No surprise, not much has changed for Tommy Biffle in seven years. In fact, he was even tied up to nearly the exact same spot on the dock Saturday morning at Ingalls Harbor, as he was before blast-off back in 2009 when he won at Wheeler.
It’s a scene that’s nearly comical. Certainly cause for deep thinking for any serious fan of bass fishing. And it’s also a scene that commands respect.
In a sport with more variables than an Oklahoma spring weather forecast, Tommy Biffle has done one thing very well for 31 years as a pro, and hauled home $2.6 million dollars in the process.
Sure enough, there sat the grey bearded Biffle under matching cloudy grey skies Satruday morning, rigging up three identical 7’ 6” Quantum flippin sticks with 25-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon to 4/0 straight shank hooks, pegged to 5/16 ounce Elite Tungsten weights.
He won with a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver back in 2009, before developing his own very similar Biffle Bug in more recent yeas.
“This color is called Double Silver, it’s my favorite, I can fish down the bank behind somebody else, and catch bass on this bait out of the same bushes they couldn’t get a bite in,” says Biffle, who sports a giant image of the silver soft plastic on his jersey and tow vehicle.
And when he says ‘bushes’ – he means some of the same exact bushes he caught the winning fish from on Wheeler seven years ago – even though the water levels were considerably higher back then.
“My Marshall couldn’t believe I was catching fish out of bushes with 6” of water at their base this week – but I did,” states Biffle. “You think about it, those 20 pound carp live up there in less than a foot of water all the time, so there’s no reason a 5 pound bass can’t live there too.”
He proved his theory correct by weighing-in a 6-pounder from the nearly dry bushes on Thursday.
Biffle can’t likely repeat victory this week, he sits 43rd, mostly because he lost a 4-pounder and a 3-pounder that would have vaulted him into striking distance of another blue Elite Series trophy.
But he’s already snared a check for $10,000 by making into Saturday’s cut, and he didn’t have to hardly change a thing from what he did on Wheeler seven years ago, or the past 31 years of his phenomenal career, for that matter.