Entry 222-2

Catching Big Bass with Randy Dearman

Part 2: Count on the Spinner Bait

Question: Randy, why do you depend so heavily on the Strike King spinner bait, when you’re fishing tournaments?

Dearman: You can fish the spinner bait in many-different depths of water from 25 feet to 6 inches of water. Also, you can cover a lot of water with this spinner bait. You can fish really fast and locate and catch bass with this lure. I’m not one of those fishermen who likes to sit at one hole and vertical jig all day for three bites. I like to stay on the move and keep looking for more-productive areas where I can find bass. That’s what I did all three days of the tournament at Amistad.

I caught one fish on a top-water bait on the last day, and I really wasn’t supposed to catch it. I’d been throwing and winding that spinner bait hard for 2-1/2-days, and by noon on the third day, I was tuckered-out. I looked at my partner, smiled and said, “It’s 12:00 pm. The bass should bite a top-water lure.” I picked up the Strike King Spit-N-King, threw it out next to the grass, chugged it a couple of times and caught my biggest fish, which weighed about 3-1/2-pounds.

When my partner asked me, “Why did you throw that top-water bait in the middle of the day?” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my arm was just tired from casting and winding that spinner bait as hard as I could. So, I smiled, put the bass in the boat and fished the Spit-N-King a few more times. Then I picked up my spinner bait and started chucking and winding again.

Most people will never think of fishing a top-water bait like the Spit-N-King in the middle of the day. But this lure is a big-bass bait, and if you’ve got a big-bass bait in the water and there’s a big bass nearby, there’s a good chance you’ll catch it. I wouldn’t say catching that fish was a total accident, but it definitely was not a fish I expected to catch.

Question: Randy, how long have you been tournament fishing?

Dearman: I started fishing the B.A.S.S. circuit in 1983. I previously fished a lot of local and state tournaments, and now, I only fish the B.A.S.S. tour events. I haven’t fished the Elite Series in the last 2 years. I don’t really like to spend the amount of money you have to spend to compete in the Elite tournaments for the chance to win enough money to pay your expenses.

A $100,000 prize sounds like a lot of money, and it sure feels good to win it. But the cost is about $80,000 a year to fish all 11 tournaments, and you have about a one-in-200 chance of winning one of those tournaments. You can go in the hole really quickly fishing that Elite Series. When I put a pencil to it, I saw that I’d have to place in eight of the 11 tournaments just to break even. If you’re fishing the tournaments to make money, breaking even isn’t enough.

I like the tour events because I still want to bass fish and compete. Even at 60-years old, I’m not ready to quit. With the tour events, we don’t have to travel as far. I’ve also started fishing the Professional Anglers Association (PAA) tours, which was started by fishermen. In the first tournament, we raised $250,000 for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and we had a $1 million payback with no entry fees. We had some really-good sponsors.

We’re looking forward to having more tournaments. That first tournament was set up with four-man teams. On my team wereClark Wendlandt, Tommy Biffle and David Fritts. We finished in 20th place. Two of us fished half the day, and the other two fished the other half of the day. The tournament was on Lake Fork, Texas, and we weren’t fishing for limits. We fished for big fish. Everyone received a check for participating. Twentieth place paid $8,000, so each member of my team got $2,000.

Next: Fishing the Zero

Contents:

• Part 1: The Amistad Reservoir Tournament
• Part 2: Count on the Spinner Bait
• Part 3: Fishing the Zero
• Part 4: The Strike King Denny Brauer Premier Pro Model Jig
• Part 5: The Red Eye Shad