Classic Patterns

I’ve never fished Ray Roberts. Many of you on this forum have. Anyone surprised that there wasn’t an offshore bite for anyone? I know the lake is very high right now but I was surprised that there wasn’t someone on an offshore school.

My 2 cents are that that lake is usually barely wrapping up from the spawn at the time of year and the fact there just was't much bait or fish out deep. The only reason bass ever go deep is because the bait does and the reason the bait does is their food source does also.

Water temps 10-15 cooler than normal means bait is shallow and bass stay close to their food source.

just my

There were many anglers without cameras. I'm sure some were catching them out deep, that just wasn't the best pattern.

They never really locked in off shore last summer either. I mean some did, but it wasn’t like years past.

The lake is just weird man. Looks awesome, but fishes damn tough.

If it wasn’t for the first hour on Friday, we would have seen ever smaller bags.

Steve Kennedy definitely tried it day 3 because of what showed up on day 2 that he didn’t get in the boat. Losing that 8lber day2 afternoon had to be gut wrenching. That was a lucky bite cause he tried and tried on day 3 on offshore hardwoods to no avail. That’s a great pattern when the fish need more comfort from the dog days of summer. Water temps are not quite there yet for the offshore stuff and like Dougie Fresh said….fish will follow the food source, and that’s up in the flooded bushes right now.

I'm guessing most of the bait was up shallow in the trees and bushes so the bass follow them up there.

I was a marshal Saturday and Sunday. Sunday I was with Gussy (he loves to fish offshore). He said that there was no bait out deep at all. Water temps was perfect for the offshore bite but the fish population wasn't there. You had more chance to get more bites shallow. Both Saturday and Sunday my guys ran all over the lake and NOBODY was fishing deep. When we were up shallow there was bait EVERYWHERE. Just a thought.

I was sitting on the couch so in no way am I being " that guy". Kennedy was doing the right thing he was fishing those trees way too slow and there were spots just like that all over the lake . I know he hasn't been on the lake like I have so again, I'm not saying he should have known. He had the winning pattern but ran out of stuff and fished it way to slow in my opinion.

^^^^this should be Bass 101...not rocket science match the the size and it's a buffet.

Did you watch the classic? What happened here then? I mean its not science

find food, find fish


so easy even firemen can do it

It sounds like some of the local hammers were on the lake this weekend. Any of y’all care to share your patterns?

The classic pattens were fish flooded bushes. It worked well the first 2 hours of the first day then it sucked because they ran out of fish. In my opinion I expected them to have mixed in some deep fish and some shallow offshore fish like Kennedy’s lost 8 plus. I think they saw the flooded bushes and just sold out to it because it made sense. In my opinion though they left a lot of fish out there primarily the big ones. I’ve never seen a school of em but one here one there deep is possible right now.

Why you think that is, I have never been able to find groups off shore either. Low fish numbers, lots of stuff for them to spread out on, lots of bait everywhere? One here one there is pretty accurate except when it's none anywhere lol

Just low fish numbers of old ones if I had to guess. For example we hit up I think 8-9 deep spots yesterday evening and only had fish on 3 and only had big fish off of 1 of those 3. Just a goofy lake hell Idk.

There was a thread with a guy that caught 22 pounds Saturday and then said he backed it up on Sunday with 24 pounds.

The thread got nuked before I could ask him how many pounds he had on Friday?

And for some if you guys that havent fished it, that lake is covered in road beds, pond dams, foundations, humps, junk piles, ditches, the legendary windmill. You can spends a week hitting offshore stuff and not fish the same thing twice. And be frustrated as hell afterwards.

I had thought some of the guys that are really good on the Livescopes & Active Targets would have found some bigger fish off shore later in the day but I was wrong.

I heard about that thread but missed it... I think it went south in a hurry

Going off their practice the winning weight was in the bushes. Problem is, it's not a Rayburn where it replenishes or you can do it all over the lake for several days straight. They had no idea that's how it fishes. You're catching or shaking off 30-40 fish a day with several good ones, that's definitely what you're going with at that lake level. Hard to anticipate that weather also.

I found it a little funny how Zona kept saying all throughout the live broadcast day 1 and 2 that there was no doubt the tournament was going to be won offshore by day 3.

Wrong......lol

It doesn't replenish because there are 100 fish in the lake and they have to be driven back, then swim back to their bush. Its takes a few days lol.

LOL....It's funny but true.

I thought I read where someone said TP&W did a survey and the lake showed overpopulated for bass? And Shad too. Might the overpopulation of Shad be a factor?

1+

That's no lie!! LOL

There were a few of the 100 that had never been to Ft Worth so they played along and took the bit hoping to check out the FTW Zoo and maybe get to see the Water Gardens or take a side trip over to Hurricane Harbor.

I didn't see anyone slow rolling a deep diving crankbait in 5 feet of water.

Anyone have a link to the big one Kennedy lost on day 2? I can't find it anywhere

Yeah it did once the guy from the Facebook post showed up and took offense to the post.

I Marshaled Friday and Saturday, and every conversation I heard was everyone tried to go offshore in practice and there just wasnt anything out there. Chris Jones spent 2 days of practice offshore and never found a thing, so did Brian New and Chad Morgenthaler. The dock talk was the same way. These guys are the best in the world, if they say its not there, then I would believe it!

Caught a 9 in 26 FOW on Monday with several others. The water temps are/were 87 degrees I highly doubt they just showed up the day after they left. They didn't look hard enough and got sucked in to the bushes and dink fest.

They were catching them in the bushes and didn’t bother to find an alternate pattern for the biggest tournament of the year for them. That’s just lazy and didn’t prepare for changes and have a back up

That is also because most of that field isn’t comprised the best in the world, it was a group that qualified from a group that was formed after the majority of the seasoned high caliber professional talent went somewhere else.

The lake has plenty of fish if you will look at champs results with 30-40 limits and 18+ lb bags. I suspect they just couldn’t find them because they don’t have the mind to find something completely different when they are catching them good in the bushes. It never crosses their mind that could go away and then they have to stay the course as the first day showed they were still there, but because they didn’t prepare a plan B they had to commit the second day to the same, and it clearly was not the same as the first day.

I know It’s very hard for a lot of the 5 fish BASS homers to hear, but simply count the Classic title holders and AOY titles from both Trails. Add those up and compare them on this post...for everyone to see...and you will clearly see the talent gap. I would get into adding elite wins and top 10 finishes and such but the numbers get so sad for the guys hangin on the BASS teat, they would likely become triggered and might retreat to the crying room for an extended period of time and nobody wants to see that.

^^ nailed it^^

I would have liked to see Thrift and Wheeler break down the offshore. Also a couple of offshore finesse guys like Ehler and Lucas just to name a few. It’s kinda sad the Super Bowl of bass fishing doesn’t have the best in the world, and it’s not even close.

I forgot the best swim jig fisherman in the the world wasn’t there....his name is Ott Defoe...some of you might have heard of him.

I would have liked to see Keith Combs catch em cranking. I think he could have done some work. He might not of had a limit every day but he would have caught one bigger than 8.03. These guys were less than impressive. Its almost like they wanted to save face going across the stage. I will say what was strange (I dont follow these guys hardly at all) is I recongized maybe 25 percent of the names that fished this classic. I think they had more talent at the expo.

No doubt Keith can crank with the best of them. I remember him winning an Elite event several years ago on Falcon with a crank bait. It was a fun tournament to watch.

I would like to have seen Mr. STFU hand out samples to some of you all. Who cares who is the better and who didnt fish. It’s the Bassmasters Classic. If you think you could have come up with a 2nd pattern and a better game plan, let us know when you qualify and I’ll buy your baits if you’re not sponsored.