Roumbanis Rides Bream Pattern to Elimination Round Win on Lake Murray
COLUMBIA, South Carolina – As he blasted off for the Mercury ride-around the morning of the first Elimination Round of the 2018 Challenge Select on Lake Murray, South Carolina, Fred Roumbanis had one key bait in mind: a topwater.
That thought became even stronger as Roumbanis motored along a series of islands that defined the day’s competition boundaries west of the boat ramp.
“I saw blueback herring schooling, breaking on the surface all over the place, which got me totally excited,” Roumbanis says. “I figured I was going to just smoke them on a pencil-popper, which is a notorious topwater bait for blueback herring.”
Thirty minutes into the competition without a single topwater bite, Roumbanis pulled out a spinning rod and went to work with a drop-shot. It turned out to be the move (and pattern) of the day as “Boom Boom” hooked seven fish for 14 pounds, 14 ounces to earn his first-ever MLF round win.
“I thought the pencil popper was going to be the deal because it looks like a school of herring splashing on the surface, but (the fish) weren’t having it,” Roumbanis says. “I went to a drop-shot with a Gene Larew Tattletail and immediately got a couple of bluegill bites. That clued me in that maybe I should be fishing around bream beds.”
He had found the pattern.
Roumbanis recorded the first fish of the day on SCORETACKER (a 2-pound, 3-ounce largemouth), followed up almost immediately with a 1-5, and ended Period 1 with three fish for 5-9. He was the only angler to catch more than one fish that period (Fletcher Shryock, Marty Robinson, Randy Howell, Scott Ashmore and Wesley Strader recorded one fish apiece).
“Those three fish gave me a little bit of a head start on the rest of the guys going into the break,” Roumbanis said. “It was a pretty slow day of fishing, so finding that bream-bed pattern was key for me. I knew I could go back out in the next two periods and expand on it.”
Roumbanis expanded his lead less than 30 minutes into the second period with a 3-2, the biggest fish of the day and a cushion that the rest of the field couldn’t make up.
Robinson finished second with 7-0, Ashmore was third with 5-14 and Howell claimed the final spot in Sudden Death with 4-1.
“Boom Boom’s” baits
Roumbanis’ winning bait was a 6-inch Gene Larew Tattletail in light brown/magenta, rigged on a No. 2
“Super-pressured bass, the lighter the line you can go, the better,” Roumbanis says. “I keyed in on that years ago fishing in California. I know 4-pound sounds light, but it makes a difference.”