eat, rest: they’re constantly in flux. For some pros, these Ouachita bass have been a nightmare. But today, for one pro, they’ll make Forrest Wood Cup dreams come true.