2011 Elite Series Battle on the Bayou: Best baits, techniques

Dean Rojas, casting the Big Bite Baits WarMouth he designed specifically for bed fishing, won the TroKar Battle on the Bayou.

Rojas reaches for another bait selection. His winning selection on Toledo Bend included the WarMouth and a Spro Hydropop topwater popper.

Rojas fires a one-handed cast with his topwater.

Rojas surveys the hooks on his popper.

Rojas produced at the Trokar Battle on the Bayou and showed photographers the results.

Gerald Swindle, who found his fish on clay points in the mouths of creeks and pockets, targeted fish with two baits: a jerkbait (when it was sunny) and crankbait (when it was cloudy).

Swindle casts to targets in a shallow bay.

Swindle, who finished second by an ounce to Rojas, separates his jerkbait from a bass.

David Walker, firing a cast, targeted grass and wood in the 3- to 6-foot range, with a jig.

Focusing on outside edges of stump flats with a hard swim bait helped
Walker catch the tournament's big bag at 24-0 on Day Two.

Walker's jig was a homemade ½-ounce brown with a couple purple strands.

Chris Lane finished fourth in the event, using a jerkbait and Carolina rig to catch the majority of his fish.

Lane lays his All Star ASR series rods out.

Lane, showing off his final day catch, fished sandy flats that had grass.

Fred Roumbanis makes a long cast early on Day Two. He was secretive of the pattern he discovered while fishing at home.

Roumbanis, setting the hook on a keeper bass, targeted offshore ridges where bluegill were spawning.

Swimming a jig to mimic the bluegill, Roumbanis swings in a 2-pounder.

Roumbanis was in second place after Day One and finished fifth.