Riding the shoulders of a hot bait, Jeff Combs crowned a very productive year off with an Elite Championship win. One bait, a Wolf Tackle craw tube, has earned several thousands of dollars in tournament winnings for the Combs family this season. It also brought home the keys to a Nitro Z-8 boat backed by a Mercury 200 OptiMax motor package valued at $35,000.

Jeff pulled into one area of the Big Sac river and he stayed all day. The fish were biting when he arrived and Jeff left them biting when he pulled out after 2 pm. He shared his water with only one other angler for about an hour of the day which was a great benefit. The water temperature had cooled off early in the week during practice to 63 degrees but warmed significantly to 68 and 70 degrees during the tournament. Jeff felt this moved the shad back up into very shallow water and he didn’t catch a fish deeper than 2 feet all day.

One section of water was covered with shallow duckweed, pushed in by the light breeze. Jeff took advantage of the situation by working a Leopard patterned Spro Bronzeye frog through the cover early in the morning to boat a limit. This produced two 4 pound class largemouths to set the base of his limit.

Once the topwater bite went away, Jeff pulled out his trusted craw tube and went to work. At 9:35 am, he pitched between two green willow bushes and saw the swirl of a strike. He set the hook on this fish and battled his kicker to the net, a 5.61 largemouth earning an extra $600 as the tournament’s Big Bass. Jeff continued to pick apart shallow bushes, culling ounces at a time to max out at an event winning 19.97 lbs.

Jeff’s baits were pegged with a 1/4 oz bullet weight on a 3/0 Mustad hook. He used two colors, black/blue and green pumpkin models. The green willow bushes held most of the fish and were better if they were situated near a ditch. Fred is sponsored by Falcon Rods, Mustad Hooks, Plano Tackle Systems, Charger Boats, Yamaha Motors, MinnKota and Maui Jim Sunglasses.

2nd Place – Jimmy Davis, Jr., Willard, MO
A little good fortune went a long way for Jimmy Davis. A heavy bank of fog in the morning caused Jimmy to fish close to the take-off area and it was a good move. He was able to sack a pair of four pound kickers which boosted his limit to 15.70 lbs. This landed him in 2nd Place and was awarded a Nitro Z-7 powered by a 150 Mercury OptiMax valued at $27,000. His 3rd Big Bass of 4.18 lbs added another $220 to his bank account also. When boats are the prize, Jimmy can be counted on to be in line for the keys at the end of the day.

After a great day of practice on Friday, Jimmy began to think about areas he had fished in the past that were similar to what he found to be productive. With the heavy morning fog, he started close and began to catch short fish on a buzzbait and a worm. Short fish won’t cut it and he switched over to his
reliable jig. “In a one day tournament, I’d rather fish with a bait that I will catch quality bites with,” recalled Jimmy. “Instead of catching 50 fish in a day, I’d rather get a handful of bites if they will be the winning type of fish.” Jimmy has perfected the art of finding those winning type of fish.

Once the fog burned off, Jimmy fished up the Big Sac arm looking for bushes in less than 3 feet of water. The bushes had to be in the back of big pockets and the key was to have green bushes that gave off a lot of shade. Even with the generally cloudy conditions, the fish were positioned deep in the bushes where a 3/8 oz brown/orange Davis Brothers jig was pitched to entice strikes. Jimmy is sponsored by Pro Guide Batteries.

3rd Place – Ronnie Kane, Gardner, KS
Ronnie cranked his way to 3rd Place with 15.18 pounds to drive away with a Tracker PT 190 pushed by a Mercury 90 OptiMax motor valued at $21,000. His fish were cookie cutter critters with the best fish only weighing 3.27 lbs.

Ronnie ran to stained water in Sons Creek and fished a Series 2 pearl/black back TC Cranks crankbait around bushes for an all day bite. Ronnie boated about 60 fish through the day but just couldn’t get the kicker fish he needed to move up the ladder. The fish were holding shallow around flooded bushes on a flat and would eat the crankbait as it deflected off the submerged bushes. The key to the area holding fish was the presence of shad. When a fish would slash through a school of shad, Ronnie would fire his crankbait through the area and it would typically result in a strike.

Ronnie is sponsored by Critterbait Tackle, TC Cranks, Cedar Wood’s Resort, Skeeter Boats and Yamaha Motors.