Top 5 Patterns from Sam Rayburn – Day 1
BROOKELAND, Texas – You want to catch numbers? That’s no problem on Sam Rayburn. It’s those quality bites that are the issue.
Randy Deaver got two to set the pace of the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Southwestern Division event. And he caught them both shallow. That said, the anglers behind him also had their fair share of bigger bites, and they’re coming from all different depths as the fish transition to summer mode.
2. Bryan Schott – 22-15 (5)
Expectations for most pros coming into this event were to get into the mid-teens or upper teens if lucky. Brian Schott had his sights set in the 20s and backed it up.
Then again, 30 years of history certainly help.
“I have a house on the lake,” Schott said. “So, I just ran a milk run of little pet spots I always like to fish.”
Schott figures he “only” hit 40 spots – he likes to hit 80 when really pushing – and admits there’s no real pattern. He might run to a deep hard spot and then fish some shallow bushes before hitting a mid-depth lip.
“Just running and gunning,” Schott said. “It’s a lot of one- or two-cast spots. Either they’re there or they’re not.”
Today they were, and with how over pressured he feels the lake is right now, his extensive history is something he feels is a benefit to him for the rest of the event, as he’ll be able to adjust on the fly.
3. Marshall Hughes – 21-10 (5)
There are fish to be caught shallow, deep and everywhere in between. Marshall Hughes hit the whole buffet.
“I did a little bit of all of it,” Hughes said of fishing different depths. “I probably hit 20 to 30 spots.”
Hanging mid-lake from Caney to Deer Stand, Hughes struggled a little early with the heavy cloud cover. However, once the sun popped out and the wind got up, he admits that turned around his day.
“I started running some wind,” Hughes said. “I just followed that.”
The result was no giant bites, but three quality ones – one shallow and two deep. Though, Hughes figures the offshore bite is what will eventually win the event, as he says the quality out deep is simply better and more consistent.
“I think I can catch them again tomorrow,” Hughes said. “I don’t know about 20 pounds, but at least another 17 or 18 pounds.”
4. Jack York – 21-4 (5)
Playing the weather helped Hughes, and it might’ve saved Jack York.
At 9 a.m., York only had two small fish in his livewell, causing him to go into “scramble mode.” Fortunately, right around then the sun started popping out, which aligned perfectly with an offshore pattern he’s excited to expand upon.
“The sun was key for the deal I was doing,” York said. “If it stayed cloudy all day I don’t think I would’ve caught them.”
Unfortunately, tomorrow’s forecast is calling for clouds and potential storms late in the day. Still, York says he figures he can still capitalize quick any time the sun peeks its head out, as he has 50 spots he’s rotating through.
5. Cal Cameron – 19-9 (5)
Cal Cameron may be the luckiest unlucky person today.
Based on his bag, you’d think the young pro had himself one heck of a day. What he had, instead, was a hot mess of boat issues and one key bite that saved everything from going completely off the rails.
It all started at 1:30 a.m. this morning when he decided to put a new trolling motor on his boat. It worked great on the trailer and was working fine while in the water waiting for takeoff. And then minutes before getting ready to go, it cut out.
“I was like, ‘oh my gosh,” Cameron said. “I was boat 20. So, I idled to the back and put it on the trailer to fix it.”
Fix it they did and he was back out on the water soon after … only to have his water pump clog on his outboard, causing it to keep overheating. Throw in the fact his shad-spawn starting spot was a bust, and Cameron was not exactly off to a banner start.
Fortunately, he plucked a 4-pounder off some cypress trees and managed to scrape together a small limit. But right before the end of the day, his luck finally turned around.
“We started roaming around a bunch trying to find bigger fish on forward-facing sonar,” Cameron said. “In the last 20 minutes, I went to one brush pile with some big ones. That was the ticket, as I caught the 9-3 (big fish for the day) and then ran back to weigh-in early because I knew I had to address all the mechanical issues on my falling-apart boat.”