By Luigi De Rose
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Shimano pro Gussy is all smiles with this monster. (Photo: FLW) |
It’s been just over a week but Jeff
“Gussy” Gustafson’s knees are still knocking. The second year FLW pro took the
lead at the Walmart FLW Tour Pickwick Lake tournament at Florence, Alabama in
grand fashion. Not only was this his first opportunity to lead
a national tournament, he anchored his limit with his personal best largemouth
bass, a 10-12 monster. By the end of the tournament, Gussy slipped to 17th by
netting 52-08 for the tournament. The drama of that first day will be vividly
replayed in his mind and heart forever.
IBASSIN got a change to chat with the
Shimano and G. Loomis pro as he re-lives that magical day.
DAY 1
“Day 1 was amazing but I didn’t start
off exactly like I wanted.” Recalls Jeff. “ I was boat number 165 which was almost
next to last to leave.” Knowing the post-spawn bass would be schooled in
community holes, Jeff knew he wouldn’t have any privacy. Gustafson
was mentally prepared to fish in a crowd but knew it wasn’t what he wished to
do.
Racing down the lake, he just passed
spot after spot because they were already crowded. He finally stopped to fish
at one of his spots that wasn’t crowded. This first spot yielded four keepers
with ease but then the fishing slowed. After some dead time, he relocated to
another shell bed.
“Surprisingly, that big bass jumped
right out of the water…it totally cleared the surface. When I saw that I was
shocked at how large it was.” Remarks Jeff.
NEW FOUND SECRETS
Although, Jeff Gustafson couldn’t match
his day 1 success, he did finish the tournament with a great sense of accomplishment
and increased knowledge of how to fish TVA lakes.
I asked him what secrets did he unearth
from this tournament. Jeff explained that even through the community holes held
huge amounts of bass, finding subtle structure adjacent was vital to success.
Locating obscure out-of-the-way places were top producers for anglers who
finished highest in the tournament. Greg Hackney won the event from a single
spot that had almost zero fishing press from other contestants. This
lesson will affect Jeff’s practice at Kentucky Lake, the next tournament on the
FLW Tour.
Another import discovery is the potency
of the swimbait. Many lures get the attention of the press at a national
tournament. Crankbaits, jigs and swimbaits were three of the most common lures thrown
at Pickwick but Jeff didn’t realize until this event how critical a single
swimbait rigged with a heavy exposed jig head is to many pros. It
hasn’t flown under the radar but the average guy doesn’t realize the popularity
of these baits. Most pros don’t chat about the swimbait’s merits fearing it
might transform into another craze just like the Alabama rig did two years ago.
Crankbaits get the lion share of the
press but swimbaits are really stealing the show even with the hard-core
crankbait guys. Jeff favours a football jigs for it’s ability to
telegraph the bottom structure but is determine to put the swimbait into play
more often.
*Jeff has a great article coming out in
Ontario OUT OF DOORS magazine in July. Click here to
see his article*
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