The setup
It was truly a case of third time’s a charm for Jason Christie, as the seasoned Oklahoma pro competed in his third Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell. Early April found mostly stable conditions, setting the scene for this Savannah River reservoir.
True to the typical spring patterns, most of the fish were staging outside the spawning areas and progressively pushing shallower.
“It was 100% prespawn,” Christie said. “The fish were in the mood, where it would get sunny, it would be a nice day and you felt the fish pushing forward. They were moving.”
As Christie recounts, his strategy comprised a one/two punch designed to capitalize in certain times of day.
“In the mornings, I was LiveScoping with a YUM Sonar Minnow in a drain,” he said. “There were groups of fish feeding in the drain that potentially were moving up in the afternoon.
“After that, I would go fish these prespawn largemouth that were starting to move shallower. I felt like they were a little bigger than the fish in the drains, but they were harder to catch.”
The first couple of days saw Christie setting the hook on 15 to 20 fish in the first two hours. The rest of the day, he was just hoping for five bites, but the ones he was targeting around shallow docks were the 4- to 5-pound difference makers he needed.
For his dock fish, Christie threw a 5/8-ounce War Eagle Jiu Jigsu finesse jig in the orange craw color with a green pumpkin YUM Craw Chunk.
“It was what I call the late prespawn; the fish were back there getting close to where they want to go, but they were just waiting for the right weather,” Christie said. “You’d get a nice day and they’d push up 100 yards, and you get a few cold days and they pull back 100 yards.
“This was the last staging area before they spawn. I felt like they wintered in 30 to 40 feet and I’d catch some there, but as I moved forward, I would catch fish all the way back to 15 feet. It probably depended on where the bait was each morning.
The variable
While the tournament’s overall complexion was fairly stable, Christie said each day’s development impacted how the fishing unfolded.
“What would cause those fish to move shallower later in the day was the sun,” Christie.
Along with this solar impact, Christie found that forage positioning also influenced where he’d find the fish. Not surprising, as the prespawn period typically finds the bass in a chewing mood.
The challenge, Christie said, was keeping track of the bait schools and, ultimately, knowing when to pull the plug.
“The bait would be very inconsistent,” Christie recalled. “In practice, it may be up high in 30 feet of water and then the first day of the tournament, I caught a lot of them toward the shallow end of the drain. I kinda feel like that’s where the bait was.”
“The second day of the tournament, the bait was farther out and I caught more fish in that 20- to 30-foot depth range. The last day, the bait bailed.”
With the food removed, Christie said the majority of the fish he was targeting left.
“I went from seeing 200 to 300 fish the first two days to the last day, seeing maybe 10,” he said. “That just told me that it was pretty much all about the bait.
“One of two things happened: Either those fish had pulled back out and moved, or they had dispersed to the bank. Based on my afternoon fishing that final day, I would guess it would have been option one.”
The key ingredient
After two days of grabbing early limits in the drain and then moving shallow to upgrade, Christie managed only one morning fish. Fortunately, quality made up for the lack of quantity — and for an early mishap.
“I got lucky and caught one big one, about 4 1/2, right off the bat and that was the only bite that I got out of the drain on the final day,” Christie said. “My first cast, I lost a big one and then a few casts later, I caught a 4 1/2. I was thinking, ‘I’m about to catch a giant bag right here.’
“I stayed in that drain for an hour and a half and never had another bite. I didn’t even see any fish. I had started deep and continued to push shallower and shallower. I went up to 5 to 10 feet, thinking they had pushed way back, and I just never found them that last day.”
For two days, Christie had left that drain with 14 to 15 pounds and then spent the rest of his day culling with fish he caught on boat docks. On the final day, he had to find most of his weight on the docks.
“I was weighing two of the fish I caught out of the drain because I was catching bigger fish on the docks,” Christie said. “That final day, I did leave drain with one but it was the right one.”
The outcome
Once he determined the drain bite wasn’t happening, Christie spent the rest of Championship Sunday running boat docks. He fished 200 to 250 structures and caught seven keepers.
“I wasn’t getting a lot of bites, but I was getting the right ones,” said Christie. “I feel like sometimes you have to change, but sometimes, you have to dig in.
“I stuck with dock fishing that final day because that’s was what I had confidence in.”
That plan, anchored by his early drain fish, proved to be just what Christie needed. After catching a Day 1 limit of 17 pounds, 1 ounce and placing 10th, he added a 19-6 on Day 2 and moved up to second.
With a final limit of 17-9, Christie tallied 54 pounds and edged Day 2 leader Kyle Welcher by 5 ounces.
Reflecting on the way his Classic victory materialized, Christie can now say he’s glad he only got that one big drain bite. Anything more may have kept him in that morning pattern too long and deprived him of the time he spent targeting the dock fish.
“The first two days, I’d seen groups of 10 fish at a time and the last day, it was just singles,” he said. “They were big ones, but they were harder to catch than when they were in wolf packs.
“That made it easier for me to decide to leave. If I was still seeing groups of fish in those drains, I might have wondered if I had the right bait, and I might have stayed there longer trying to figure out how to catch ‘em.”
