Scotty Pennington

Wow, what a week. The B.A.S.S Central Open started its year off with a bang.  The event, held at the Red River in Bossier City, La. is also the site of the 2009 Bassmasters Classic. 

The River greeted its anglers with high, cold, and muddy water.  Most anglers who fished the Red were searching for the clearest water in the very back of the backwaters.  As I approached the Red, I too had the same theory.  During pre-tournament practice, however, all I found was a lot of pressured fish and a lot of tournament anglers.  Most of the fish that I had found were post spawn and did not want anything to do with my lures.  Looking at the situation, I decided that the cooler water closer to the main river may have some fish that have not yet spawned.  I went into main a backwater area the was very close to the main river.  The only thing that separated this area from the main river was a rock jetty and since the river was high, water was pouring into this area from several points.  The backwater area had all the items needed for bass to spawn, shallow flats, deep water, stumps and plenty of sunlight.  I figured that since the river had been high all spring, the bass would be use to the muddier than normal water.

As I approached the area, my main objective was to find a spot that had deep water close to the flat.  The very first area that I graphed had a 5-9 foot channel that came right up to a 1.5 foot flat.  I started fishing the area and immediately started getting bites from buck bass.  I eventually narrowed down the area to the main drop and the very middle of the flat.  The top middle of the flat had several fish still spawning on it, and the drop had most of the fish that already spawned and new fish that wanted to spawn grouped up on the stumps in 3-5 ft range.  I could pick these fish off using a War Eagle Spinnerbait in the Fire Cracker Color.  During the tournament, I moved up each day to make the cut in 30th place.  On the final day, I struggled to get the bigger bites into the boat, but still managed to move up to 23rd place to start the year.

Looking back, I should have upgraded my line choice to 15lb.  These Red River fish were extremely strong and I broke off several fish during the tournament.  This won't happen again.

Winning Pattern:  Billy led the tournament from start to finish while fishing much clearer water around cypress trees.  He told the audience that the fish were spawning and he used a lizard to catch his fish.