Entry 296-5

James Niggemeyer – Bassmaster Champ in March, 2009 on Toledo Bend

Part 5: The Last-Day Fish-Off

Question: James, how much time did you have to fish on the last day of the tournament?

Niggemeyer: We launched at 7:00 am and had to return by 11:30 am. It was a 3-1/2-hour fish-off.

Question: How far from the launch was the 5 pounder you planned to catch off the bed?

Niggemeyer: I had a 23-minute boat ride to reach that bass. But I thought that the time would be well spent if I could catch that bass. But when I reached the spot, the bass was gone. I knew there was a good chance that bass may not be there, but I was fishing for $51,000, and felt I had to take the chance.

Because I didn’t find the bass, I had to start all over. I started searching for bass that were either bedding or trying to bed. I had several other places I wanted to fish, but they were on the other side of the lake, and I couldn’t run to them and catch enough bass to win. So, I said to myself, “James, you’re here, you caught a couple of bass here yesterday. Work the water in front of you.” I found some bass in an area where I hadn’t even practiced previously.

Question: What size were the bass you found?

Niggemeyer: The only bass I could locate weighed 2 to 4 pounds.

Question: What did you use to catch your bass?

Niggemeyer: I changed tactics. I started catching the bass on a Strike King Rage Craw. The Rage Lizard hadn’t caught any more than any other shape of soft plastic I’d been fishing. It caught my biggest overall bass, but it didn’t catch any more bass than any other bait I’d tried. The night before, I decided that since I was fishing for a reaction strike, and the Rage Craw had a lot of action, I should tie on the Rage Craw and plan to fish with it. I thought the Rage Craw would cause the bass to react faster than the other lures I’d fished.

Question: What color Rage Craw did you use?

Niggemeyer: I used Double Header, my favorite color. I fished it Texas-rigged with a 1/4-ounce Tru Tungsten weight on 20-pound-test line. I made short casts or long pitches. I caught two of the bass on the Rage Craw and then switched to the Ocho. I used the Amistad Special-colored Ocho, rigged without any weight. Then, for the final bass, I Texas rigged the Ocho. I switched to the Texas rig because I’d cast the Ocho weightless to a bedding bass. Although the bass reacted to the bait, it wouldn’t take the bait. I put a slip sinker up the line to hopefully get the bass to attack quicker.

Within five pitches, the bass ate the Ocho. I had 10 minutes before the weigh-in. I thought I had about 11 or 12 pounds of bass before I went to the scales. But I really thought that Jerrel Pringle of Texas would win. I thought he would have caught more bass than I did. We had overcast skies, wind and he was fishing a spinner bait. I thought that pattern probably would produce more and bigger bass than the bass I’d caught. Sight-fishing was tough under those conditions.

Question: Who weighed-in first?

Niggemeyer: I did, and I weighed-in 14 pounds, 1 ounce. I didn’t know how many pounds Jerrel had before I weighed-in. We both weighed-in separately. When Jerrel pulled out his first bass, the fish weighed about 4 pounds. I thought, “Oh, no. If that’s his smallest fish, I’m in trouble.” Next, he pulled out a 2 pounder, and I started feeling better. His last bass weighed around 2 pounds. His total was 7 pounds and some change. When I realized I’d won, I couldn’t believe it. I was as anxious as everyone there to see who finally would win that tournament. When I saw I won, I felt so humble and blessed that I just became numb.

Question: When you saw that check for $51,686, what did you think?

Niggemeyer: I always fish for the win, but realistically, you get few chances to win. Being able to pull off the win was a real blessing to me and my family. Last year, I had a really-tough year on BASS’s Elite Circuit, and this win reaffirmed my confidence. I really haven’t had a chance to think about how much the win means to me, because as soon as the tournament ended, I packed-up and drove all night to reach Lake Amistad to fish a BASS Elite tournament. I arrived there at midnight, got up the next morning and started practicing.

Contents:

• Part 1: The Game Plan
• Part 2: First Day of a Now 2-Day Tournament
• Part 3: The Second Day of Competition
• Part 4: It's a Tie!
• Part 5: The Last-Day Fish-Off