Entry 162-2

Mark Menendez on Jerkbaits and Big Bass

Part 2: My Biggest Three-Day Bag

I fished this Texas tournament where I caught the record for the biggest bass ever caught in a tournament in 1998. Then I was on the road for 90 days with Bassmaster University. When I arrived at the tournament at Pickwick Lake in Alabama afterwards, I stayed with some friends at their home on Wilson Lake, the lake just above Pickwick. I was exhausted and didn’t really want to go fishing the next morning, but I went anyway.

I felt I knew Pickwick fairly well because I’d fished it several times. However, by 3:00 p.m. I hadn’t had the first bite on the first day of practice. Since the tournament would include both Wilson and Pickwick lakes, I returned to the boat ramp, put my boat on the trailer and drove to Wilson Lake. I had just enough time to completely drive around Wilson Lake one time before dark. I had identified two points that I wanted to fish, put my boat on the trailer and went home.

The next morning I got up early enough to the first boat on the water. I pulled up on a point, cast a spinning jerkbait and instantly caught a smallmouth. Just as I put that fish in the boat, other competitors started showing up on the lake. So, I left the point and went as far back up into Shoal Creek as I could go. I was so far back up in that creek I needed a canoe instead of a bass boat.

I spent the rest of the day in that creek and caught four small largemouths. At 4:00 p.m. when I thought most of the other competitors would be leaving the lake, I went back to the first point that I’d caught my fish and checked out two other points. The first point I pulled up on and the first cast I made, I got a bite. I pulled the jerkbait down to the depth I wanted to fish, let it sit still in the water for about 10 or 12 seconds, twitched it and then let it sit still for 10 or 12 seconds. I sat the hook on that first bite, and I had a 5-1/2-pound small mouth.

I picked up my trolling motor and went to the other point that I’d identified as one I wanted to fish the day before. I caught a 6-pound largemouth on that point. I left that point and went to the point where I’d caught the 2-pound smallmouth that morning and caught a 7-pound smallmouth. Just as I landed my fish, another competitor saw me catch that smallmouth and said, “That’s a really good fish. How many have you caught today?” I answered, “I haven’t had but three smallmouth bites all day long.” I didn’t tell him that I’d caught all three of them in the last 10 minutes.

I fished every point back toward the boat ramp before dark, which helped me find another point that dropped off into deep water. As I went over the point, my depth finder lit up like a video game because there were so many fish on it.

On the first day of the tournament, I caught a 5-1/2-pound smallmouth and 21 other
smallmouths that were 15 inches or more. I locked through the dam on Wilson to get to the weigh-in site on Pickwick, but I had enough time to stop at a tree, pitch a jig and catch a 7-pound, 3-ounce largemouth. When I weighed my five fish in, I had 21-pounds, 5-ounces. I was in second place on the first day, only 7 pounds behind the leader. The winner for the day had 28-pounds, 5-ounces. I never thought I’d be 7 pounds behind first place with 21 pounds of bass.

The second morning of the tournament I caught two largemouth and two smallmouth. I caught all four fish on suspending jerkbaits off points. Then the bite turned off, and I didn’t catch another fish. I fished every point on Wilson Lake and couldn’t get a bite. Finally at 1:00 p.m., I returned to the point that I’d started fishing, and the first fish I caught was a 6-pound smallmouth. That day I had 20 pounds even, which gave me a total of 41-pounds, 11-ounces to lead the tournament. Rick Clunn and David Fritts were less than 2 pounds behind me.

I didn’t catch a fish on the first point I fished, but when I went to the second point, I caught a smallmouth that weighed 5 pounds, and a bass that weighed about 11 pounds. I didn’t catch a fish from about 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., and I’d caught enough bass to cull four times and finish the day with 18-1/2-pounds. I won the tournament with 60 pounds of bass for 3 days of fishing. This was the largest creel caught on a 3-day Top 100 tournament. The secret to winning the tournament was finding those bass that were about 50 yards out from the point that were suspended in the water about 12-foot deep.

Mark Menendez on Jerkbaits and Big Bass

Part 2: My Biggest Three-Day Bag

Next: The Big Bag Tactic

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