If you casually tuned in to the MLFNOW! livestream of B&W Trailer Hitches Stage 1 presented by Power-Pole on Lake Conroe, you may have been fooled into thinking that Mercury pro Justin Cooper took home the big red-and-silver trophy and $150,000 winner’s check by chunking and winding.
That’s correct to a point, but live sonar came into play plenty for the Louisiana pro (and not just during the single period each competition day he was allowed to use it). Cooper’s Red River-honed affinity for shallow water and power fishing were crucial, but a diverse set of traditional techniques and forward-facing sonar knowledge were his ticket to his first tour-level win.
Getting the most out of the tools
Cooper leaned on forward-facing sonar to help him understand not only the general locations of fish suspended in offshore cover, but to identify the areas he was going to fish during the periods when his FFS was turned off.
“Forward-facing sonar is always on in practice; you never know when it’s going to point out something that most guys go right over: Stumps, brush, grass patches, whatever the cover,” Cooper said. “I’d happen to catch one out of the grass and see that there were a few more fish with it. I did that a couple times in practice. Typically, where there’s one, there are multiples.
“I dropped a lot of waypoints in the grass during practice, no matter where I was. I might’ve just gotten one bite, but that doesn’t mean hours later I can’t come back and fire up more.”
Like many of the Top 10 anglers at Conroe, Cooper loaded SCORETRACKER® during his FFS period and then worked to fill the remaining two periods with as many scorables as he could by fan-casting and grinding it out.
“After my FFS period, which was the first period for me in every tournament day, I’d run to my waypoints, put my Power-Poles down and run through a few baits fan-casting around,” Cooper said. “When the bite died down, I’d run with my trolling motor to the next waypoint, but casting the entire time.”
Making it flow in Caney Creek
Cooper’s winning water was in Caney Creek, which was highly pressured by locals and a lion’s share of the Bass Pro Tour field. His tournament hinged on not only using FFS to find his shallow fish but paying close attention to the wind.
“On the first two days of the tournament, the wind was blowing dirty water back into the flat,” Cooper said. “The farther back in the area I went, the cleaner the water was – I think due to the vegetation. I found a zone where water was the right color for me. On the third day, wind blew in the opposite direction, shrinking the area I could fish, but on the final day, the wind switched back to blowing in.”
Cooper used a classic shallow-water lure rotation of small shad-colored lipless crankbaits and a bladed jig, fishing submerged hydrilla, drains and flats.
“I had a lot of confidence in power fishing the shallows,” Cooper said. “I observed that the majority of anglers fishing the shallows around me on the first two days were throwing bladed jigs. That clued me in to fishing the lipless crankbait. I threw a Bass Pro Shops XPS Chatter Bomb bladed jig too, but wasn’t getting as many bites, so, I didn’t throw it as much.”
On the third day, when the wind changed direction, Cooper added a swimming worm into the mix; when the wind changed directions again on the final day, he went back to primarily power fishing with the lipless and bladed jig.
Cooper knew the tournament would be won in Caney Creek, which was set up perfectly for late winter bass to be moving into the area.
“The shallow grass, specifically hydrilla, was the key (in Caney Creek),” he said. “It was the only creek that was set up like that. I feel like 75% of the fish in that section of the lake were there that time of the year. With the warming trend, the fish I was on went shallow. I knew the fish I found in Caney should be spot on. I moved from 15 to 10 feet of water on the last day and put the FFS on – fish were swimming everywhere.”
Cooper’s ability to combine his power-fishing skills after using FFS as a primary scouting tool during practice ultimately helped him finalize his first BPT victory.
“Anglers need to utilize FFS for more than suspended fish offshore,” Cooper advised. “It literally improves all styles of fishing and shrinks learning time faster. How can you not like using it? I love catching bass, and using forward-facing sonar sure helped make my thumb sore from all those fish.
“You have to use the tools. It helped me for both suspended bass and power fishing shallow. It’s always about decision making in the moment, and using the technology on Conroe was a big part in my winning.”