Top 5 Patterns from Texoma – Day 2
How the best are catching them
Jeff Reynolds alternated between his shallow and deep games to take over the lead on day two of the Costa FLW Series presented by Frabill on Lake Texoma. Reynolds worked some topwater action, but also caught fish on slower baits. Overall, it’s a pretty solid mix of shallow and deep, but while cranking did a lot of damage in the wind on day one, slower presentations seemed to do the heavy lifting on a much calmer day two.
2. T.R. Andreas – Kerrville, Texas – 33-7 (10)
Sacrificing some early potential paid off for T.R. Andreas, who sacked up 15-7 and rose a notch to second place with a 33-7 total. Basically, the Texas pro determined that parking on a spot he knew would produce was a more prudent decision than chasing a maybe.
“The cloud cover really hampered my bite; I didn’t catch a fish until 10 o’clock,” Andreas says. “I was looking for a topwater bite in the morning but I had to get away from that because I had a key spot that I knew if I didn’t get on, somebody was going to be fishing it.
“So I sat there for three hours before I got a bite. Once the fish started biting, in two hours I got my limit. The sun was key. When the sun came out, I got bit.”
Andreas caught his fish by fishing a Texas-rigged creature bait and a shaky head over what he described as a hump that rose from 12 to 4 1/2 feet. Patient presentations were essential.
“I had to dead stick it,” Andreas says. “It couldn’t be moving. The bite was really light today – they’d just pick it up and start swimming with it.”
3. Alton Wilhoit — Noble, Okla. — 32-12 (10)
Alton Wilhoit is facing a tough situation in which dropping water levels are threatening to kill the sweet spot he’s milked for two days. Nevertheless, the Oklahoma pro made the most of a stretch of laydowns and rocks that gave up another good limit today. Wilhoit’s day-two limit of 14-15 moved him up from fifth to third with a total of 32-12.
“The biggest problem I have is that they’re pulling the lake down to winter pool and I’m losing about 3 inches of water a day,” Wilhoit says. “I’m afraid I might run out of water.”
Wilhoit is fishing his spot with a double willow spinnerbait. Most of his bites are coming from the shallower reaches.
“It was a lot easier today because the falling water is concentrating the fish in a smaller area,” Wilhoit says. “Yesterday, I didn’t have a limit until 1 o’clock and this morning I had it at 9:00.”
4. Hayden Burkett — Bokchito, Okla. — 32-4 (10)
He stuck with the same general game plan he followed on day one, but Hayden Burkett’s key bait adjustment delivered a limit of 19-7 — the event’s heaviest — and rocketed the Oklahoma pro from 34th place to fourth with a total weight of 32-4.
“I got a lot of bites yesterday, I just changed up my colors and the big ones bit today,” Burkett says. “I’m fishing in dirty water and yesterday, I didn’t adjust quickly enough. I was throwing more clear water stuff. But today, I went with a brighter color with more chartreuse and they were choking it.”
Remaining mum on his bait selection, Burkett noted that he’s fishing laydowns as shallow as 6-inches and brush piles in 15 feet. Sky conditions are dictating when he rotates locations.
“Up until about 10 o’clock, I fished shallow and then I went deep,” he says. “I got the routine down today. Yesterday, my timing was off, but today I hit it perfectly. When the sun isn’t out, you go shallow and pray and when it’s sunny, you go offshore and jack ‘em.”
5. Kevin Gressett — Tioga, Texas — 30-7 (10)
His game plan ultimately worked out, but Kevin Gressett says he probably could’ve saved some unproductive time by making an earlier adjustment. The Texas pro moved up to fifth place today after posting a limit catch of 14-3.
“The clouds hurt me for about half the day, but once the sun came out, I did all right,” Gressett says. “I was fishing deep brush piles, but I hadn’t practiced shallow, so I just stuck with my plan. It didn’t work out until about noon.”
Gressett says he fished spots in about 22 feet of water and hit about 24 different brush piles. Slowly soaking Texas-rigged worms worked best.