Bassmaster Elite Alabama Charge: The Sawgrass Connection



The sawgrass connection.

 Rick Clun stated years ago that finding a pattern within a pattern is how to win a Bassmaster tournament. This week on Pickwick Lake the water was high. This time of year with the water high means bass in the bushes. That seemed to be the obvious pattern for a spring tournament. When Denny Brauer took the Day 1 lead everyone one knew the bushes were on. Denny is the flipping man and he won his first tournaments in the 1980s in Texas by flipping and pitching jigs into the buck brush and shoreline cover.

Yet, the astute anglers found something more, a pattern within a pattern. The In-Fisherman crew, a multi-species magazine and TV crew started by Ron and Al Linder, would consider this a spot on a spot if we were talking about deep water structure fishing. There is always something distinct that makes one place better than another and this week it was Sawgrass. This yellow bullrush looking grass typically grows on hard, rocky bottom. Bass were seeking hard bottom to spawn. Find the sawgrass meant finding hard bottom. Which in turn meant finding suitable bottom for making a bed. The tournament started as a pre-spawn tournament but slowly turned into a spawning tournament as the week progressed. Again, always focusing on the changes is what keeps the top on top.
Alton Jones, Denny Brauer, Bobby Lane, Jared Lintner, Greg Hackney, along with many others focused on the sawgrass and it seemed to make a world of difference.

All photos from  Rob Russow and James Overstreet (BASS)